The Switcher Essential Kit !!

[noway]

I'm getting my first Mac in 2 days and I can use your knowledge. Plz keep in mind I'm a switcher, that's why I have so many insecurities.

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?
2. For mail, there's the mail in MacOS. My question is, can I check my gmail and yahoo mail using Mail in MacOS? (or should I use another program)
3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!
4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?
5. What about Xcode for C++ programming?
6. Last, but not least, should I download MSN for Mac or amsn !?!

Thank you very much.
PS: If you have any recommendations, feel free, it would be appreciated

 

[Sbrocket]

I'm getting my first Mac in 2 days and I can use your knowledge. Plz keep in mind I'm a switcher, that's why I have so many insecurities.

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?
2. For mail, there's the mail in MacOS. My question is, can I check my gmail and yahoo mail using Mail in MacOS? (or should I use another program)
3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!
4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?
5. What about Xcode for C++ programming?
6. Last, but not least, should I download MSN for Mac or amsn !?!

Thank you very much.
PS: If you have any recommendations, feel free, it would be appreciated

1. I like Firefox, personally, because that's what I've used for a while now and I like the open-source community built around it. But that's just me -- what browser you use is purely a personal choice. You'll have different people give you excellent reasons to use each of those three.

2. Not sure on Yahoo mail, but I know you can setup POP3 access for gmail access. Obviously not as ideal as IMAP, and I wish they would build it in rather than outdated POP3, but its possible. Not recommended if you use multiple machines for your work.

3. Flip4Mac and Perian.

5. Xcode is an excellent environment to use for many languages, including C++.

6. http://www.adiumx.com/
Get it. You won't regret it.

 

[iBookG4user]

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?

I'm testing out Safari 3 right now and it's pretty good, although I like to have multiple homepages so I'll probably just end up going back to FireFox. FireFox uses less memory too. So unless you are getting 512MB of RAM and like more than one homepage, Safari will be fine.

2. For mail, there's the mail in MacOS. My question is, can I check my gmail and yahoo mail using Mail in MacOS? (or should I use another program)

Yep, I'm using Mail with my Gmail account and it's working perfectly, not sure about Yahoo mail though, check to see if it supports POP3, if it does then it should work fine with Mail.

3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!

I personally use VLC for AVI files and the like, but I also have Flip4Mac installed and use Quicktime for the rest of the video formats.

4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?

Try NeoOffice first, since it's free, and see if it fits your needs.

5. What about Xcode for C++ programming?

Sadly I'm not a programmer, so I cannot answer that.

6. Last, but not least, should I download MSN for Mac or amsn !?!

I would highly recommend Adium, I use it instead of MSN Messenger and find that it is much better.

 

[66217]

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?

I use Safari, it is simple and elegant. But Firefox is also very popular and much more customizable.

2. For mail, there's the mail in MacOS. My question is, can I check my gmail and yahoo mail using Mail in MacOS? (or should I use another program)

You can use the OS X mail, search in google and there you would find the instructions to use it with GMail. It is a simple procedure.

3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!

Get Flip4Mac, much better. VLC is also a good player that can come in handy.

4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?

You could wait and see if the new iWork has a spreadsheet app. If you are planning on buying iWork right away, NeoOffice is a very good app, higly recommended.

5. What about Xcode for C++ programming?

What is XCode?

6. Last, but not least, should I download MSN for Mac or amsn !?!

Nooooo!! Download Adium.


But my best recommendation is to enjoy your Mac and don´t get frustrated if you don't understand things at first. The first time is always so good

 

[72930]

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?

I love Safari, with Inquisitor, especially now the Safari 3 beta has arrived. However, Camino is much better than Firefox, and is my backup browser for when (very rarely) a site doesn't work with Safari

3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!

Flip4Mac, Perian and VLC

4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?

Yes, I also use it when I need better formatting compatibility with windows than Pages gives me.

6. Last, but not least, should I download MSN for Mac or amsn !?!

Adium is by far the best there is, but does not have video. I use Mercury for video when I need it, but some like aMSN.

Thank you very much.
PS: If you have any recommendations, feel free, it would be appreciated

Check out these links, and the beginners guide

 

[noway]

Wow I just started to write today on this forum. (although I've been reading everything since March) and I must say that this forum/website/ and MEMBERS ARE GREAT AND HELPFUL.

Thanks a lot guys (and girls) for your knowledge.

Message for those who read but do not write or register: you are making a big MISTAKE. go register!!!!!

 

[flopticalcube]

Try all three browsers to see which one you like best.

Freepops for integrating yahoo with Mail.

NeoOffice is the only native VBA spreadsheet for the Intel Mac.

XCode is good for C++ but try and learn Objective-C.

 

[ChrisA]

I'm getting my first Mac in 2 days and I can use your knowledge. Plz keep in mind I'm a switcher, that's why I have so many insecurities.

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?
2. For mail, there's the mail in MacOS. My question is, can I check my gmail and yahoo mail using Mail in MacOS? (or should I use another program)
3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!
4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?
5. What about Xcode for C++ programming?
6. Last, but not least, should I download MSN for Mac or amsn !?!

Thank you very much.
PS: If you have any recommendations, feel free, it would be appreciated

Use the browser and mail reader comes with Mac OS X unless you see some reason to switch. Most people will not see any reason to.

Yes xcode is the way to go. Unless you are moving from a pure UNIX environment, then just stick with the terminal window and move to xcode slowly.

NeoOffice or OpenOffice, same thing both will read excel files unless there are some really complex macros or forms in them. But mostly it works well.

Flip4Mac seems to do the job

 

[noway]

So far everything you guys told me to have is great thank you again.

That being said i have 2 little questions (newbie questions)
1. Is there a place where we can "defrag" the disk or clean it up (after installing/uninstall/etc.)
2. Where the hell is Xcode on this computer ?!?!

 

[iBookG4user]

1. Is there a place where we can "defrag" the disk or clean it up (after installing/uninstall/etc.)

You don't need to, Mac OS X automatically defrags the disk for you .

2. Where the hell is Xcode on this computer ?!?!

Here you go.

 

[shipdestroyer]

3. Take a look at Niceplayer. Similar to VLC, but I find it works a little better.