iThings Considered

Do More With OS X

Jake Sargent - 2001.04.17

When I made the upgrade to Mac OS X, I promised myself that I would start up Classic or reboot in OS 9 as little as possible. Why did I want to do this? Because I wanted to get the full OS X experience; I didn't want to be intimidated by the few applications that run natively in it and simply switch back to OS 9 whenever I wanted. That's the easy way out.

After only a few weeks with Mac OS X, I am getting bored with it. I find myself sitting at my computer, appreciating Aqua, and doing nothing else besides talking on AIM, checking my mail, word processing, or surfing the web (which are all getting a little tiresome). I want to be able to do more with my Mac. I didn't buy a professional machine (TiBook) to be able to do the same things that I could do with the a Flower Power iMac. I miss the applications that I have grown to know and love in OS 9, like Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks, and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Seeing how these won't be coming to OS X anytime soon, I've set out looking for alternatives. And believe me, they are there.

Stone Design

Macromedia and Adobe are great companies; the problem is that they are not fully Mac committed. Yes, they offer Mac versions of almost all of their products, but they are moving at a slow pace to carbonize these products. Stone Design is the Mac OS X equivalent of Macromedia or Adobe. Stone offers similar applications that are Mac OS X compatible, although not as well refined as Adobe and Macromedia products.

Stone Design's flagship product is Stone Studio, a package of seven somewhat useful design and billing programs. Although these applications aren't nearly as powerful or professional as the ones I'm used to designing with, they work as a temporary alternative to Macromedia and Adobe products (it's also nice to support a company that is 100% behind Mac OS X).

Stone Studio comes with the following individual applications:

  • Create: Drawing, layout, and web publishing.
  • SliceAndDice: Turns images into web pages, image roll overs, slicing, and HTML table output.
  • PhotoToWeb: Make web thumbnails and picture galleries.
  • GIFfun: Create animated GIFs.
  • TimeEqualsMoney: Track work sessions for clients, create invoices and reports.
  • LicenserKit: Piracy protection kit for developers.
  • PackUp&Go: File compression and decompression.
  • PStill: Postscript to PDF converter.

As you can see, Stone Studio comes with a good mixture of applications and looks like it could be a promising suite of software with a bit of tweaking

There are other Mac OS X compatible design programs popping up too, such as GraphicConverter, an application that you are probably familiar with. GraphicConverter was just released for Mac OS X by Lemke Software. This program's specialty is converting pictures to different formats, but it also works as an image editor.

Obviously, there are lots more applications out there that are Mac OS X compatible. Cinema 4D XL, Amadeus II sound editor, and Omni Group's set of programs all deserve mention. For a nearly complete list of X-compatible apps, visit Apple's Mac OS X Downloads page and HyperJeff's Native OS X applications.

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Page not found | Low End Mac

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Page not found | Low End Mac

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
Cult of Mac
Shrine of Apple
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
The Vintage Mac Museum
Deal Brothers
DealMac
Mac2Sell
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End Mac FAQ

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
Macgo Blu-ray Player
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay

Low End Mac's Amazon.com store

Advertise

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link