[ncleknight]

I am thinking of moving to an Apple iBook my interest in the Apple OS and the Apple culture has risen lately. One of the guys at work has a mac and he loves it so I went to the Apple store here in Aus to check them out and fell in love, but I have some questions I would like to ask some questions that probably could only be answered in an open forum rather than a Apple salesman.

1. Can you play other media formats eg: VCD SVCD Divx WMA and probably most importantly avi.
2. Is there software available to create VCD SVCD photo slide shows with mp3 backing music.
3. When burning media will it work cross platform & what burning software is available on the mac. I currently use Nero 6 deluxe on pc at present.
4. What is the best browser on the Mac I use Mozilla Firefox on PC mostly.
5. What do you miss most if you have switched from the Windows platform previously.

Thanks in advance, I look forward to some feedback and I can't wait to make my decision.....

[Diggory Laycock]

Come on in, the water's fine

Originally posted by ncleknight:


1. Can you play other media formats eg: VCD SVCD Divx WMA and probably most importantly avi.

Yes - AVI is just a wrapper format - it depends on the codec used on the files within the AVI. DivX, XVid can be played in QuickTime with the right components (free off the web) - WMA plays in the OS X version of Windows Media Player - or VLC or MPlayer. VLC also plays VCDs. See Here: http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=218563

2. Is there software available to create VCD SVCD photo slide shows with mp3 backing music.

Hmm - not sure about that - VCD's not my thing really.

3. When burning media will it work cross platform & what burning software is available on the mac. I currently use Nero 6 deluxe on pc at present.

Both the built-in burning in the Finder and Toast (payware) can burn cross-playform Discs.

4. What is the best browser on the Mac I use Mozilla Firefox on PC mostly.

Safari , FireFox, Camino, Opera, OmniWeb - take your pick (I like Safari)

5. What do you miss most if you have switched from the Windows platform previously.

Range of Games and viruses

Thanks in advance, I look forward to some feedback and I can't wait to make my decision.....

[TheBarty]

Originally posted by ncleknight:
2. Is there software available to create VCD SVCD photo slide shows with mp3 backing music.

Sure. Have a look at DVD Picture Show, iVCD, VCD Builder...

But you can also use iLife. iPhoto+iMovie (parts of iLife) will let you do that. iLife is free with some macs (i think) or $49 alone.

C'mon, switch now !

[BenRoethig]

4. What is the best browser on the Mac I use Mozilla Firefox on PC mostly.

Safari by far. It's a variant of KDE's Konqueror. Firefox is also available. It's a very good browser, I use it on my PC, but Safari is much better.

5. What do you miss most if you have switched from the Windows platform previously.

1. The Start Menu. The Apple menu is good, but it doesn't have the program menu like Windows. It can be a pain having to look for programs or making aliases.

2. Hardware options. What can I say, Steve Jobs gives you what he wants when he wants to give it to you. If you don't like what Apple gives you on the hardware side, that's too bad. Thety're still using 32x combo drives on the desktops.

3. Themes, sounds, custom pointers, etc. You need to spend money on shareware from Haxies to get these. Apple should buy Haxies and include these in the OS.

4. GAMES.

[mjarski15]

Originally posted by BenRoethig:
Safari by far. It's a variant of KDE's Konqueror. Firefox is also available. It's a very good browser, I use it on my PC, but Safari is much better.



1. The Start Menu. The Apple menu is good, but it doesn't have the program menu like Windows. It can be a pain having to look for programs or making aliases.

2. Hardware options. What can I say, Steve Jobs gives you what he wants when he wants to give it to you. If you don't like what Apple gives you on the hardware side, that's too bad. Thety're still using 32x combo drives on the desktops.

3. Themes, sounds, custom pointers, etc. You need to spend money on shareware from Haxies to get these. Apple should buy Haxies and include these in the OS.

4. GAMES.

As far as the start menu goes, if you really miss it you can just drag your applications folder down to the dock and you will have something very similiar the the start menu and it will update whenever you add new applications.

[techtrucker]

Darn, you beat me to it.
I would be lost without the Applications folder in the Dock...

[ryju]

I have TigerLaunch in my menubar which provides a configurable list of your applications.

Here ya go

You can also just hit Command + Shift + A in the Finder to bring up the applications folder.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by ncleknight:
1. Can you play other media formats eg: VCD SVCD Divx WMA and probably most importantly avi.

AVI is just a wrapper format; just about any media player out there can play songs in that format.

However, beware: most "AVI" files seen today are not actually AVI files. DivX started this trend, by breaking the container format to allow it to contain MP3 sound. This only ever worked because of a bug in Windows Media Player; they could just as easily have used one of the many superior container formats that WiMP supports. Unfortunately, the trend stuck, and everyone was left having to break a container format which was already a piece of junk anyway.

2. Is there software available to create VCD SVCD photo slide shows with mp3 backing music.

iPhoto lets you do this with DVDs. I believe there is also software for VCD/SVCD, but I don't have any experience with that.

3. When burning media will it work cross platform & what burning software is available on the mac. I currently use Nero 6 deluxe on pc at present.

Most Mac software allows you to burn Windows-compatible CDs, but the best burning software out there is Roxio's Toast. This thing lets you burn into so many formats it's unbelievable.

4. What is the best browser on the Mac I use Mozilla Firefox on PC mostly

Firefox works on the Mac, though it doesn't work quite as well as the Windows version (still a few bugs to be shaken out). The three biggest browsers on the Mac right now are Firefox, Camino (same Gecko engine as Firefox but with a native Mac interface; however it's missing a few features from Firefox) and Safari, Apple's own browser. All three of these browsers are quite good.

5. What do you miss most if you have switched from the Windows platform previously.

I couldn't really be said to have "switched"; I've been using Macs since 1984, when I was five years old. That said, I've had to work extensively with Windows over the years, from both a user's and a developer's perspective.

I find that I don't really envy anything Windows users have. That said, I'm not really much of a gamer, except for emulation (and we've got a full suite of emulators already). Macs get the blockbuster games, of course, but it's fairly rare that we get anything at the same time Windows does.

A quick bit of game-related history: the Mac, you'll notice, does not have Half-Life. A port was actually planned, but just as they were getting close to finishing, it was revealed that the Mac version would not be network-compatible with the PC version. The Mac community went into an uproar, and rather than fix the software it was decided to cancel the project itself. This behavior is actually fairly typical of the Mac community: we do not tolerate half-hearted ports, especially where games are concerned.

[BenRoethig]

Originally posted by mjarski15:
As far as the start menu goes, if you really miss it you can just drag your applications folder down to the dock and you will have something very similiar the the start menu and it will update whenever you add new applications.

I created a programs menu with fruit menu. I'll have to try the Applications menu thing, fruit menu is kind of a pain to keep updated. Like I said in the post, I'd like to be able to do it without shareware and without placing things manually. I've run every version of OSX since the beta and this is one of a handful of features WinXP is ahead of the Mac.

[Fonzie]

hmm, I find that using Quicksilver solves my need for a startmenu-alike menu. I rarely don't know what's on my Mac. So I'm all set with QuickSilver.

there's nothing I really miss from Windows(XP) . If only for the Trillian(Pro) program. Why can't someone code a Multi-IM chatprogram not based on Gaim ? Or port Trillian
Although I don't know if Fire uses Gaim :S

Fonzie, be GONE!!!! Asap.

Termination in progress.... 20%

[Thorin]

Originally posted by Fonzie:
Why can't someone code a Multi-IM chatprogram not based on Gaim ? Or port Trillian
Although I don't know if Fire uses Gaim :S

Have you tried Adium X? I like it a lot

[LaGow]

Originally posted by Thorin:
Have you tried Adium X? I like it a lot

Adium looks very nice. It is based on Gaim, though, so I don't know how well it'd sit with the poster to whom you replied.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Fonzie:
there's nothing I really miss from Windows(XP) . If only for the Trillian(Pro) program. Why can't someone code a Multi-IM chatprogram not based on Gaim ? Or port Trillian
Although I don't know if Fire uses Gaim :S

Out of honest curiosity, what is the matter with being based on Gaim?

As for Trillian, you'll have to ask them about it. They don't want to port to Cocoa, and don't seem to understand Carbon too well. Since they're not Open-Source, it's not possible for someone to just pick up the code and port it.

If you know a good developer who can contact the Trillian folks and ask for permission to port and support it (presumably the Trillian team would still get the shareware fees), they might agree to it. Arrangements of this kind have been made in the past, though not with the Trillian folks.

Open-Sourcing is not an option, because they do not understand the concept of making money with an Open-Source product. Admittedly, neither do most people, but the Trillian team believes money and Open-Source to be mutually exclusive.

[JKT]

Originally posted by Millennium:
Firefox works on the Mac, though it doesn't work quite as well as the Windows version (still a few bugs to be shaken out). The three biggest browsers on the Mac right now are Firefox, Camino (same Gecko engine as Firefox but with a native Mac interface; however it's missing a few features from Firefox) and Safari, Apple's own browser. All three of these browsers are quite good.

*Cough* OmniWeb 5 *cough*

It's all a matter of personal taste and personal needs, of course, but OW 5 is more than worth a look (IMNSHO, it wipes the floor with all three of those, but then again, I'm not interested in Noddy browsers - I want and need some power-user features of which those three are severely lacking). Mozilla is also worth a mention as it isn't bad on OS X either.

There isn't a single thing I miss about Windows, but I haven't really used it consistently since NT4. I occasionally have to use Win2k and it still manages to drive me up the wall...

[Fonzie]

Originally posted by Millennium:
Out of honest curiosity, what is the matter with being based on Gaim?

well, they seem to be really lacking when it comes to implementing features. Whether it be AdiumX or Proteus or the like. I can live without these 2 programs though, I'll just use iChat, ICQ, MSN Messenger or aMSN and Yahoo, and Jabber + gadu-gadu. All seperatly .

LOL - no, I really want to keep things in one place. Plus, it often seems that the programmers of the beforementioned IM apps (AdiumX and Proteus) that they forget to test the new features. Which bugs me. The version they lay out for public download is not supposed to be full of holes. They are supposed to test and try out the new features f.ex filetransfer(which is soooo broken in AdiumX (0.61) Make a closed site for people wanting to demo the new features and then have the right to talk and comment on them later - without being put down by some nonchalant/selfish/(insert variation here) Adium developer forinstance.

Yes, I'm migrating back to WindowsXP (not likely)

Does anyone feel offended ? Good! No offense.

[mjarski15]

Originally posted by BenRoethig:
I created a programs menu with fruit menu. I'll have to try the Applications menu thing, fruit menu is kind of a pain to keep updated. Like I said in the post, I'd like to be able to do it without shareware and without placing things manually. I've run every version of OSX since the beta and this is one of a handful of features WinXP is ahead of the Mac.

I have always found the start bar a little annoying, never really like it. I actually don't even like to put my applications folder in the dock. Instead I like to make an alias of my programs and put them in my favorites folder and then put that in my dock. Yes, it is a little more work but you don't get the annoying folder in folder process to find the app you want. TigerLauch would probably be the easier thing for me to use but I'm old fashion I guess.

[BenRoethig]

Originally posted by mjarski15:
I have always found the start bar a little annoying, never really like it. I actually don't even like to put my applications folder in the dock. Instead I like to make an alias of my programs and put them in my favorites folder and then put that in my dock. Yes, it is a little more work but you don't get the annoying folder in folder process to find the app you want. TigerLauch would probably be the easier thing for me to use but I'm old fashion I guess.

Well, to each their own.

[Apfhex]

Originally posted by mjarski15:
I have always found the start bar a little annoying, never really like it. I actually don't even like to put my applications folder in the dock. Instead I like to make an alias of my programs and put them in my favorites folder and then put that in my dock. Yes, it is a little more work but you don't get the annoying folder in folder process to find the app you want. TigerLauch would probably be the easier thing for me to use but I'm old fashion I guess.

This is what I do too (excluding the Favorites folder part, just the aliases folder) and I find it to be a perfectly fine solution.

Most of what you have in the Start menu (aside from the whacky new XP stuff) anyway is just a bunch of aliases, the difference being that the application installers put them there for you (often in deep sub-directories with a bunch of useless stuff), and sometimes the uninstaller will remove them for you. I never really liked the Start menu either. With MacOS X, however, there's often not any installation necessary, just drag-n-drop, and there's almost NEVER an uninstaller (be it a good or bad thing). It's not too hard to command-option-drag an applications icon to an aliases folder (you can just drag the alias right to your icon in the dock, too!). In MacOS 8 through 9 (or did they add this in 8.5) I kept a popup folder (is that what they were called?) of aliases at the bottom of my screen.

But those other options mentioned are good, too.

[techtrucker]

I like the idea of a folder of aliases, there is quite a bit in the Applications folder that I don't need on a regular basis. (off to do lots of cmd-option dragging....)

[techtrucker]

...and the resulting folder works great, pops up much quicker than the entire Applications folder, which on my iBook 933 is a second or two lag. Very nice! Reminds me of when in OS 8.x and 9.x I used to put aliases in a tabbed folder.