what do you think?

rdubwilkinsrdubwilkins
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
hey everyone, im a new mac user and i wanted to know if it were possible to d/l some sort of app that can read/use/install etc. PC oriented files. But other than that what are the must haves and cool things to d/l or buy for the mac besides designing programs, I have them all already. Thanks so much for your time!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Rdubwilkins

    hey everyone, im a new mac user and i wanted to know if it were possible to d/l some sort of app that can read/use/install etc. PC oriented files. But other than that what are the must haves and cool things to d/l or buy for the mac besides designing programs, I have them all already. Thanks so much for your time!



    to put it simply: There are 2 kinds of files, there are applications like MS word or Photoshop, these are usualy .exe files, then there are the documents that these apps generate like .doc, .jpg, .pdf and so on.



    The applications can run on a Mac using something like Virtual PC but there are almost always Mac-native alternatives, and usualy they are cheaper than vPC+windows2k/xp.



    the second type, the documents can almost certinly be cross platform, if the app is. all office docs (sans Access) all adobe docs and so on are totaly 100% cross-pl;atform.



    Some general file types are also cross-platform regardless of software, like images (.jpg .gif, .tiff, .bmp, .raw, .png and so on) video (avi, mov, mpg) audio (mp3, aiff, wav, aac UNPROTECTED wma)



    Apps like .EXE, and .BAT will not work without VPC.

    hope this helps
  • Reply 2 of 5
    rdubwilkinsrdubwilkins Posts: 10member
    wow, ya, thanks a lot
  • Reply 3 of 5
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    BTW: if you have windows only apps, keep your windows box arround and use the money saved on VPC to get a crapton of RAM for the new Mac (but not from Apple.), OSX loves RAM, 256 is not enough any more, period, and 512 is feeling kinda sluggish with my workload. I say pop for a 1 gig stick, along with the includded ram in any new mac, that would make anything short of ultra hi-end video or 3-D scream



    Use VPC as a last resort, it costs a fortune (imho) and runs WAY slower than a native PC that is less than ~4 years old.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    abilsteinabilstein Posts: 61member
    Check out VersionTracker for lots application ideas - you can see the top downloads and popular apps pretty easily.



    Another site that is very new but looks good is DownloadSquad. It's all platforms as well but they have been featuring some pretty good stuff.



    The Unofficial Apple Weblog is a very active blog with lots of app recommendations as well as general Apple news and tips.



    I'm a fan of a lot of Weblogs, Inc sites.



    Another tip - use a more descriptive subject for your post next time and it may help you get more responses.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    emcemc Posts: 27member
    Also, if you do keep your Windows box around, you could install VNC on it and it would allow you to control your PC from your new mac. It will save quite a bit of desktop clutter and will let you use any PC based application. It works well for anything except video, gamming, or anything else that has really fast motions in it.
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