Handy OS X Tools and Apps

[Dippyskoodlez]

freaksavior, thanks for that amazingly huge post, I'm going to try to update this post today (As I download the updated parallels! yay no more 3.0!)

 

[Woody112]

Well just got my hands on a new mac book pro, and I got to say I'm impressed. Only wish it had blue ray. But going to get my hands on another copy of vista or wait for windows 7 to release. I don't think I want to run vista 64 on here. Ordered 4 gigs of mushkin mem from the egg and I'm still looking at an SSD but don't know which one I want. Need at least 250 gig.
I've been traveling a lot so I'm thinking of parting my rig out at home and selling it when I get back and just sticking with this mac for the mean time. But thanks everyone for all those previous posts. This tread just saved me a ton of time.

 

[freaksavior]

get vmware fusion. best program EVER

 

[Scrizz]

imho Fusion> parallels

 

[freaksavior]

never used paralles but fusion is awesome. i am using osx, windows 7 7068 x64 and Mandriva

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

imho Fusion> parallels

I have both at the moment, and for 3d, parallels is definitely far ahead of Vmware.

I can play C&C3 in parallels, and various other games.

Vmware seems a bit better for linux, and lighter on resources. Not quite as much 3d support though.

 

[Scrizz]

I have both at the moment, and for 3d, parallels is definitely far ahead of Vmware.

I can play C&C3 in parallels, and various other games.

Vmware seems a bit better for linux, and lighter on resources. Not quite as much 3d support though.

for 3d I just reboot into windows, lol

 

[Woody112]

what's the difference between parallels and the duel boot crap that came preinstalled on my macbook? Is this Parallels something all of you would recommed using over what ever is preinstalled.

 

[freaksavior]

boot came requires you to actually restart your mac and load into windows. parallels and fusion let you run windows inside os x

 

[Woody112]

boot came requires you to actually restart your mac and load into windows. parallels and fusion let you run windows inside os x

Snaps!!! Thats bad ass. So ya Which is better. No BS Parallels or fusion?

 

[freaksavior]

well people have different opinions. Dippy says he has used both but prefers paralles. I have only used vmware but find it very nice and usefull. both are close to the same cost. Crossover is also good for running windows apps but best bet to run windows apps is vmware or paralles

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

what's the difference between parallels and the duel boot crap that came preinstalled on my macbook? Is this Parallels something all of you would recommed using over what ever is preinstalled.

Parallels is a virtual machine software similar to the old school Vmware workstation for windows that simulated a hardware sandbox for installing an OS.

Virtualization was introduced, allowing a virtual machine direct hardware access, making a virtual machine no longer "Virtual" in the sense that it was slow and simulated, it was now just simply passed directly to the hardware for instructions. The requirement here is that an x86 computer can only "virtualize" an x86 OS.

Parallels and Vmware fusion will probably both meet anyones needs these days, maybe I'll put together an in depth comparison

Boot camp is different in that you directly boot to Windows or OS X. Booting directly into OS X or windows is no different from booting your PC into Windows.

Parallels and Vmware offer the ability to run your bootcamp installation from within OS X and still maintain bootcamp, but can be kinda unreliable at times. I'd say your best bets are probably just using Boot camp and a windows install seperately in Parallels or Vmware, to prevent any issues.

 

[Wile E]

I prefer Paralells over VMware, personally. It just seems smoother to me, overall.

 

[Kweku]

Nice, now this is gonna come in really handy.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

In the process of reformatting this all- added the major lists of APPS people posted, but its a bit messy. Reformatting inc.

EDIT: Much better now

 

[beyond_amusia]

I just set my blue and white g3 tower back up actually - i will have to look into these apps - got 10.4 on there and it's pretty sluggish... I'm using it as a media player because my 5.1 set died =(

EDIT: what are the odd of VLC being able to play back video smothly on it? It has a Rage 128 card installed.

 

[Wile E]

I just set my blue and white g3 tower back up actually - i will have to look into these apps - got 10.4 on there and it's pretty sluggish... I'm using it as a media player because my 5.1 set died =(

EDIT: what are the odd of VLC being able to play back video smothly on it? It has a Rage 128 card installed.

It will probably handle SD mpeg2 and xvid just fine. Don't even dream of H.264 or HD anything.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

I prefer Paralells over VMware, personally. It just seems smoother to me, overall.

Do you know if Parallels got its 3d broken with 10.5.7 Ati driver for VM's like Vmware did?

 

[beyond_amusia]

It will probably handle SD mpeg2 and xvid just fine. Don't even dream of H.264 or HD anything.

Oh god no... no HD, lmao.

 

[Wile E]

Do you know if Parallels got its 3d broken with 10.5.7 Ati driver for VM's like Vmware did?

I broke my Windows install a month or so back. Need to do a clean install, so I can't tell you. (Had XP on there, btw). Was debating just throwing Win 7 on there.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

I broke my Windows install a month or so back. Need to do a clean install, so I can't tell you. (Had XP on there, btw). Was debating just throwing Win 7 on there.

Sound, and keyboard are a pain in 64 bit still. (Leopard CD worked for me for sound.)

I used mobility modder for my GPU drivers, that works great.

Running Win7x64 7100.

Vmware's 3d is broken because of Ati's 10.5.7 driver, and win7 likes to reactivate a lot still

 

[Disparia]

The OSX Folding client: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download

It's the only thing I use the Mac Pro for at work Output is comparable to the Linux client. Getting 3000PPD from 2Ghz x 4C.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

The OSX Folding client: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download

It's the only thing I use the Mac Pro for at work Output is comparable to the Linux client. Getting 3000PPD from 2Ghz x 4C.

This is a horrible idea for laptops however

Added,nonetheless. Good client

 

[Wile E]

Sound, and keyboard are a pain in 64 bit still. (Leopard CD worked for me for sound.)

I used mobility modder for my GPU drivers, that works great.

Running Win7x64 7100.

Vmware's 3d is broken because of Ati's 10.5.7 driver, and win7 likes to reactivate a lot still

Well, keyboard, sound and video drivers aren't a big deal for me. My keyboard is the older white apple keyboard, so the only thing that ends up not working is the eject key. And for video and sound, I just download the generic drivers. The big thing I need, is the boot disc selection. I hate having to hold option when booting up. I much prefer being able to tell it what OS to boot to ahead of time.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Well, keyboard, sound and video drivers aren't a big deal for me. My keyboard is the older white apple keyboard, so the only thing that ends up not working is the eject key. And for video and sound, I just download the generic drivers. The big thing I need, is the boot disc selection. I hate having to hold option when booting up. I much prefer being able to tell it what OS to boot to ahead of time.

You can if you use the select startup disc option before rebooting. It will set the EFI default.