Migrating from PC to Mac : best Mac software

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Guide
This are the point to follow :
Migrating from PC to Mac: Internet
Migrating from PC to Mac: Download
Migrating from PC to Mac: Office
Migrating from PC to Mac: Image Editing, Video Editing, Audio Creating
Migrating from PC to Mac: Multimedia Tools
Migrating from PC to Mac: Misc
Migrating from PC to Mac: Conclusion

From PC to Mac: Find equivalent applications?
If you're one of the users who move from PC to Mac or who are planning to do so, this issue is for you! The biggest challenge is to adapt the operating system Mac OS X Leopard, very well indeed. Your biggest concern will be to find your bearings. And that means your favorite applications. To begin on your new computer and not lose time in vain or fruitless searches, we have compiled for you the free software and paying more than the essentials. On a Mac as on PC, there is a list of the most popular a Mac user should know.

Leopard has a package of basic utilities, but this is not always enough!
Like Windows, Mac OS X Leopard comes with a sum of utilities grouped under the name "iLife". These applications can cover all your needs, whether they are elementary. There is a web browser (Safari), a utility for managing images and photos (iPhoto), a multimedia library manager that is no longer ( iTunes), a video editing software (iMovie), for your music (GarageBand), a publisher of web pages (iWeb), an email client (Mail), an application for instant messaging (iChat AV), Frontrow The media center (see our dossier) ... A multitude of other applications are there to help you begin an optimal (utility for burning CDs and DVDs, DVD, QuickTime, iCal, Spotlight, Time Machine, Address Book, Capture ...).

Incontournables find software and if possible multi-platform ...
In this guide, we will not spend on these tools come with the Mac Mini, MacBook, iMac and Mac Pro and their relative effectiveness. The aim is to help the beginner, providing a list of flagships and unavoidable he will need sooner or later. To save time and find his work habits, the programs we meet for Mac OS X are available in PCs and are "musts" in their category (internet, office, multimedia ...). Ideally, these tools are multi-platform and they are available in PC, Mac and Linux. This will allow the user to move from one machine to another, without rehabilitation, and avoiding the laborious "juggling" of formats and conversions that follow.

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Internet

Surf with Firefox or other
On the PC, more and more users away Internet Explorer to alternative browsers. On a Mac, nothing forces you to adopt Safari, Apple's browser. If you are a fan of Mozilla Firefox on Linux and PC, you can find your browsing habits with the version 3.06 dedicated for Leopard. Most plugins are compatible (Down Them All,), other tools, like MozBackup to backup your passwords, bookmarks, do not exist on Mac. Suffice it to replace your Profile Manager by typing in the terminal without the quotes "/ Applications / firefox.app / Contents / MacOS / firefox-profilemanager" using the "User Profile".

Other navigation possibilities are valid Internet with lightweight Camino uses the Gecko rendering engine of Firefox and which fits better to the interface and features of Mac OS X (Address Book, protocol, menu Services). Plugins are less numerous. Finally, if you Opera remains the reference, know that the Mac version 9.63 is a success.

E-mail and Newsgroups
Of course you have the mail client Mail. But the best is still to use Mozilla Thunderbird, more complete, if you use. The latter version 2.0.0.21 supports both email and Usenet newsgroups. The fact that it is multi-platform will make your life easier, if you move from one machine to another.

On Windows, it is common to retrieve his mail and read their RSS feeds with Microsoft Outlook. To find the same interface, you can simply invest in the following MS Office 2008 for Mac. It includes Entourage, the equivalent of MS Outlook. Another email application known to the PC, there are also Eudora Mailbox Cleaner. Regarding newsgroups in addition to Thunderbird, Unison, iGrabNews, SuperNZB also honor to the Mac.

Instant Messaging
Either you just do iChat (With MobileMe, iChat, AIM, Jabber, GoogleTalk, Mac.com), or you adopt an alternative software. Messenger for Mac 7 is disappointing. This version is well below the Windows Live Messenger and it especially does not support webcams, unless you have installed Office Communications Server 2007 ... Applications closer to what is being done on PCs and more are undoubtedly successful Adium and aMSN. Other IM clients like Skype or AIM for Mac is also available. So, no problem at this level!

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Download

BitTorrent P2P
All protocols peer-to-peer are present on the Mac and the applications if not many are really there. On the PC, with the BitTorrent protocol, customers are the most popular μTorrent, Azureus Vuze. Do not worry, you will remain in the standard, if that is your choice! Both programs are on the Mac, Azureus Vuze is present on all platforms and Mac μTorrent although still in beta is functional. But bear in mind that the files must for torrents remains Transmission, currently in version 1.50 (encrypted connections, creating torrents, trackers HTTPS support, use minimum CPU, IPV6 support ...).

EDonkey and Kad P2P
You have a diesel and you better slow download and complete the reverse? On the PC you use the free client eMule or other equivalent close under GNU GPL, aMule. On a Mac, you will not lose your habits with aMule 2.2.3 which is multi-platform and available from Mac OS X 10.4.

P2P Gnutella
Gnutella clients are very numerous and very popular with Mac. For example Limewire, Cabos, Purchase 2 or Frostwire. Like PC, the functions are supported (UPnP, cryptographic hash SHA-1, iTunes integration, firewall to firewall transfers, UDP Host Cache for faster connections ...).

FTP client
The good old FTP clients are still there and will for a long time! In this category, Filezilla on the PC or Linux is indétrônable. On a Mac, it also took the lead in client version. Its advantages are no longer present with drag and drop, support for SSL and SSH, the pause / resume interrupted downloads ... You can also try it with Cyberduck graphically very successful, CuteFTP Pro or Transmit, a classical .

Download accelerator
As stated above, if you use Mozilla Firefox Down Them All is needed to accelerate downloads, with the promise of "downloads" 400% faster than the download manager included in browsers! Safari and Opera, Speed Download also. Opera also accepts GetRight, Go! Zilla, NetAnts .

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Office

TextEdit is sufficient in most cases
A word processor is still a word processor! On the PC, Notepad and Wordpad disappoint. They bear little training. Pending the release of a WordPad (ODT, docx ...) Finally, the height under Windows Seven you will not regret to be spent on the Mac! The perfect tool is provided TextEdit. It opens and saves the file formats most commonly used, HTML, RTF, ODT, DOC, and even the docx and appropriate ample for most users.

The office suites in full
For advanced office needs, we can not advise you that the multi-platform OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 alias OOo. If you do not know yet what this free office suite, which seems unlikely, remember that it includes Writer, the word processor, Calc spreadsheet, Impress for presentations, Draw for drawing vector basis for foundation data, Math for mathematical formulas. You can achieve all that is possible and once again exchange data without concern for compatibility to a PC with Windows or Linux machine.

For those seeking a simple and intuitive result, iWork'09 Apple (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) is positioned well in this case. Finally, those who do not want to demordre and who swear by Microsoft may turn to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac!

Reading and creating PDF
On Windows PC, there is no PDF viewer preinstalled. On a Mac, the question does not arise with Quick Look (Preview) which not only displays a preview opening of PDF files, Word and Excel and of course knows the open. To read PDF, you can download, like on the PC, Adobe Reader 9, which supports more open large PDF files. The other alternative is Foxit Reader for Mac or Skim.

For editing and creating PDF it can be done via the Print menu of almost any application running under Leopard (TexEdit, Safari, Preview, ...). But to go further, if necessary, we can not advise you as Adobe Acrobat Pro 9! Otherwise, the alternatives are PDFLab (divided into several documents, protected by a password, add a watermark ...) PDFpen ..

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Image Editing, Video Editing, Audio Creating

Managing and editing images
Artistic creation or creating a whole case of amateurs and professionals. On the Mac it was understood with iPhoto. Picture Manager is for everyone and allows sorting of your images, slideshows, sharing online (Facebook, Flickr), editing images, creating albums ... Finally, we are far from Paint comes with Windows!

For the advanced management of your bank of images for photographers and also try and give you Aperture 2 which is definitely worth (RAW image processing, ARW, CR2, CRW, MOS, NEF, DNG2, TIF, 3FR ..., advanced color correction and tone DNG format support, sync the iPod, including 50 tutorials, import images simultaneously from multiple memory cards).

Another must for image processing, especially for graphic designers, is Photoshop CS 4 Mac (non-destructive editing, support for formats DNG, PSD, AI, PDF, NEF, CRW, TIFF, BMP, Cineon, JPEG , FXG, OpenEXR, PNG, Targa, automatic merge images, PDF management, support for over 190 camera models ...). The price of the 11 version of this software image editing full version is awesome! More reasonably, and for current needs, you can direct them to XnView MP, The Gimp or Picasa Picasa Web Albums Exporter for iPhoto.

Video editing
If you have a camcorder and you want to make small videos easy and aesthetically successful iMovie'09 is a must (drag and drop, correct your video clips flickering, video browser, titles, effects and transitions ). To go further, with a Mac Pro, Final Cut Express, Studio and Server, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is also needed for users experts!

Audio Creation
To edit, assemble, cut, add effects, record on 16 tracks of simultaneous audio files WAV, MP3, AIFF, AU, OGG Vorbis, as PC Audacity largely the trick! The free software lets you scan any audio source (cassette, vinyl disc, mini ...). To compose, record, edit, mix and play in the studio, musicians will have fun with GarageBand or more professionally work with Protools, Logic Studio, Logic Express 8 .

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Multimedia Tools

iTunes and QuickTime are here!
Reading and managing audio files, podcasts, Web radio stations are the responsibility of iTunes that was able to followers on PC and Mac. If for you, this is only a gas factory, nothing prevents you from preferring an excellent alternative Songbird. The application is functional on PC and Linux and also runs the iPod.

Between Apple and Quicktime is a long history of love ... This is a very good player for local content or streaming audio and video. To play WMA and WMV files with QuickTime have to install Flip4Mac WMV. To play DivX or XviD, it should just download the QuickTime Components.

Perian codec pack
The alternative to play any video content is to install a codec pack. On a Mac no K-Lite Mega Codec Pack but instead an excellent Perian. It supports AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, VFW, videos type MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, H.263, FLV, subtitles SSA / ASS and SRT and the Audio, WMA, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis, MPEG Layer I & II Audio ... Double-click to install this swiss army knife.

VLC !
For listening and reading all the files, you can also choose to only install VLC Media Player, the universal player, known to all. As the PC, there is no need to install codecs to watch the MPEG 1 & 2, H.264, DivX, XviD and WMV and audio MP3, AAC, Vorbis, WMA, FLAC, Musepack, AC3

Encoding files
There is no version of Super Erightsoft Mac. But FFmpegX just as well as an encoder for audio and video files. It incorporates a tremendous amount of formats in reading and writing: MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, VOB and VIDEO_TS, Quicktime. MOV, DV, WAV, Real Audio, Real Video, H.263, MP4 H. 264, AC3, PCM8/16 bit, WMA-1 / 2, SUN AU format, MP2, MP3, AAC, 3GP, FPS1, ALAC ... The list is endless! The other alternatives are Dr. DivX to convert the video codec of the same name, D-Vision, which supports major video formats, Xilisoft Video Converter for Mac .

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Misc

Manage compressed files
For compression and decompression of archives can choose Stuffit Expander or UnRarX in place of Winrar and Winzip. 7Zip replacements are not lacking either with EZ 7z, p7zip, 7zX.

Kits for any optimization
No CCleaner on a Mac. But we must not despair, software equivalents are just as many in height! Everything is allowed, the cleaning of system files and applications, the emergence of hidden files, repair permissions. Must have OnyX, ToolsX, System Optimizer, and AppCleaner.

Write on a NTFS partition
Read access to a Windows partition formatted in NTFS is not a concern for Mac OS X. To write to an NTFS volume, such as networking, remember to install the free MacFuse 2.0.2.3 or paying Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X 6.5!

Defragment? Therefore if you want!
Defragmenting files, contrary to what some say may be necessary on an HFS + partition. Even if the file system is less subject to fragmentation than NTFS or FAT, you can at one time or another need to re-order a large volume, who knows? So, use tools such as TechTool Pro, Drive Genius 2 or iDefrag.

Burn audio and data
Burning your audio CD-A or MP3 compilation can be done with iTunes. Open your audio library with iTunes, insert a blank CD and select your files to burn! For CD / DVD data, audio, image files, DVD-Video, you can choose the reference Toast Roxio or not paying as LiquidCD, SimplyBurns or Burn.

[Humberto]

Migrating from PC to Mac: Conclusion

Do not panic, we find the key products!
The migration from PC to Mac is much easier thanks to free software broken on all platforms. Major hits like Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org is the game. That's good because the areas they represent are the main activity of the Internet (browsing, email, office). The user can easily find its bearings and move their personal data of an operating system to another without conversion or loss of files. You just need to exchange files in the network (AppleTalk, NFS, FTP) or even easier to put content on a USB key.

Flagship Applications are free or paid also on Mac and in all areas. It is precisely the case for office suites, web browsers, image processing software, P2P clients .

The applications do not exist in Mac? + Windows boot loader or virtualization
If some applications or programs are not equivalent on Mac OS X, what can happen, and they are essential for you, you still have two solutions. The first is to install a boot loader, that is to say, a boot loader that will leave the choice to boot between Mac OS X or Windows. With Boot Camp, included in Mac OS X Leopard, just obtain a license for the operating system Windows XP or Vista will be installed on a partition or another drive on your Mac. After you have installed two OS on your machine! The alternative is to install a virtualization application like Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion and run all your applications.

Why not adopt the software for Mac?
In summary, either you find your applications on Mac, or you can use Boot Camp or virtualization software or is more ... you decide to adapt it to Mac software. They are generally better integrated into the interface of the operating system to current needs. This is the case of Safari, the iLife suite, iChat .... In addition, they work together with the services like iCal, Apple Bonjour, iTunes, QuickTime, Address Book

[HelpfulDan]

Make sure you use Firefox on you new MAC