Like many Mac users , I only buy a Mac every few years , when my old one is hobbling along like a sick pet . So when the 450MHz Power Mac G4 I bought in 2000 seemed beyond “ optimization , ” a Mac miniskirt turned out to be my everlasting ointment . And when I brought home my fresh , petite wonder and started it up for the first time , I saw that my Applications pamphlet was already full of useful programs . unremarkably , my first list would be to obsessionally put in extra apps — Microsoft Office , Adobe Photoshop , QuarkXPress , FileMaker Pro . That ’s when it hit me : this Mac may have come with every program I need . This time , I ’m taking the Mac mini software challenge .
That ’s right — I’m not installing anything new on my young Mac mini , until I truly must . Let ’s see how good a value this nice - looking bundle really is .
I cipher , at work , my Mac is all tricked out and has some mellow - end programme ( most for the demand of clip publication ) , but at home , just the basics will do . For regular personal use , I just want to listen to music , send and get e - postal service , journey the World Wide Web , chat with acquaintance , and apply a countersign mainframe to publish and edit ( iTunes , Mail , Safari , iChat and TextEdit or AppleWorks , respectively ) . When I desire to do some more - businesslike tasks like making a budget , managing my liaison , sorting out my finances , and creating a calendar , I have AppleWorks , Address Book , Quicken 2005 , and iCal . ( And of course , sustain a .Mac explanation enhances many of these tasks , and adds backup cock . )
As for generally making my Mac life leisurely , I can get my files with Spotlight , make useful workflows with Automator , look up movie times in Sherlock , and troubleshoot with Disk Utility . The Dictionary and Calculator have already come in ready to hand , and Dashboard offers pretty much any little utility I ask , for free .
I ’m not much of a gamer , but there ’s always Chess , Marble Blast Gold , and Nanosaur 2 in case I get bored .
All that , and I have n’t even mentioned iLife yet . For the clock time being , I ’m not using iMovie or iDVD much , but there ’s iPhoto for organizing my photograph , and Preview for view common image Indian file . And that ’s about all I need at dwelling . But as soon as I can get the fresh Front Row ( which now come with the new iMacs ) , my Mac mini will become even more worthful to me as a home - role jukebox .
Thing is , the stock software system on my Mac mini is really dependable software program — slick , well - designed , and very useful . It ’s not a bunch of fluff Apple threw at us that ’s really sub - par . That say , I ’m wary of AppleWorks . It has opened all the Microsoft documents I ’ve needed , as it uses the MacLinkPlus translating program , but it probably has n’t been importantly update for 10 geezerhood or so . It ’s very OS 8 , if you catch my meaning . To tempt me with better office software , there are 30 - daytime trials of Microsoft Office 2004 and Apple ’s iWork ( which let in Pages , Apple ’s raw Holy Scripture - processing / varlet - layout program , and Keynote , the rattling introduction program ) .
So really , there are n’t too many matter I ca n’t do with my Mac mini . But there are some exceptions . I know I ’ll miss Photoshop element presently , when I need to redact more photos . And my favorite utilities — St. Clair Software ’s Default Folderand Publicspace.net ’s MacBreakz are notably missing . finally , I ’ll probably load legion trial programs and purchase a few other pieces of software system .
But for now , it feels good to own a Mac miniskirt as clean as the fresh - driven snow . There ’s no fuddle , and my footling machine does everything I need . I ’ll let you know how it goes .
