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I haven't owned a mac since the days of the old Mac Classic, so I feel, mildly speaking, lost when it comes to software on the mac. I half-expected to find Starry Night and Flying Toasters on my fresh install of 10.4.8 and was rather disappointed not to :hysterical:

 

I did browse through the stickied essential apps thread and found it useful, but since I have, over the many years of using Windows, gotten used to a certain setup, I would love to replicate it, at least in some form, on my mac install.

 

So, if any of you out there are equally at home with both systems, do help this mac virgin out figure out software equivalents:

  • Nero -> Toast?
  • MS Access -> File Maker?
  • MS Streets and Trips -> ?
  • MS Visio -> ?
  • MS OneNote -> ?
  • OO Defrag (or does the OS defrag work well enough?) -> ?
  • Kasperksy (or any full-featured anti-virus app w/o any silly extras) -> ?
  • Ad-Aware (or similar) -> ?
  • Trillian -> ?
  • Newsbin (or similar usenet binary app) -> ?
  • mIRC (or other free IRC app) -> ?
  • WS FTP (or similar full-featured FTP app) -> ?
  • VLC Media Player (or similar full-featured video player that plays everything) -> ?
  • WinAmp (or similar but not iTunes) -> ?
  • AllNetic Time Tracker (or similar simple time tracker app) ->

Looking forward to suggestions!

Nero > Toast would probably be your best option, but you should make sure that Disk Utility won't fit your needs. It's one of the most under appreciated apps in OSX.

 

MS Access > FileMaker Pro 8.5? (http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/filemaker/). Not really sure as I've never had to use either.

 

MS Visio > OmniGraffle? (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omni...ro/content.html) or ConceptDraw (http://www.csodessa.com/). I've never used either, but from what I've read OmniGraffle should be the better of the two.

 

 

MS OneNote > In MS Word for OSX, if you go into Word there is a notebook view and template for new documents that you can use. It has most of the features of OneNote and will hopefully do what you need.

 

Trillian > Adium (http://www.adiumx.com/)

 

mIRC > X-Chat Aqua (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xchataqua/

 

WS FTP > CuteFTP (http://www.cuteftp.com/cuteftp/) is probably the best one, but its $40. If you want free, then either download the trial and use that, or go with One-Button FTP (http://onebutton.org/). It's free and does a good job. Maybe someone else will have better input here.

 

VLC > VlC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html) :whistle:

 

 

Kapersky > ClamXav (http://www.clamxav.com/), but you really don't need one...

 

Ad-Adware > can't find one, and again, you really don't need one...

 

OO Defrag > OSX does a good job on its own, but you might want to download Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx.html), it allows you to perform system maintenance when you want to and opens up a lot of hidden settings and option.

 

Hopefully somone else can fill in the ones that I can't. Good luck!

Edited by rollcage

Thanks everyone, great advice so far!

 

I'm a little surprised to have people state that I won't need an anti-virus app - I *am* hoping that's not just Mac hubris :->

Similarly surprised that I won't need any kind of spyware app - I just spend 2 hrs last week cleaning out a friends' XP machine he's only had for a week - and it was a royal mess - so I am obviously skeptical, but then again everything else about my new Mac experience has been rosy, so why not :fiery:

 

Supremely glad to find out VLC is available on the Mac platform as well - I really should've checked before asking. Definitely looking forward to using Adium based on some many positive reviews.

 

I looked through versiontracker for a time tracker (AllNetic Time Tracker) replacement, but couldn't find anything that fits - I need a time tracker that auto starts and auto stops based on computer activity, like the AllNetic app does. That's its strongest suit, really, it keeps track of computer activity and let's you exclude those trips to the bathroom, phone calls, etc from your time sheet with a simple pop-up reminder. I probably sound like a PR guy for Allnetic, but it's really quite a pleasant little app.

 

Alas no good replacements for OneNote so far. In case people haven't used it extensively and think it's just some glorified notepad - think of it instead as a full-fledged info manager or a free form database with web capture - that's more like what it is. Think something along the lines of AskSam with SurfSaver - that's what OneNote is, or at least that's how I make use of it.

 

So yes, any other suggested equivalents for AllNetic and OneNote are more than welcome & ginourmous thanks for all suggestions made thus far.

  • 1 month later...

O&O defrag: iDefrag

 

Here's why: http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html#Anchor-31774

 

Here is a quote from a MicroMat technician, that I think is very insightful:

The claim that installations of Mac OS X on HFS+ volumes do not fragment is a myth believed by people who do not have disk optimizers that allow them to see how much fragmentation their disks have. It is an example of ignorance that is not able to be removed by any amount of evidence. I think theologians call that “invincible ignorance.” It is now a widespread form of the pollution of information space.

http://tinyurl.com/yuqn4

 

The rest of the article will tell you when you should defrag. The nice thing is that you don't have to worry about it as much as windows; however, if your hard drive space is filled past a certain percentage, it would be in your best interest to defrag on a normal basis: once a month would be fine.

 

www.macupdate.com is a nice source of what programs are available for mac for whatever your needs may be.

Edited by MyJelleo
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