[AtomicGarden]

Hey guys

Ok, here it goes. I will hold out till WWDC in case the processors get updated and then buy a shiny new iMac. Now I've been reading so much about the Mac and Apple since I bought my 4th Gen. iPod in the summer of 2004. However, Steve and co. manage to surprise me over and over again. So I am currently starting to buy and build up a software library. I was checking for messaging software yesterday and got told that AdiumX is a great program - I currently use Trillian on my PC notebook. After visiting their site I decided thats the way to go. For the IRC chat protocol I am probably going to use Colloquy. For that I am studying Design & Art I will of course stick to Adobe, Macromedia and Apple software (especially Final Cut Pro) . I was considering MacTheRipper or DVDBackup to rip DVD's - however I've learned that both programs are not being developed anymore. The Finish law has changed and makes it a crime now to rip DVD's - thats why they stopped new releases of MacTheRipper. Plus its getting harder and harder to get your hands on this program. Any alternatives? I currently use Shrink on my PC and its a great program - if I could find something simular for the Mac that would be great...
For writing etc. I am probably going to use OpenOffice - which I know preforms pretty well under Linux..

Any other suggestions software wise? What do you like to use? Please feel free to add whatever you like.

Thanks very much guys,

Have a great hot summer day (at least if you come from Europe ;-)

-Jan

[MagSafe]

I've actually been doing something similar, buying & building up a nice legal software library, however I've already got an Intel Mac Mini.

So far I've got Windows XP Professional SP2 for my BootCamp partition and at the moment trying to source a cheap version of Microsoft Office Professional (2000 or 2002) from eBay, as I'll need to use MS Access for web development. Other software that I need to get is Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office and Toast Titanium for OS X ... but I'm waiting on the new universal binaries for them to come out.

Other software I'd recommend for you to look into would maybe be Panic's Transmit (an ftp client) and TextMate ... which I like to use on a regular basis. Hmm, apart from that I can't really think of anything else at the moment ... will keep an eye out on this thread though

Edit: (Just noticed the thread title again...) for DVD software I've used Popcorn which is brilliant for DVD encoding, and is actually another bit of software I'm planning on purchasing sometime in the future.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by AtomicGarden I was considering MacTheRipper or DVDBackup to rip DVD's - however I've learned that both programs are not being developed anymore. The Finish law has changed and makes it a crime now to rip DVD's - thats why they stopped new releases of MacTheRipper.

Huh? Where did you learn that? MacTheRipper is still very much in active development, but the interim builds are in a closed (paid) testing round until a final, stable 3.0 release is ready.

[macleod]

Does anyone know if the new version of MacTheRipper will be Universal? Thanks.

[Brad]

Yes, the development builds have been universal for quite a while.

[macleod]

Ok good. But those are not available to the public for testing or use?

[AtomicGarden]

Originally Posted by Brad Huh? Where did you learn that? MacTheRipper is still very much in active development, but the interim builds are in a closed (paid) testing round until a final, stable 3.0 release is ready.

hey there...

uuuhm... maybe I was wrong, read it last night on some webpage. Is www.ripdifferent.com the correct web-address of the developer ? When I checked some download archives (I don't really trust download archives though, cuz anyone can basicly upload anything and add spyware or whatever... but that might just be my windows thinking ;-) it wasn't available...

I won't install bootcamp - just one of the many reasons why I am going to switch is because of Vista (I would like to emphasize - one of many reasons). XP is already calling home, AntiSpy offers workarounds though - Vista will be a nightmare of DLR's and other spooky stuff - no thanks. Plus it's gonna be a resource killer. I'll leave XP on my laptop and my iMac will be MacOS only territory ;-) .

I say this as a longtime PC user (actually my first computer was a C64 - well built machine, with a GUI on a chip that was better than any Windows 3.1 or whatever. - still have this computer, I don't know what got me on the wrong track later - but I was young and innocent ;-) who is about to switch...

AdiumX so much reminds me of some old MacOS or Atari software. We never had such a cool duck on the PC ;-)

Keep it going guys and thanks a lot for any suggestion,
Jan

[Brad]

Originally Posted by macleod Ok good. But those are not available to the public for testing or use?

If you pay to be in the testing group, you can use it. Otherwise, no.

Originally Posted by AtomicGarden uuuhm... maybe I was wrong, read it last night on some webpage. Is www.ripdifferent.com the correct web-address of the developer ?

Yes, if you read that website carefully, you'll find where to download the stable release and plenty of details about the private interim builds.