About a year ago I did an article on
essential software for students going to school (either K-12 or
college), and now that I'm running an almost-current Mac, I'm going
back to see what counterparts of apps I suggested earlier are on my
iBook's hard drive. I'll list the current program, as well as last
year's in brackets.
Mac OS X (Mac OS 8.1/Mac OS 8.5/8.6)
I've pretty much switched all my day-to-day things over to OS X
not only because of its power, but also for its stability. Not only
does my iBook rarely crash, but things that used to drag the processor
down (burning CDs is a good example) are given enough processing power
to work, but you can do other work as well.
AppleWorks 6 & TextEdit (AppleWorks 5)
Since AppleWorks 5 wasn't OS X native, I decided to use the copy of
AppleWorks that came with my iBook (6) and have had a very satisfying
experience with it. All my AW5 files open fine, and the interface is
more cleaned up, rather than tons of buttons. On slower Macs, it takes
longer to load than AW5, but compared to Office v.X, it's still a much
better program for all but the most demanding tasks.
I also found that Apple's built in TextEdit app can be customized
and can be quite useful for some things that don't require lots of
fancy features at all (like these articles and HTML code editing). And,
since it's Cocoa, it takes advantage of all the built-in goodies of
OS X.
OmniWeb (Internet Explorer 3 & 5)
I don't like IE that much anymore. I'm tired of Microsoft's games,
and a while back I switched to iCab (IE 3
is still my favorite, since it wasn't 100% Microsoft and had a little
of its Mosaic heritage in it). Although iCab for OS X is a fine
piece of software, it's still a Carbon app, so I decided to try
OmniWeb,
and even though it doesn't conform to every standard, it's the
best-looking Web browser I've used. It's also quite fast and
compliments Apple's Mail program nicely.
GraphicConverter (PaintIt! and ColorIt!)
I use GraphicConverter a lot. It's
basically like PaintIt! in
terms of features and capabilities, except that it can read/write a lot
more formats. For simple, fast graphic editing, GC is an excellent
program.
nothing (HyperCard)
I've dropped the use of HyperCard, but I think I'd still use it if
there was a Cocoa/Carbon version available.
PCalc 2 (TI-81 Emulator)
PCalc 2 came with my iBook and
isn't a graphing calculator, but it works quite nicely, and it's
free.
Mail (Internet Mail & News 3 / Outlook Express 5)
I dropped Outlook Express in favor of Eudora. Eudora for OS X
was still in beta when I got my iBook, and it felt kinda slow. When the
final version was out, I was kinda disappointed in the lack of taking
advantage of OS X's power, so I gave Apple's Mail app a try. Lots
of people hate it, but I find it to be quite fast, and it takes care of
my many email accounts, both POP and IMAP.
iTunes (GrayAMP)
Well, it only seems natural that I'd replace my old MP3 playing
software with the only major one (and the best one) for OS X. I'm
talking about iTunes 3. I
have all kinds of playlists, covering all the CDs I've ripped and the
other music I've accumulated. Lots of features - just go to Apple's
site to read about 'em.
LiteSwitch (LiteSwitch)
One of two original apps I still have (in updated form), LiteSwitch
is a control panel that allows Command+Tab, Option+Tab, Control+Tab
program switching (just like Windoze). This is all it does, and it does
a good job at it. You can download it from proteron.com. The dock does this now,
but I still like the switching box that appears (it's translucent and
can be resized).
Palm Desktop (Palm Desktop)
The other old app whose counterpart I use now is Palm Desktop. I
used to use it as an organizer, but now that I have a Palm Vx, I use it
to sync my handheld and organize things. The OS X version is just
like the older versions, just with an interface to match OS X. If
you don't have a PalmOS handheld, you may still find this useful.
Adium (AOL Instant Messenger)
I didn't mention AOL Instant Messenger the first time, but I used to
use it. Now that I have OS X, I use Adium, and you can read about the virtues
of instant messaging in one of my previous
articles.
Well, that's it for this week. Be sure to change and add to this
list to create your own software list of "must-haves" for your Mac,
whether it be an old 68k (look at last year's version of this article)
or a new dual-processor G4 tower (read this year's version).
