Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Apple
Life changing software
James Fee has posted about software that changed his life, and it struck me as a very powerful idea. Can a bucket of bits and bytes really change anyone's life? The more I thought about it, the more I knew it was true. Software can change lives, it has certainly changed mine.Back to James for a moment. He lists the following software as life changing (for him):
- Hypercard
- ArcInfo
- BBEdit
- Freehand
- ArcView
So, dear readers, has any software changed your life?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
deevee said 8:12PM on 7-20-2006
photoshop, without a doubt.
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[..'] said 8:22PM on 7-20-2006
I guess many would pick Photoshop without hesitation. For me though, they were MSX Disk Basic, YS I & II, and Ultima 5.
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Murray said 8:24PM on 7-20-2006
Mosaic. (On Windows as this was a few years before I switched to Macs) I still remember typing in http://www,etc,etc and sitting there for a few moments waiting for something to happen...14.4 modem connection. Then, getting text and pictures and just clicking to go to a link...it was magic.
iMovie 1.0 on my first Mac, a G3 400 mhz DV SE. Downloading video from my digital 8 camcorder to the Mac and then being able to edit it amazed me....and still does as I put together videos of my kids and activities. It opened a way to be creative that I really enjoy.
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mark said 8:26PM on 7-20-2006
iTunes
Photoshop
Shiira
ThemePark
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Joakim Nygrd said 8:40PM on 7-20-2006
HyperCard - one of the greatest applications ever made.
ResEdit - my entrance to the techier side of the Mac.
Netscape - and the FirstClass BBS application showed me what would be the net.
Think C - made it possible for me to go beyond HyperCard
On the OS side I have MacOS 6, the first I used and MacOS X, the OS that renewed my belief in Apple.
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Peter Garenr said 8:47PM on 7-20-2006
Quicksilver!
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Brad Sullivan said 8:57PM on 7-20-2006
Final Cut Pro.
Wow. I started out editing with 2 VCRs hooked up together back in middle school. When I was in high school I started working at a wedding video place, and they used Adobe Premiere. After getting fed up with endless system crashes, loosing all the footage I had been editing for hours, and just plain stupid glitches I bought a Mac and Final Cut Pro on whim, hoping it would be the redeemer. Was it ever. I've been using Final Cut for over 4 years now and it's been a dream come true (the whole Final Cut Studio for that matter). Anything I can think up, it'll let me do and I'm still finding new features everyday. I'm looking forward to shooting my first feature next summer, and I know that if it doesn't turn out, I'll be the one to blame, because Final Cut's possibilities are endless!
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Twist said 9:04PM on 7-20-2006
Mac OS 7.6.1.
Photoshop without a doubt.
NewsFire.
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AirBlock said 9:11PM on 7-20-2006
OSX and BBEdit.
OSX Got me started on macs
BBEdit Lets me edit LaTeX documents so easily,
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Mark Scrimshire said 9:21PM on 7-20-2006
1. Visicalc on a Superbrain running CPM
2. Clipper (dBase compiler)
3. Advanced Netware
4. Mac OS X
Each of these applications launched my career in new directions that led me to where I am today.
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sketchguy said 9:35PM on 7-20-2006
As a computer graphics animator for the past 20 years:
Photoshop (and the advent of the Wacom tablet)
Painter
Quicktime
Wavefront Advanced Visualizer
Softimage
Maya
After Effects
And the Internet and all the software it has spawned for creating content.
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Jon said 9:52PM on 7-20-2006
Final Cut Pro
Shake - Well worth the high price tag.
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Brad said 10:23PM on 7-20-2006
I have to agree with everyone who was stated that OS X was the reason they switched to a mac. I admit, I hated mac's during the pre-X years. In 1998, my school purchased a huge bunch of the original iMac's. I liked the design, but they were just slow compared to the Compaq I got in 2000. Gradually our school phased them out in trade for PC's, so I went without using a mac for a few years. I missed OS 9 completely, and found how beautiful the mac was once Jaguar and the eMac came out. The one piece of mac software that changed my life was iPhoto. On the PC side, PartitionMagic. I was the young geek that dual-booted mandrake 8 and Windows ME. Yes, ME.
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Catt said 10:42PM on 7-20-2006
OK here is my list of 10 life-chaning software its 10 I know... but I use tons of software so this is pairing things down alot.
1. ArcView- got me interested in GIS as a profession (too bad ESRI stopped making the Mac version) I use the more advanced versions now for work
2. OS X- the reason I switched back to a Mac
3. Adobe Imagestyler/Livemotion- I used to design banners for my websites with these programs (too bad Adobe stopped making them anyone out there have the Livemotion 2 for Mac I'm looking for a copy)
4. Dreamweaver- allow me to design websites the way I like to (from scratch) and I love the workflow
5. Firefox on the PC- my first tabbed based Broswer and I found it faster and safer than IE 6 (on the PC)
6. Safari- need I say more?
7. Object Dock- allows me to have a Dock on my PC similar to the OS X dock
8. Thunderbird- I like this app a bit more than mail even the Junk mail filter is really good
9. I-Tunes- I love it and hate it at the same time
10. iWeb- for a quick website it doesn't get any easier than this save me tons of time
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Stephen Macklin said 11:22PM on 7-20-2006
PhotoShop
Illustrator
Moveable Type
The Mac OS (2.0 through 10.4)
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Stefan Constantinescu said 11:26PM on 7-20-2006
On the Windows world: Newsleecher and Feed Demon
Two apps that made me switch back to Windows since Unison is a joke, and NetNewsWire is what Feed Demon was last year.
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Jason said 11:54PM on 7-20-2006
Interesting post. Off the top of my head I'll say...
1. Mac OS X (my personal intro to the world of Macs)
2. NetNewsWire (my first RSS reader)
3. MarsEdit (finally took the hassle out of blogging)
4. Wallet (absolutely love this app)
5. Trillian (Windows - Adium's better, but this was my first non-AIM IM)
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sjmills said 12:04AM on 7-21-2006
ResEdit
HyperCard
THINK Pascal
THINK C
CodeWarrior
Each lead to the next step (ResEdit being the exception), and without any of them I'd not be sitting here in this house with this PowerBook and the other Mac's scattered about, but instead probably be sitting in some small house wishing I could afford a Mac. I should also give props to White Knight, one of my favorite apps of all time.
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Justin said 12:28AM on 7-21-2006
Mosaic, Photoshop, and every Panic application! =D Oh, and ShapeShifter, just because it makes things purdy.
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Adam said 12:37AM on 7-21-2006
Sound Designer
Photoshop
Prince of Persia
Kai's Power Tools
Doom
Netscape Navigator
Propellerhead ReBirth
WhiteCap
iMovie
Ableton Live
Mac OS X
iTMS
Google Earth
Each one of these struck me as simply amazing when I first used them...
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