switchin'

[nicorojas]

I'm going to buy a powerbook, I've had enough windows for a lifetime.

So, now the question is which is the best software available? All my life i have been a wintel victim and i know nothing about mac software, except for, i don't know, office v.X.

I will use my mac mostly for sound editing and multitrack recording (got a band, if you like to check it www.mp3.com/pezblanco), video editing (but not too much, mostly convert avi to vcd to see in my dvd player), internet, word processing (lawyer), and a little photoshop.

Pleaseeeee heeeeeeelp me to switch

 

[zeethebrain]

i think that you answered most of your own questions. If you want a little word processing, then AppleWorks will do it for you, but if your used to Office and Word etc, then Office X is the same basically as Office 2000. Photoshop has the same layout, things like video editing (if your a infrequent user) Final Cut Express should do the job, music editing - well! this is the OS you should have been using along time ago! Cubase SX, Logic3, Soundtrack are all pro editing tools for music.

now all of that will cost a bundle, so a free photoshop type program would be GIMP (www.gimp.org - GNU Image Manipulation Program), a free movie editor would be iMovie - cheap (cos it comes free with all macs) simple to use and meets the requirements of basic video editing. Internet browsing - Safari - best browser in the world! Just thought - if your getting a powerbook, are you considering getting a dvdrw superdrive model? then you wouldn't need to make VCDs, you can make normal DVDs. If you have anything else or think i might have missed something cos i'm rambling now then just post another message. Hope this helps

 

[trebblekicked]

sounds like sound advice. what do you use for audio? i use ProTools LE, Bias Peak, Reason and Cubase. All good apps.

If you want complete MS Office compatibility, AppleWorks won't do. Try OpenOffice.

LINK

 

[nicorojas]

Thanks for the info:

No, I don't think i get a superdrive, a 15" powerbook is already a little off my budget, so i stick with the combo drive, and also i don't really think i would give it a lot of use

This is what I use in windows:

Word processing: Office XP
Photo editing: Photoshop elements
Sound editing: Sound forge 4.5
Multitrack Recording: Cakewalk 9.03 and Internet Tape Deck (a nice little freeware, 8 track, very simple to use, decent sound)
Internet: IE 6 and Opera 7
P2P: Soulseek, Winmx, DC and Kazaa
Video editing: TMPGEnc
Cd Burning: Nero
Music play and encoding: Winamp and Musicmatch
CdRipping: Exact Audio Copy

 

[e-coli]

You'll still need IE. Safari is SUPER nice, but it isn't quite "there" yet. 2 more versions and it will be.

Use Office v.X. It's nice.

For sound recording and mixing, call me crazy, but I use Final Cut Pro for most of it. It's extremely versatile and easy to use. Final Cut Express' sound tools should be sufficient.

CD burning app? What is that? I seem to have forgotten. It's built into the system and it's quite nice. You'll be very pleased.

No Kazaa yet, but Poisoned is a nice P2P app. The others are crap.

There are tons and tons of video conversion apps for the mac. AVI codecs can be a big problem (especially in X), but a little hunting around should do you wonders. Just for the record, AVI is a MISERABLE video compressor, and absolutely nothing compares to QuickTime. You'll soon see what I mean. Windows Media Player is "garbage for the rest of us".

You'll need this app to get your Outlook info out of Microsoft's proprietary bear trap.
Move2Mac

Good luck with the switch.