Essentials

benjo · 18 Dec 2009 at 14:37

Hey Folks,

Borrowing my mates older Macbook Pro over Christmas. I've just put a fresh install of Snow Leopard on there.

This is my first time using a Mac properly, so what software will I need for a fresh install?

Thanks

edit: Sorry, just gonna read the sticky instead

Blackhawk47 · 18 Dec 2009 at 17:31

What I liked about my Macbook Pro is that pretty much everything that I needed to get started came on it. Which meant I didn't have to mess about installing every single little program.

benjo · 18 Dec 2009 at 17:46

Yeah it's seemed that way so far.

Only things I've installed are Firefox, Spotify, MSN and CS4 Suite

hyper_piper45 · 18 Dec 2009 at 18:17

VLC player

Kawolski · 18 Dec 2009 at 18:59

Flip4Mac
Perian

NickK · 18 Dec 2009 at 19:50

Kawolski said:
Flip4Mac
Perian

Agreed, however this will not cover mlv which vlc covers.

J1234 · 18 Dec 2009 at 19:52

Onyx is a must for running every once in a while to clean things up and also Skitch is excellent.

Suedehead · 19 Dec 2009 at 16:19

I'm new to Macs too, but found this a useful list: http://superuser.com/questions/1191/what-are-some-must-have-mac-os-x-programs

PardonTheWait · 20 Dec 2009 at 02:41

Justin said:
Onyx is a must for running every once in a while to clean things up and also Skitch is excellent.

I'd hardly call Onyx and essential app for a fresh install.

Skitch, however, is excellent and very worthy of that accolade for anyone who uses IM/Forums quite heavily.

Blackhawk47 · 20 Dec 2009 at 10:39

Has anybody used Quicksilver before?

Was having a look at it last night and it seemed a bit interesting.

Spyhop · 20 Dec 2009 at 16:11

Keyboard launchers in general are great, I'd recommend LaunchBar over QuickSilver (but it costs money).

Some kind of image editor is essential. I like Pixelmator.

I recently started using MacPorts. It's very nice to have a package manager for OS X. Recommended if you need any additional command line programs.

blade007 · 21 Dec 2009 at 21:41

PardonTheWait said:
I'd hardly call Onyx and essential app for a fresh install.

Skitch, however, is excellent and very worthy of that accolade for anyone who uses IM/Forums quite heavily.

very much like Skitch too. It's one of the things that makes work so much smoother

n111ck · 22 Dec 2009 at 00:09

Spotify.