all hands on deck!! need help..

playmakerplaymaker
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I need help finding 3rd party applications for a PC weenie friend...



I have a friend whom I recently gave an older 400mhz G3 tower. I am trying to let him get his feet wet in OSX and thought this was the best way to do so. He is a die hard PC guy who thinks the apple OS is nothing more than eye candy with puppy dog icons. I know OSX will not satisfy all of his needs because he is a programer but he made the comment about the OS not being very customizable and that all you get is the aluminum look. Can anyone please give me a list of 3rd party applications that will allow him to seriously overhaul the look on the user interface?



I've asked him to send me a list of things he does on his PC that he thinks he cant do on the MAC (he is still very skeptical). I plan to put together a list of Mac alternatives if they are available. I'd also like to show him how much the mac community cares about other mac users experiences. Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    karl kuehnkarl kuehn Posts: 756member
    Rather than trying to change the look (and thus the feel) of MacOS X, why not have him try it without haxies for a while and get a true feel for it. I think you should stick to the list of applications and leave the look-and-feel alone. Once the initial period of "this isn't what I am used to" is over, he will get an idea of what is better.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Oh, and I utterly disagree with it not being really suited for him since he's a developer. MacOS X is, hands down, the nicest overall development environment I've used in 20+ years of software production. I can go grab a ton of free Unix tools, Java apps, you name it, use it all together with a world class GUI and whip up applications and tools faster than I've been able to on any other platform I've used, out of the dozen or so I've professionally developed on.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    playmakerplaymaker Posts: 511member
    To be honest I think he just wants the ability to change up the OS interface look. The comment he made was along the lines of "I hope you like brushed aluminum because thats all you get".
  • Reply 4 of 5
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Then he needs to spend more than five minutes with it before forming 'factual' opinions.



    Brushed metal appears in many Apple apps and Finder windows with the sidebar, but few others.



    And, developers can turn it off with *some* success with simple checkbox edit to each application they want to modify.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    playmakerplaymaker Posts: 511member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Then he needs to spend more than five minutes with it before forming 'factual' opinions.



    Brushed metal appears in many Apple apps and Finder windows with the sidebar, but few others.



    And, developers can turn it off with *some* success with simple checkbox edit to each application they want to modify.



    Ok, I can see that this is getting me nowhere. I can and have told him that he should spend a bit more time exploring the OS (thanks for that revelation), but was hoping to offer some 3rd party suggestions for modifying the interface. If you have help to offer its appreciated.
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