I have been singing the praises of Apple Computers for a while now, and there is one question that I never stop fielding:
“I heard Macs aren’t very compatible with PCs. Is there anything I can’t do on a Mac, that I can do on a PC?”
The short answer to this question is no, there really isn’t anything a PC can do that a Mac cannot. In addition to Mac OS X, Mac computers can also run Windows. Mac OS X and Windows can be used at the same time with Parallels, or you can boot into Windows with Boot Camp.
I have heard that one of the only real weaknesses of the Mac platform is the lack games that are available. I cannot speak with any authority on that topic though, since I rarely venture outside of my XBox.
Aside from actually running Windows on your Mac, Macs are actually great at taking care of almost everything you’re used to doing on a PC. What follows is a list of Mac software for taking care of some of the most common tasks people use their computers to accomplish.
Administration
Audio & Video
- Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder
- Flip 4 Mac WMV Player
- Garage Band
- Mac FLAC
- iMovie HD
- iTunes
- VLC Media Player
- xAct
GUI for Unix shorten, shntool, flac, monkey’s audio…
Bit Torrent
Chat & Instant Messaging
Design, Image Editing & Photography
- Adobe Bridge
- Adobe Creative Suite for Macintosh
- Adobe Lightroom
- Adobe Photoshop for Macintosh
- Aperture
- GIMP for Mac OS X
- iPhoto
- Apple Mail
- GMail *
Google’s e-mail services can manage all of your mailboxes in addition to GMail. - Mozilla Thunderbird
FTP/SFTP
Office Productivity
Ripping & Burning
- Handbrake
DVD to MPEG-4 converter - iDVD
- Mac the Ripper
- Roxio Popcorn
Copy, convert, compress, and play back DVD movies. - Roxio Toast Titanium
Burn DVD discs.
Text Editing
Web Browsing
* An asterisk denotes web-based applications.
What other great software made your switch to Mac easier? If you have something I missed, leave a link in the comments!
