Suggestions wanted for Os X apps to replace windows apps

missyvortexdv · May 13, 2003 4:21PM

hi, i'm getting an ibook soon, with os x

but i'm a first time mac user and there are some applications i know i just cant do without, i was wondering if anyone had any decent suggestions for freeware/shareware or cheapish solutions.

1. dictionary? i'm used to oxford reference shelf which i got off a cover cd years ago and i find as a writer i use it alot but i haven't heard of any dictionaries for mac's. if there were any i would expect to pay a good price but i have no idea if there even are any

2. text editor with thesaurus function. i know os x comes with a standard texteditor with spellcheck but nothing was said about thesaurus... and i know i don't want microsoft office v.X, can't afford it.

3.divx player? last i knew running a divx on quicktime required converting it with divxdoctor which took ages but then that was on mac os 9. anyone know about this?

4. something similar to gator? i find gator quite useful, it fills in forms automatically, haven't seen gator for mac or anything similar around so far.

5. antivirus software? only one i heard of was by intego, net barrier. but i have no idea whats best or whats good value.

teddy · May 13, 2003 4:36PM

Your set on the dictionary front. Sherlock has a great one.

Text Editor with thesouras(terrible speller) AppleWorks will do the trick

Don't know much about the others. I wouldn't worry to much about virus' on the mac though. I have never had a problem I don't think there are to many of them. Virex 7 will do though. Hope I helped you a little.javascript:smilie('

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cowerd · May 13, 2003 5:00PM

1. You can use Omnigroup's OmniDictionary which is front end to dict.org dictionary servers, though it requires a network connection. If you have any tech capability you can setup a DICT server on your own machine. Instructions here:

http://www.omnigroup.com/ftp/pub/sof...DICT.Howto.pdf

2. Appleworks. Or you can use Spellcatcher with TextEdit.

3. DiVX player: http://www.videolan.org/

Free (as in beer) ware.

4. Forms? As in webpage forms?

5. No know viruses to date.

missyvortexdv · May 13, 2003 5:17PM

thanks, now i have a choice too!

4. yes, webpage forms. you tell it your details and then it asks if you want to fill in forms you come across on the net.

anonymous karma · May 13, 2003 6:09PM

Quote:

1. dictionary? i'm used to oxford reference shelf which i got off a cover cd years ago and i find as a writer i use it alot but i haven't heard of any dictionaries for mac's. if there were any i would expect to pay a good price but i have no idea if there even are any

OmniDictionary (already mentioned) works fine for occasional use. I think the World Book Mac edition has a dictionary too.

Quote:

2. text editor with thesaurus function. i know os x comes with a standard texteditor with spellcheck but nothing was said about thesaurus... and i know i don't want microsoft office v.X, can't afford it.

Try using TextEdit with OmniDictionary; OmniDictionary installs an entry in the services menu that you can use to quickly look up words.

Quote:

4. something similar to gator? i find gator quite useful, it fills in forms automatically, haven't seen gator for mac or anything similar around so far.

Didn't you know what a horrible piece of crap Gator is? It changes the content of webpages you see to include ads they want and floods your computer with popups. I feel sorry for your computer. If this is the way you treat it, your Mac won't be any better than your PC. No computer stands up to abuse like that.

For the record, Safari has a feature called Autofill.

Quote:

5. antivirus software? only one i heard of was by intego, net barrier. but i have no idea whats best or whats good value.

Unless you use OS 9, there's little reason to use an antivirus. If you need one both Norton and Macafee make Mac antivirus software, but most of these stop classic-mode viruses which are incredibly rare these days. I would only put an antivirus in a Mac computer lab at a school. (Most of these virii were floppy-transmitted or AppleTalk-transmitted; the latter won't probably work on OS X, where the former don't apply anymore)

buonrotto · May 13, 2003 6:19PM

Re: the Gator thing: Safari, Internet Explorer and OmniWeb all have form autofill features built-in.

AntiVirus: there's Norton Anti-virus, Virex from McAfee (part of a .mac subscription too), NetBarrier, maybe one I'm forgetting. I've mainly used mine to prevent windows viruses from spreading via e-mail. I'm not even aware of any viruses that affect OS X directly.

Re: dictionary and thesaurus functions: Watson from Karelia, OmniDictionary, Sherlock all have these functions as well as the obvious culprits (namely Word and AppleWorks). Apple has a built-in spell-checker for any application willing to use it which is to say nearly all Cocoa apps and almost no Carbon apps make use of it.

missyvortexdv · May 14, 2003 6:10AM

no. did not know about gator. thought it was fairly reputable as i got it off a cover cd.

but thats solve the question of how spyware keeps coming back despite my best attempts to remove it. thanks. time to hit the uninstall button and then maybe something else too to get rid of it.

but its nice that safari has autofill. i doubt i'd trust microsoft enough to use it in ie.

and as for the dictionary, which of the suggestions offline? as thats what i really need. i'm presuming the appleworks dictionary is offline, as is Word (though i can't afford that).

the suggestions are very much appreciated. thanks to you all.

der kopf · May 14, 2003 8:24AM

Actually, if you have a dislike for these online services (e.g. Sherlock) as dictionaries (and/or want a dictionary at all times) you might want to have a look at Ultra Lingua dictionaries. They are the best mac os x has as dictionary (as far as I know) and you can add many languages easily.

ast3r3x · May 14, 2003 8:35AM

http://www.m-w.com/

there is ur dictionary

ringo · May 14, 2003 10:54AM

Quote:

Originally posted by missyvortexdv

3.divx player?

Watching DiVX movies on OS X is much easier than it is on OS 9. The majority of movies will just play via QT after installing the DiVX plugin without any problem, but you'll still need to run some through DivX Validator first. Don't worry, though, it's very fast and the files will still play in Windows and Linux. You also might want to check out MPlayer and VLC Media Player.

whyatt thrash · May 14, 2003 4:21PM

3. Another vote for MPlayer. Plays most Divx's, ASFs and Mpgs (and sometimes even Movs) that QT and VLC will not, without need for any validation process. If it won't play in MPlayer, it won't play on your Mac. Plus it has a nice fullscreen-feature...

ast3r3x · May 14, 2003 5:26PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ringo

Watching DiVX movies on OS X is much easier than it is on OS 9. The majority of movies will just play via QT after installing the DiVX plugin without any problem, but you'll still need to run some through DivX Validator first. Don't worry, though, it's very fast and the files will still play in Windows and Linux. You also might want to check out MPlayer and VLC Media Player.

he is right, VLC and MPlayer are some extremely useful apps for OS X, they made life alot easier

klinux · May 14, 2003 5:48PM

missyvortexdv:

I am a dual platformer and you can pretty much do what you can in Windows in Mac. I think you would like the change.

As for gator, I am pretty good about making sure adware and/or spyware not installing on my PC. To be safe, I run either http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/ or http://security.kolla.de/ regularly to get rid of any possible spyware/tracking cookies, and what not.

No need to worry about anti-virus software for now on OS X.

dfiler · May 16, 2003 2:52PM

Quote:

Originally posted by missyvortexdv

5. antivirus software? only one i heard of was by intego, net barrier. but i have no idea whats best or whats good value.

Viri are so rare on the Mac that you're better off spending time on a more thorough backup solution. You could decrease your chances of data loss/corruption with a Norton product. However, that money and time would be better spent on weekly backups to an external media, drive, or building. It is far more likely that you will loose data to a corrupt drive or accidental deletion than to a virus...

ghost_user_name · May 16, 2003 3:20PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dfiler

You could decrease your chances of data loss/corruption with a Norton product.

No, no, no! A thousand times no!

Norton for Mac OS X is one of the worst pieces of software available. It is infamous for *causing* directory corruption and inducing kernel panics. I've experienced it myself first-hand. I've aldo tried helping other people out of problematic situations that Norton caused. I've read oodles of similar reports online too.

Not recommended.

What dfiler said about viruses on Mac OS X, though, is true. There are ZERO viruses out there so far and the likelihood of new ones cropping up in general is pretty slim.

The only thing the virus-scanners like Virex for Mac OS X do is check and clean files of Windows-based viruses and Classic Mac-basic viruses so you can be "the good neighbor" on the local network or something. If you aren't sharing files with Windows-based PCs or older Classic Macs, it's a complete waste of money. Even if you do have other Classic Macs around, the old Mac viruses are so few and far-between (and usually didn't really do any damage) that you would probably never need a virus scanner there either.

thegelding · May 16, 2003 3:56PM

thank you for the info brad, i am now going out to get norton utilites for my iMac......

g

jbl · May 16, 2003 5:10PM

I use the Encycopedia Brittanica's built in dictionary (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate). Might be overkill if all you want is a dictionary, but it is sometimes useful to have around.

Suggestions wanted for Os X apps to replace windows apps

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