OK, I've just been handed a 2011 15" MBP at work. I'm traditionally a windows guy. What are the must-have apps for this thing? I'm talking apps, tweaks, etc.

irishmcsg2 · 12 months

Take a look here

ericatha · 12 months

What type of work do you do? That will help narrow down the best apps for your field.

putitontheunderhills · 12 months

I love:

Sparrow for email
Sublime Text 2 for coding/programming (if you do that)
Chrome (obvs)
Tweetdeck
Adium for IM
Alfred for "search everything and find shit quick" Spotlight replacement
smcFanControl to, well, control the fan

I also use Dropbox and CloudApp's integrations, if you use those services

kcjameson · 12 months

Go to System Preferences>Trackpad and enable to finger clicking (replacing Control+click) Similarly, go to System Preferences>Mouse and add the Secondary button. This will help keep you in Windows mindset.

I'd also consider utilizing Spotlight (Command+Spacebar) often, as well as possibly learning Unix commands for Terminal if you haven't already. You can "unlock" a lot of settings you may be accustomed to in the Windows environment. http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

fromeout11 · 12 months

One of my favs for finding out what's taking up all the room on your hard disk - GrandPerspective

parrotguy63 · 12 months

I use these two , so i suggest them to friends all the time.

Perian is a free, open source, QuickTime component that supports many popular media types, including AVI, DivX, and XviD.

http://perian.org/

With Windows Media Components for QuickTime by Flip4Mac, you can play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player and view Windows Media content on the Internet using a web browser.

Flip4wmv download page

jls4 · 12 months

Cyberduck is nice for ftp/sftp stuff. It's free too!

AlmostSavvy · 12 months

I can't use any Mac that doesn't have RightZoom installed. Very simple, runs in the background, you'll never see it, and it starts perfectly on startup.

icallshenannigans · 12 months

Two that I have not seen yet: NTFS 3G; Perian.

Bloqhead · 12 months

Alfred, Permute, Clementine (good iTunes alternative)

smackythefrog · 12 months

I use smcFanControl for monitoring fan speeds and having profiles set if i know I'm going to be doing something CPU/GPU intensive and don't want my 13" MBP heating up on me.

Dropbox is definitely good. For regular maintenance, I would recommend CleanMyMac.

Jumpcut is pretty cool; it keeps a list of what all you've cut and pasted recently. I find it useful when cutting and pasting multiple links for something.

IMGup is pretty neat for uploading screenshots automatically to imgur and providing you with a url to view it.

I don't use any antivirus/malware, etc.

I use uTorrent for torrents. And Coconut Battery for monitoring the battery health. You can also use iStat and have the widget on your dashboard to view temps, speed, space, etc. It's a very comprehensive tool.

I envy you fo getting the 15". I too should have gone for one instead of the 13" last April.

Paradox · 12 months

DefaultFolderX. Makes the save/open dialog insanely good

slackwaresupport · 12 months

chrome, quicksilver, smcfancontrol

millertime0503 · 12 months

This is built-in, but QuickView is awesome. Select a word doc, PDF, JPEG, etc and hit the spacebar -- you can see the item without having to launch Word, Preview, etc.

Centropomus · 12 months

If you have any command line inclinations, install macports. It puts a huge amount of open source software a few keystrokes away.

I regularly use: Adium (chat) Cyberduck (FTP/SFTP/WebDAV) Sequel Pro (MySQL management) VirtualBox Xchat Aqua (IRC)

Beyond that, I use a bunch of browser extensions, but those shouldn't be alien to you.

Scoo · 12 months

Default Folder. Launch bar. Acorn.

plazman30 · 12 months

Quicksilver

redfiche · 12 months

Divvy, Alfred, Growl, MacVim or Textmate, 1Password, Dropbox, Evernote, Instapaper, Colloquy, VMWare fusion

gottabeandrew · 12 months

Haven't looked at that list. On a daily basis, i use...

Dropbox, Adium (for msn etc.), Skype, Google Chrome, Alfred (quick search box), Cloud App (amazing).

And iWork is worth a look too. Those apps are all fantastic.

fattybob · 12 months

first things first - Caffeine - control when it sleeps, and set a hot corner to sleep/screensaver - the rest is up to you i use notational velocity too - free & great app - there is actually a paid copy (they used to freely admit it was a copy!) and for aggregating stuff - Eaglefiler for me beats all the others - Evernote works well across platforms too dont load flash - load Chrome browser and run ti when u need flash, otherwise stick with safari.

need a big text editor - try textwrangler before u buy textmate, and openoffice will pen almost all ms office files with no fuss - just a slow startup - try go-oo package

image editor - try Seashore first and save yourself a bunch.

and MplayerX - for media downloads. I also use Cog to play music I don't want loading into itunes oh yes, i sue google search box a lot - more stable than quicksilver used to be, but it occasionally disappears - when it updates I think, anyway - they are both good, designed by same guy I understand

always keep an eye out for request like yours - to find new wonderful stuff

well thats my tupence worth.....

moosethumbs · 12 months

If you are more comfortable with Windows, install Boot Camp and roll Windows on that bad mammajamma. I got a MBP through work but I work better in Windows, so that's what I did. It's definitely the best Windows laptop I've ever had.

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