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[Gravious]

Ok, good, you've gotten yourself some artistic cred now, so do something useful and subversive with it like installing the new windows 7 beta, or even just xp and make your mac all it can be

[siiseli]

No you.

[Corpus]

You just got 10% cooler, BMcC.

Don't use Pixen. It's the dog's bollocks, but in the bad way.

Even Acorn is better than Pixen.

[godsavant]

Oh, and in case I forget, you have just earned a notch of my respect.

That is all.

[neon]

use boot camp, make an xp partition, and use cosmigo promotion to pixel.

that's my solution..

[Laremere]

My suggested software list:
Instant messenger that was everything from msn to facebook: http://www.adiumx.com/
Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
A launcher application that is nice and improves speed: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14831

Also get growl like Adium suggests, and turn it on for other programs that allow it (such as firefox telling you when you have finished downloads)

Widgets:
Quick and easy file uploader: http://h4xr.org/
Easy screen capture (I often use export to preview, then open up the drawer and drag it into h3xr so you upload a screen easy): http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/business/screenshotplus.html


I may have more, but this is what I can think of right now.

[Bennett]

Congrats! The more of us there are, the more indie games will be OSX compatible (and thus playable by me on my laptop)

I recommend Transmit (ftp client) and also Transmission (bittorrent client)

[Arne]

I'm using FTP and IRC add-ons for firefox to keep things simple.

Not sure what Quicksilver is for. Spotlight is already pretty effective I think. Setting icon size to 128 helps when sorting a lot of image files like I do. Gotta be careful with spotlight with a backup connected cuz it'll search that too (although not Time Machine backups?). When I was migrating my stuff I started editing the backup files on the external instead because I was using spotlight to locate files and didn't pay attention.

You may want to use the F1 to F12 keys as standard keys, it's under Keyboard and Mouse settings.

Xcode is on the install DVDs... you might need it when doing dev stuff. I had to install it to build the BlitzMax modules.

I'm keeping my system as vanilla as possible, trying not to bloat it with a zillion performing increasing apps of shady nature. Tried out SMCfancontrol something though, cuz I get pixel burn if I keep things running hot behind the lcd on my iMac. Turning down the brightness seems to help too., and activating hot corners for a screen saver. There's an app called Shades or something which lets you control brightness better.

[Corpus]

I can second the Transmit and Transmission recommendations. Transmit is made by a company called Panic, and really all of their stuff is worth checking out. Best software on the Mac.

Quicksilver is totally required and is much, much more than just a "launcher application." You can use it for searching, moving, copying, deleting, renaming, uploading, tweeting, controlling iTunes, navigating your filesystem and pretty much anything else you can think of.

I also use Adium as my IM client.

For IRC clients, the best choices are Linkinus (shareware but very reasonably-priced) and Colloquy (less lovely, but freeware).

Screenshot applications are frankly totally unnecessary. You can take a whole-screen screenshot by pressing cmd+shift+3, drag out an area to capture by pressing cmd+shift+4 and, well, dragging, or take a screenshot just of one window by pressing cmd+shift+4 followed by the space key and clicking on the window. Those functions are built-in and save the image as a PNG to the desktop, which is very convenient.

Firefox is not worth getting on the Mac. It might be fast on Windows, but it isn't here. You either want to use the standard Safari, or Camino, which is built on Mozilla specifically for the Mac and seems to be the best option, speed- and standard-wise.

Like Arne says, it might be a good idea to use the function keys as standard keys, giving you easy access to the Spaces (F8) and Exposé (F9-11) shortcuts, as well as F12 for the dashboard. You then access the brightness, volume etc. controls by pressing the key + fn.

I also use smcFanControl and can vouch for its usefulness and general goodness.


EDIT: Got the screenshot shortcuts wrong -_-. I only use them on a daily basis...

[krabbo]

Transmit, MICE iRC, AdiumX, Amadeus Pro, Firefox, Thunderbird, SubEthaEdit, Adobe Suite, LightWave 3D, Unity 3D, 

... my main tools

[Laremere]

Screenshot applications are frankly totally unnecessary. You can take a whole-screen screenshot by pressing cmd+3, drag out an area to capture by pressing cmd+4 and, well, dragging, or take a screenshot just of one window by pressing cmd+4 followed by the space key and clicking on the window. Those functions are built-in and save the image as a PNG to the desktop, which is very convenient.

Firefox is not worth getting on the Mac. It might be fast on Windows, but it isn't here. You either want to use the standard Safari, or Camino, which is built on Mozilla specifically for the Mac and seems to be the best option, speed- and standard-wise.

It is just a screenshot widget that I like to use and I might as well pass it on.


I use firefox on my mac and it works fine.  Firefox 3 is allot nicer on a mac then 2 was.  Safari is nice and fast but it can easily run into support issues, so if you use it as your primary browser then you may need to open up another to use some sites.  I have tried Camino at my school and while it runs fine I personally don't like it.  It is allot like firefox, just less.

[krabbo]

command, shift, 4

[Alec]

Best FTP client = Cyberduck

[Jrsquee]

I can second the Transmit and Transmission recommendations. Transmit is made by a company called Panic, and really all of their stuff is worth checking out. Best software on the Mac.

Quicksilver is totally required and is much, much more than just a "launcher application." You can use it for searching, moving, copying, deleting, renaming, uploading, tweeting, controlling iTunes, navigating your filesystem and pretty much anything else you can think of.

I also use Adium as my IM client.

For IRC clients, the best choices are Linkinus (shareware but very reasonably-priced) and Colloquy (less lovely, but freeware).

Screenshot applications are frankly totally unnecessary. You can take a whole-screen screenshot by pressing cmd+3, drag out an area to capture by pressing cmd+4 and, well, dragging, or take a screenshot just of one window by pressing cmd+4 followed by the space key and clicking on the window. Those functions are built-in and save the image as a PNG to the desktop, which is very convenient.

Firefox is not worth getting on the Mac. It might be fast on Windows, but it isn't here. You either want to use the standard Safari, or Camino, which is built on Mozilla specifically for the Mac and seems to be the best option, speed- and standard-wise.

Like Arne says, it might be a good idea to use the function keys as standard keys, giving you easy access to the Spaces (F8) and Exposé (F9-11) shortcuts, as well as F12 for the dashboard. You then access the brightness, volume etc. controls by pressing the key + fn.

I also use smcFanControl and can vouch for its usefulness and general goodness.

Everything that Corpus said.

Also:  Get Quicksilver.  It's quite possibly the best app on OSX.  It is so so so much more than a launcher.  Bedsides all the stuff corpus listed, it's fully scriptable with Applescript.  You really can do pretty much anything with it.

Growl: it's a notifier.  It's really nice when used with Quicksilver.

Chicken of the VNC:  for all your VNC needs.

Pathway:  It's a browser built especially for wikis.  It's got a graphical, node-based history that makes navigating wikis much easier.

Spatterlight:  A very nice IF parser.

Coda:  It's a really great web development interface by Panic.

[postlogic]

TextMate

Transmit, TextMate, Adium, Firefox, Pixelmator (though it *really* needs more work on the basic features) for simple stuff, LAMP (for web stuff) and Xcode.

[BMcC]

Whooooa, I forgot about this thread, and look at all the useful information!  (Thanks!) 

So far I've made a couple 3D models, my first in the last decade or so.  Modeling makes much more sense to me nowadays.  And I played with Unity a tiny bit.  Gotta go through those tutorials!

I did experience a little bit of frustration, as every program I used the first day (Pixen and Wings) crashed or threw an error.  I will download GIMP.  I had it on my old Linux machine.  (I think.)

Wait one question, have you completed the 'initiation'?

DO NOT LIE TO US BRANDON HAVE YOU COMPLETED YOUR INITIATION?

No, I haven't installed Windows yet. 

Oh, and in case I forget, you have just earned a notch of my respect.

Excellent, that's why I bought it. 

You just got 10% cooler, BMcC.

:D

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Welcome to the club. So, when will we see a mac build of Balding's Quest?

I remember my first few weeks with the mac were a bit awkward and weird, but ten months in and I love it. I have Boot Camp and VMware Fusion for XP, but I tend to avoid using them as much as possible.

AdiumX, Textmate (not free), Transmit (not free).

Spaces are very handy, not least of which as a way to get to your desktop cleanly, or work on two types of task independantly.

For some reason I find myself ending up with a lot more windows open on the mac than I do on XP, maybe because all software is a window, or doesn't close itself. As a result I find myself using cmd+Q (to quit apps) and cmd+w (to close windows) a lot. It could also be that when you miss the 'close' button you can end up minimising the window by double clicking on the title bar, which is annoying, haha. I also love 'Expose', which shows all the currently open windows. 

Also, it's worth 'going with the flow' with mac stuff, and accepting your apple overlords. iPhoto and iTunes are integrated fully into the interface, so you can browse for their contents really easily from Finder.

Hope you have fun with it!

[Corpus]

It is just a screenshot widget that I like to use and I might as well pass it on.

Oh, sorry, I wasn't attacking your post. I used to use a widget like that (maybe the same one) until I realised that the keyboard shortcuts were there, and I personally prefer to use my keyboard to interact with the computer - I find it a lot faster than mouse-movin' and button-clickin'.

Safari is nice and fast but it can easily run into support issues, so if you use it as your primary browser then you may need to open up another to use some sites.

Hm, I've never encountered that. There are issues with Safari's handling of colour, however. It's colour-managed, I think, while most other browsers are NOT, and most images are not saved with colour profiles, meaning that sometimes there are problems where Safari displays colours differently to other websites (generally noticeable in the form of images whose background colours don't match the page background).

Oh, and if you're using iTunes, you should totally check out CoverSutra (shareware). It's a really nice way of interacting with your library while you do other things.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Oh, and if you're using iTunes, you should totally check out CoverSutra (shareware). It's a really nice way of interacting with your library while you do other things.

Coversutra is nice, but I removed it when it came to pay for it. One thing that takes some getting used to on the mac is that you can expect to pay for every teeny tiny application that you would expect to be freeware on Windows. Paying for stuff like Appzapper and Coversutra just seems a bit stingy, but I didn't mind so much paying for Transmit and Textmate.

[Laremere]

Safari is nice and fast but it can easily run into support issues, so if you use it as your primary browser then you may need to open up another to use some sites.

Hm, I've never encountered that. There are issues with Safari's handling of colour, however. It's colour-managed, I think, while most other browsers are NOT, and most images are not saved with colour profiles, meaning that sometimes there are problems where Safari displays colours differently to other websites (generally noticeable in the form of images whose background colours don't match the page background).

I'm more so talking about sites that have to be specially built for each different browser for it to work on that browser.  There are few out there, but it is possible to run into them and need to have a secondary browser to open up that the site supports.