I have just gotten my first mac, and I am looking for good free programs for the mac.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

www.ubuntu.com

Adium. Gimp-App. and http://mac.kde.org (I think is the correct link), AmaroK 2 for mac is coming out soon. and WabbitEmu for OS X is fantastic.

NeoOffice is ok, but not as up to date as OpenOffice, and the official OpenOffice Aqua builds haven't made a full release yet.

obviously install Firefox 3 + Adblock Plus.

and QuickSilver is fantastic.

thanks elfprince13.
Kllrnohj, I was looking for applications, not OS's, but thank you.

also,

Darwine, and XBMC

The best source for mac applications:
http://www.apple.com/downloads

Thanks again elfprince13, and thanks Zaphod Beeblebrox.

My usual mantra is that there's no point buying a Mac unless you're that enamored with OSX: you're basically paying double price for the Mac design and allure.

except he already bought it and Apple computers really aren't *that* much more expensive, especially if you buy the RAM separately. and OS X (especially 10.5) is TOTALLY worth the extra cost. seriously though, compare an XPS notebook to the Macbook Pro.

No, they really are *THAT* much more expensive. At the launch of new tech they tend to be $100-200 more than their competitors - as time goes by, other companies drop their prices, and Apple doesn't. The end result is that there are now laptops with identical specs as a Macbook Pro 15.4in for less than half the price.

Since OS X is basically a cheap BSD knockoff + a pretty shell, its not worth it.

The best argument I've heard in favor of Macs is that Adobe products run well on the desktops, but I don't see why the Windows versions wouldn't run equally well on a multi-core machine like a Core 2 Quad (like mine ).

Last I heard Adobe products ran better on XP/Vista machines than OS X machines, actually... Ever since the Mac switch Intel its been that way.

That's because Adobe's being a jerk and won't stop compiling their applications in Carbon. Things will get interesting when Apple comes out with Snow Leopard, which is rumored not to have Carbon support.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_editing_software#Feature_set


(See Also: http://www.apple.com/aperture/ :: http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/logicpro/)


http://buyersguide.macrumors.com




and have fun using a free BSD as a productive desktop.

Let me introduce you to another term that you failed to take into account: markup

I have used BSD (specifically, FreeBSD) for a productive desktop - no different than using, say, Debian, Arch, or Gentoo.

Well, the "must-haves" are of course FireFox with ABP and noscript, wine, and if you need a true emulator, look at qemu/Q.

And it is not a cheap BSD, it's an expensive BSD.

Also, if you don't already have or need a router, wifi network, and good backup storage, you might want to check out the time capsule.

Also, if you're thinking of dual or triple booting anything, look at the rEFIt boot menu. If you want to run Linux, and you are running any kind of MacBook, google "elive MacBook". Got 100% compatibility, even works with the motion sensors, webcam, even operates the keyboard backlights on the MBP.

Emulator? You can't go wrong with VMWare imo.

VMWare is NOT an emulator is is a virtualization software it DOES not emulate the processor and so last I checked it is not a true emulator.

Thanks to all of you who have posted so far, all of the relevant information is useful.

OK, that's true, but Qemu's most-used functionality (ie, booting an OS within another OS) is not really emulation either, as in my experience I've been doing things like booting DSL under Windows, both x86-32 OSes.

It's an emulator if it emulates hardware. So Wine is not an emulator (hence the name) because it only simulates software, not hardware. Qemu and others like it are full emulators because they emulate a whole system (hardware-wise). If it's something like vmware, it is virtualization without emulation.

Also, if you plan on using OS X and Linux, do not mount your OS X partition as read-write. If you do, you can corrupt the file system to the point where it cannot be repaired and OS X won't boot. This happened to me, but fortunately, I can still get read-only access to the OS X partition (HFS+, journaled).

My other filesystem-related gripe about OS X is that it refuses to install itself to a standard MBR disk. It requires an easily screw-up-able GUID partition table. However, it boots fine from an MBR disk, so I have no clue why it requires a GPT disk.

Fortunately, OS X will support ZFS soon.

Also, the Mac TI-Connect software is better than the windows version (and tilp for OS X kind of sucks), so I would definitely recommend that if you don't already have it. It has a built in program editor, the ability to list and manipulate multiple calcs, even operate on other calcs over a network in a network printing sort of fashion.