My Mac Software List 3 - web browser

Now talk about the internet related applications. First of all, the most important application is the internet web browser. The build in Safari is pretty decent, until Firefox 3 came out. There are also a bunch of other web browsers, freeware and shareware, such as Camino, Opera, Omniweb, but I would like to say, it's more like a matter of taste, and they are almost on the same level. You will fall in love with anyone of them if you use it for more than two weeks. Summarize as follows:

• Die hard mac fan stick with Safari 3  build in in leopard
  
• Die hard mozilla fan stick with Firefox 3  freeware
• Lovers of both mac and mozilla use Camino  freeware
• Cool people use Opera  freeware on their computers/cellphones/wiis
• "Rich" people use Omniweb  shareware (used to be much superior than others, but now Firefox etc caught up)

I think Firefox is better than Safari for now, but I will definitely give Safari 4 (promising much faster speed on javascript) a try when it comes out later this year/or next year. If you use Firefox instead, please check my experience with Firefox 3.

If you do use Safari, check out the plugin Inquisitor  freeware, which makes your search bar more powerful, and you can configure it through Safari preference panel (command + , ). There was a bit of scadal about the developer earlier this year, but David acknowledged this problem in time. I think Inquisitor joining Yahoo! is a great move, and I'm happy to see the developers getting revenu without cutting user experience.

The password manager in Firefox seems to be decent, but I am already a 1password  shareware user. For my two years' experience with Agile, I feel quite happy with them, and now I've owned two licences. But I haven't quite compared it with the firefox manager, maybe that's also good enough. The only downside again is the steep price, but I got both licence from bundle sales, so I'm happy with it.

Another related software is Speed Download  shareware, a download manager for web browsers. Again, good to have if cheap, and I probably won't purchase it at full reatail price. And Yazsoft is quite mean at the beginning of its bundle sale.

My Mac Software List 2 - software installation, system

Continue with my software list. Many mac newbees want to ask: how do I install/un-install a program? Where is the install/uninstall window in mac? The simple solution: drag your application to your Application folder when install it, and move it to the Trash when uninstall it. This solve 95% of the problem. Hard to believe? Yes! That is how most applications work on a mac, which is also called "green installation" on a windows PC. There are few exceptions:

1. Some application does involve a installer, like the .exe file you need to click on a windows machine. For example, our favorite statistics software, R. Just follow the instructions, select a Volumn (meaning, partition, most of the time, just your current hard drive) to install, and a stand alone application will appear in your application folder. Un-install just trash the file in Application folder.
2. Some plugin needs you to execute. For example, adobe flash web brower plugin when you run for the first time. Just click it, and do not worry where it goes. Un-install gets trickier, but most of the time, you do not need to uninstall.
3. Dashboard widgets. Install, click it, and choose keep it in the dashboard. Un-install, click the plus icon on the bottom left of your dashboard, and choose the widgets widget to un-install. You cannot un-install the build in widgets this way, and there are other ways to do it.
   
4. System preference plugin, for example, the famous Growl notification. Click install most of the time, and it will appear in the bottem line of your system preference panel. Right click (option click or two fingure tap click) the icon on the sysstem preference panel to un-install.
5. Other plugins. Typically, you need to manually move it to a specific folder. Un-install means trash it from that specific folder. This is every un-intuitive. Fortunately, you may not even encouter this problem if you are not an advanced user.

Having said that, I do want to mention a shareware for un-installing the programs/plugins:
 AppZapper, shareware
Only downside is the price, but still resonable. However, you don't have to own it unless you are a control freak like me. As I said, I would like to tune every aspect of my computer, so I also own following sharewear. I got them from bundle sales, and they are pretty good (except for the price), and I would probablity not purchase them separately at full retail price.
 MacPilot, shareware
System tuning/optimizing program. Don't think you need it with a new mac.
 Xslimmer, shareware
Slim you universal binary program to ppc/intel only, and trim extra language packs. I need it because the hard drive on my old powerbook is so small... but not recommended for new macs, you have a big hard drive!

My Mac Software List 1 - general, windows compatibility and chinese input

As I am getting more friends using mac, I would like to take a little time to organize my favorite programs and share them with you. Most of the software are free, but there are still a bunch of very good shareware (meaning, free trial but need to pay afterwards). If you want to discover more software, please visit:

• iusethis：http://osx.iusethis.com/
• apple：http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/
• versiontrack：http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/
• macupdate：http://macupdate.com/

I'll use a five star system to rate them, and give a link to the developer's website, along some short comments. All shareware/commercial software's rating have be subtracted 1 star (apple) because they are not free. To begin with, a little gem on mac: to generate a text apple icon like this , use Shift+Option+K on any text field.

If you want me to give you just ONE application I cannot live without, that is
 QuickSilver, freeware
A unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data. In other words, you can use the keyboard only to do anything (open application, open a particular folder etc) in very few key strokes. In my opinion, it should be build in the OS! It is so cool that I recommend every one use it (except for grannies that prefer moving the mouse clicking everywhere). Also, the developer is a Googler!

If you are transiting from a windows platform, and still miss some of your favorite windows programs, you can install them on the intel-based macs in four ways: (of cause, you need a separate windows installation disk and license)
 Boot camp, build in in leopard
You get a full featured windows machine (play 3D games etc), and the only downside is that you have to reboot the machine, and there is almost no interaction with your mac system.
 Parallels Desktop, shareware
The good thing is that you can run windows within your mac OS X, and runing windows programs as if they are mac programs. It is also not very stable at the beginning (when I tried), but should be OK now, and I guess it is the most used solution. The downside is that it is not free, but I still give thumbs up for the developers, and purchased a copy.
 VMware Fusion, shareware
The biggest competitor for Paralles Desktop, and big company does greate virtualiztion stuff. I never tried, but it should be as good as Paralles Desktop. My naive suggestion is to check which ever is cheaper (both are quite expensive in my views).
 CrossOver, shareware
If you do not want to give out your money to Microsoft for a windows license, but still want to run some of your windows applications, check crossover's software list. This might be the cheapest solution considering the rediculous price of Windows XP/Vista, but it only support a few windows software, and CrossOver is not free :(

Chinese Input, check chinese mac website at Yale. How I wish Google Pinyin release a mac version (only windows version for now)!
 Pinyin, build in in leopard
Decent, but slow to type (bad dictionary). Only exciting feature is that you can split the words like: "yiwei" and press enter get: 袆 instead of flip a long list under "yi".
 QIM, shareware
The best input method for now. Good dictionary (collaboration with sougou), and only downside is too expensive. If you have a Chinese credit/debit card, you may save a few bucks from the Chinese version of the payment website. I did purchase a copy of QIM, but still think it is over-priced.
 FIT
Fun Input Toy, based on fcitx. Best part is that it has 五笔 and it is free! Bad part is that QIM has a better pinyin dictionary.