Aure's Mac OS X Application Guide

Introduction

Recently I've upgraded my laptop computer and repaired a hard drive on my desktop, so I decided to chronicle the experience of setting up a Mac to my own preference / specification. You can use these notes for setting up your own Mac, or maybe just for getting turned onto a new app you had not yet heard of. In any event, here it is...

Initial Installation and Configuration of Tiger

Custom installation - trade Xcode for languages and printer drivers

Insert the Tiger DVD and boot from it. Do a custom installation and uncheck the options to install extraneous language support and printer drivers. This will save you lots of time and hard drive space. However, do install the Xcode Developer Tools if you plan to do programming. Eventually there will be some cool cutting edge tool that will require gcc for installation, so might as well do it now. Click past the "Checking Installation Disc" step to save time as well.

Once Tiger reboots, immediately go to the Apple Menu / Software Update... and let Tiger update itself to the newest OS, iTunes, Quicktime, etc. Also, if you forgot to install Xcode Tools, do it now!

Update System Preferences

Common Apple Applications

iLife '06

This is the must-have suite including iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and Garageband. Sometimes, if you're installing on a laptop it might make sense to just install iPhoto because Garageband sound samples and iDVD templates take up a lot of disk space. I also often skip iWeb because it's worthless if you are a web programmer.

Application Folder Management

By default, Apple does not give the user free access to the /Applications folder, so from the terminal, run: 
	> sudo chmod g+w /Applications
and then you can create subfolders in /Applications.

Create the folder /Applications/Audio and create aliases to the audio apps there by Option+Command dragging iTunes and GarageBand into the folder. You could just drag the applications to move them completely, but sometimes, when your machine updates itself to a new OS, you'll end up with another, new copy of the app back in the original location. So instead, let the apps remain installed where they want to be and do your organize with aliases.

Create /Applications/Video and Option+Cmd drag DVD Player, iDVD, iMovie, and Quicktime Player here.

Finally, create /Applications/Graphics and create aliases to iPhoto, Preview, Font Book, Image Capture and /Utilities/Digital Color Meter there.

iWork '06

The main thing you want from iWork is Keynote 3, but Pages 2 is also a very good application. If you don't plan to register these apps, launched one of them twice and the second time you'll have the option to "Never Register."

More Updates... yay!

After you've installed these applications, go back to the "Software Update..." tool and let Apple update them to the newest versions.

Utils - Personal Utilities Folder

I don't like to mess with the /Applications/Utilities folder because I consider that to be just the "Apple Utilities" folder and it already has a ton of things in it and your new apps get lost in the mix. So, my standard is to create an /Application/Utils folder.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver is the coolest, most essential utility for your Mac. It gives you quick, keyboard-based access to everything on your system, so you don't have to use your mouse to do everything. My preferences are assignable as follows:

Virtual Desktop Manager Software

I find virtual desktops to be an essential component of the operating system, and Apple has finally caught on and Leopard will include the native desktop manager "Spaces." Until that's available, you have three choices: Codetek VirtualDesktop, VirtueDesktops, and Desktop Manager. Of those, the Codetek software is by far the best, but at $40, it's pricey, so I recommend VirtueDesktops.

iTerm

iTerm is a big improvement over Apple's default terminal programm because it allows you to create several tabs in which you can ssh to several machines. If you're a programmer, drag it to the dock immediately, update the color scheme to the classic hacker green on black and set up the bookmarks for your favorite servers.

Google Earth

Google Earth is one of the coolest applications ever created, but how do you categorize it? Since it has so many uses, I just stick in the Utils folder.

VNC

I find VNC to be an essential tool for collaborating with others, it's like Apple's remote desktop, but it's free and cross-platform. A good portion of my book was written with my co-author sharing my desktop screen with VNC. The Vine VNC Server is very stable and highly recommended. Vine's VNC Viewer isn't free, so I recommend the old VNCViewer.

Graphics Applications

Here are some more applications to install into /Applications/Graphics...

iPhoto Library Manager

This software allows you to have a number of iPhoto libraries simultaneously. This is very useful if you have a lot of photos like I do. I separate my libraries into my personal photos, my gear photos (things that I am selling on eBay, for instance), and my family photo albums.

Adobe Create Suite CS2

There is a lot of software in CS2, but you're probably only really interested in Photoshop, Illustrator, and inDesign. GoLive isn't a great application and you should never ever install any flavor of Acrobat (Reader or Pro) if you can help it. Apple's Preview program is just fine for reading PDF files and is much faster than Acrobat. The second you install any flavor of Acrobat, some of the PDFs you encounter online will undoubtedly try to open in Acrobat. So, save yourself by skipping Acrobat.

After installation, let Adobe Version Cue update the CS2 apps to the latest versions/

PDF Pen Pro

If you want to edit PDF files, PDF Pen Pro is a comparatively lightweight alternative to Acrobat Pro.

Aperture

If you're a photographer, this is a great new application from Apple, but don't bother installing the sample project - it's huge and the tutorial is ridiculously simple and a waste of time. After installation of Aperture 1.0, upgrade to 1.5. Finally, drag an alias into /Applications/Graphics.

OmniGraffle

OmniGraffle is an alternative to Illustrator, and it's probably a better choice if all you're going to do is simple charts and presentations and don't need the awe-inspiring power of Illustrator.

Web Applications

First make the /Applications/Web directory and drag an alias of Safari there. Then, open Safari preferences to turn on tabbed browsing.

Other cool apps to install here:

File Sharing Applications

Install these into /Applications/File Sharing

Text Editors / Viewers

Create /Applications/Text Editors and Viewers and drag an alias of Apple's TextEdit and Preview there. If you like you can also put an alias of PDF Pen Pro here.

Then install:

Productivity Apps

Audio Applications

Not much to say about these applications, but here's what I like to install into /Applications/Audio

Video Applications

Install into /Applications/Video:

Application Development / Coding

Install into /Applications/Coding:

More to come...