Common 'first time' free mac apps
  • ddreierddreier
    Last weekend I went out on a limb and bought an old Power Mac G4, although it wasn't much of a risk since it was only $40. It's got dual 500MHz G4s, a Gig of RAM, and OSX 10.4.11.

    So what I'm looking for are suggestions as to common "necessary" apps for a windows switcher. Even though I'm not actually switching, I'd like to be able to fire it up and do most of the stuff that any 'normal' computer user would need to do. (So no development, image editing, video editing, or stuff like that)
  • tLuntertLunter
    I would say the thing about Macs are they're already there. Safari works amazingly well, and Firefox is too complicated on the Mac. Mail works well too. iChat is okay, Adium works nice too except without video, not sure if thats necessary though. If you want to type things, the maybe Word or Pages (Microsoft vs Apple). iTunes is already on the computer so you're all set. Maybe just updating to 10.6? If that even is possible of that computer.
  • CallumJCallumJ
    Because it is a PowerPC the highest it can be upgraded to is OS X 10.5 (Leopard), I'd recommend finding a cheap copy on eBay as it's always best to have the latest version and Leopard is a pretty good OS. I'd recommend installing MacPorts so you can have access to all the nix software you know and trust.

    I'd recommend CyberDuck as it's the best free FTP client (the best paid client is Transmit).
    I'd install Xcode as well, it's probably one of the best IDEs for developing C applications.
  • tLuntertLunter
    @CallumJ I would've wrote both of them as well, but I figured since he said no development I didn't put those (plus Xcode is on the system to begin with/the install disk).
  • ddreierddreier
    Yeah, it's straining to run even 10.4 so 10.5 & 6 are totally out of the question.

    I went and got CyberDuck, and Adium just to check them out. I had already gotten firefox, but I'll give Safari another shot. Thanks for the suggestions, I know I was rather vague.
  • kreitjekreitje
    CyberDuck is nice. [offtopic]I took a look at Transmit 4 and thought it was interesting especially compared to v3. Not sure if it was a good thing or a bad.[/offtopic]

    Flip4Mac WMV if you run across any WMV files you try to play. It will decode them for your.

    If you have an xBox 360 then use Majestic to stream from your Mac to it.
    Hello World!
  • MikeMike
    Speaking of Flip4Mac, Perian is also a handy thing to have (http://perian.org/).

    My basic 3rd-party app repertoire is MacVim, Chrome, and Adium (for lack of better alternatives - personally I think Adium is arse).
  • kreitjekreitje
    I forgot about Perian even though I have it installed..

    I just recently ran across PS3 Media Server (http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/downloads/list). Even though it's for PS3 it will stream to a 360 to include transcoding on the fly videos that wouldn't normally play on a 360.
    Hello World!
  • MikeMike
    I tried PS3 Media Server for a while and it was a bit crappy. Even managed to crash my whole Mac anytime the connection failed, so I switched to Nullriver MediaLink instead (there is Connect360 for the XBox).
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