Best Mac Software
 

I noticed a lot of shareware for Windows topics around here. So I thought we could list the best mac shareware/freeware there is out there. Since there is a lot of quality programs for OSX with Cocoa and so on.

Text Editor
Textmate - Best editor at the moment with bundles to suit which ever lanuage you code in. Lightweight to boot
http://macromates.com/

FTP Client
Transmit - Fully featured, Works well.
http://www.panic.com/transmit/

RSS Reader
NetNewsWire - Easily the best, espensive though.
http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct...ID=NetNewsWire

IM Client
Adium - Msn, Aol, ICQ, and others. You can customise everything. http://www.adiumx.com/

Torrenting
No great programs but:

xTorrent - ok, lightweight, missing features
http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/

Transmission - same as above, banned from some private trackers although that problem was fixed with the release of 0.7
http://transmission.m0k.org/

Usenet client
Unison - Best client on the mac by far. Quite possibly the best on any OS.
http://www.panic.com/unison/

You will need a par-extractor as well:
Macpar
http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/MacPAR_deLuxe/

Media Player
VLC - Best on all platforms (imo)
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Other
If you use Safari you must use this add on:
Inquistor, A cool and nice looking way to use the google search in Safari
http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/

Alternative to Finder:
PathFinder - Better, especially at handling file transfer problems but costly
http://www.cocoatech.com/

So any other mac users got good software to recommend?

Re: Best Mac Software
 

I recommend the FireFTP extension for Firefox, not Mac specific but cheaper than Transmit (i.e. free)

The Opera browser has a Torrent client (which I occasionally use, if I have bodged an attempt to video something), or try Azureus.

NeoOffice is a fully Aqua-native version of the Open Office suite and is just as free to use.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

The problem with Azureus is its in Java and very memory intensive i find.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

NeoOffice starts up slowly on my 1.5Ghz PowerPC Mini, but once it has loaded, is fast enough and a lot less clunky than OpenOffice.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Agreed, you need to get a Mactel. ;)

I find 'slow' a relative term however. 'Slow' is waiting for Sphynx Adventure to load onto a BBC micro from a tape.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Here's some of what I use...

BBEdit lite (Free) Its the only text editor I found that can handle Windows/non-Windows carriage returns properly.

Sidetrack (Nagware) to allow me to scroll with my trackpad.

Adium (Free) for IM.

MT-Newswatcher (Free) for newsgroups. Extremely powerful.

Cyberduck (Free) for FTP.

VLC (Free) for media player.

Acqlite (Free) for P2P

iMergePDFs (Free) to merge PDFs.

Chicken Of The VNC (Free) VNC client

X-Chat Aqua for IRC.

Dashboard Starter (Free) to pre-load the Dashboard on startup...

UnRarX (Free) for decompressing files.

Firefox (naturally) & OpenOffice

I did use Tomato Torrent at one point, but removed it. Can't remember why though :dunce: I use Azureus atm, but could be worth a try if you want an OSX-native alternative.

The best site i've found for finding new Mac software is: http://www.versiontracker.com/

Re: Best Mac Software
 

http://www.bombich.com/ has a lot of software for imaging/ghosting macs, and various programs for managing both labs full of macs and single macs. It's all free, and their Netrestore package is apparently what Apple use to install their own Macs..

Basically, NetRestore and CarbonCopyCloner do the same thing: They let you store a working image of your Mac's harddrive. Netrestore works with DMG files and is designed to enable you to store images on the network, and CarbonCopyCloner is designed so that you store the images on another harddrive or DVD.

CCC also apparently has the option to automatically perform a backup at a scheduled time, or when a device is plugged in.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Bump....

So any new or better suggestions for this new mac os user?

Also any tips in general about usage.

Cheers, dilli

Re: Best Mac Software
 

With Opera (http://www.opera.com/)if you download a .torrent file, it will then automatically download the torrent

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Indeed it will, but personally I found Opera's torrent client to be pretty poor. Not very controllable and liable to stall downloads, not properly recognise bad data, that sort of thing.

---------- Post added at 11:51 ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 ----------

You can now get BBC iPlayer on the Mac, if you go to the iPlayer Labs page and sign up as a tester.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Cheers :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

In line with Apple's recent advice that OSX users should use an antivirus program, Avast have now released a Mac version of their free antivirus software:

http://www.avast.com/eng/programs.html

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Downloading now, not sure if the Mac one is free though ?

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Oh, looks like it isn't.. Damn.. Was told it was..

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Mac the Ripper - DVD ripper (quality name)
Avide Mux 2 - Editing and saving video (works with files ripped direct from DVD)
ffmpegX - another video editing tool and also converts to different audio formats (will say it's only a trial but it has yet to run out on me)
Gimp - Image editor (doesn't work very well with PNGs)
iResizer - Mass image resizing in various formats
Name Mangler - On mass renaming tool
InstantShot! - Best screen grabbing software I have found
Just Looking - Alternative to viewer - allows similar controls to windows when looking at a folder of images

I personally find VLC extremely annoying on my Mac. I have managed on the whole to get away without using it :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

wwll I'll try the 60 day demo anyway :tu:

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Where have you been hiding? Apple withdrew that advice page 24 hours after the media decided to make an almighty hoo-hah about it. There would now appear to be no specific advice from Apple about using AV. ;)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

I thought they amended it to a warning you should be using AV without giving advice as to which.


Looks like I was right:

From: http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/866
My bold.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Does anyone know where I can get a working copy of Horizon (bbc b emulator) and how to get the roms (images) from my bbc b?

Cheers

Re: Best Mac Software
 

PM on its way. :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Cheers :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

I know it's a hell of a bump, but I don't suppose you can help with this again? Now that I finally have a proper mac I'm pretty desperate to play Elite on it ;)

edit - If anyone could recommend a good browser that is up to date and (powerpc) compatible.

I have firefox 3.6 on there, is that the most up to date one I can use?

It (the mac) is running mac os x 10.4.11 if that helps.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Elite for Mac ... you want Oolite. A lifetime of fun is to be had finding and installing extensions that offer everything from new ships to new missions.

What Mac have you got? Must be pretty old if it's a PwowerPC?

Re: Best Mac Software
 

I have oolite as it happens - it was the second thing I downloaded :)

It is a sawtooth power mac g4

Mine is a 733Mhz with 1.5gb Ram

Piccy here

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35...-post2388.html

Very old for sure, but it was a freebie and once I sussed out how to remove the account that was on there and get rid of all the crap that was installed it works very well.

The two things I'm struggling with are wireless and running elite.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Which elite are you having trouble with - Oolite or another?

Oolite may well be Intel only, but I can't find any information on that so far.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Just to add an application all you Gmail users should use:

Sparrow: http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/

Wonderful G-mail client, supporting other e-mail accounts in a later version.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

I have an older version of oolite which runs fine - I was just after running the original on the horizon emulator is all :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Aha ... Horizon is a PowerPC application so it should run fine. Do you have a fully-functioning version of it, including the BBC-B ROM image file?

Re: Best Mac Software
 

I have got horizon, but I don't have the rom - I have a BBC 'B' but I have no idea how to get the rom file of it.

Took a piccy of oolite running :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

With some difficulty, I believe ... better to simply get them from someone who already has them. Seeing as you and I both still own BBC micros, I think it's safe to say we have a licence to use the ROMs. :)

PM sent. Enjoy. :D

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Cheers - much appreciated :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Onyx - Like CCleaner on the PC and it is Free.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ties/onyx.html


Filezilla - Free FTP client. Easy to use.

http://filezilla-project.org/

Re: Best Mac Software
 

I Second that, and it allows adding of recently used"docs/servers/apps etc to be displayed in the dock.

I'm v.impressed with it.

---------- Post added at 14:00 ---------- Previous post was at 13:59 ----------

I currently use CyberDuck as my FTP client :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Skype Great app for Video calling

aMSN Open Source MSN IM Client

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Ok, so I mount the dmg image for horizon (just double click on it?) - then I can see the horizon program in a folder. I try to put the roms into the rom folder but it keeps telling me I don't have permission to do so. and when I do a 'get info' on the rom folder indeed read / write access is greyed out.

I realise I am most likely missing something really simple, but any ideas on how to sort this?

Thanks for the help :tu:

Re: Best Mac Software
 

When you have mounted and opened the DMG, you have to drag its contents to your Applications folder. Then dismount the disk image (drag the disk image icon to trash) and delete the DMG file, just to keep your desktop tidy.

Open your applications folder, open the Horizon folder, drag the ROMs into the ROMs folder you see there, and then double click the Horizon app icon ... should all work now.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Sounds like a permissions issue on the folder, make sure it has read/write permissions set. Right click on the folder, click Get Info and then under permissions, you should have your username listed and next to it Read/Write with two arrows to the far right hand side, change as needed. :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Not true, Wayne ... you can't modify a disk image in that way. That's why he can't drop stuff onto it.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Cheers for that,

I created a new folder and dropped all the files in that.

All seems to work ok now :)

edit - I didn't realise I was trying to change a locked file.

I'll get there in the end :)

The emulator is running now, but only in 'tape' mode ie no disc access so I can load things of the 'floppy'.

Re: Best Mac Software
 

Ah apologies, thought it was a folder that contained the image that had the problem, didnt realise the problem was with the .dmg image itself :)

Re: Best Mac Software
 

No, it's me. I am looking at a mac dummies thing on my iPad now. Back to basics and all that :)