Installing Mac OS 10.4 on my Powerbook

I'm upgrading my mac from OS X 10.3.9 to 10.4. I've decided to do a completely clean install to flush out all the random crap I've accumulated.

Software to Install / Have Installed

Firefox extensions

Fink Packages

Fink is the collection of free linux/unix software for Mac OS X. Anyone coming from the Linux world to Mac OS X will find Fink essential. For example, many of the standard Unix tools that come with the Mac are BSD versions that don't support the rich range of GNU options.

These are some fink-installed packages I find useful:

anacron        2.3-4          Periodic command scheduler
aspell         0.50.5-1       Spell checker better than ispell
autossh        1.2f-1         Restarts SSH sessions and tunnels
bzip2          1.0.2-12       Block-sorting file compressor
cctools-extra  525-1          Extra software from cctools
cdrecord       1.11a39-1      A command line CD/DVD writing tool
eject          1.0-1          Eject removable media
gqview         1.3.4-11       Browser for graphics files
grep           2.4.2-3        Search text files for patterns
gtk-gnutella   0.94-21        GTK based gnutella client
gzip           1.2.4a-6       The gzip file compressor
imagemagick    5.5.1-23       Image manipulation tools
lynx           2.8.4-24       Console based web browser
mkisofs        1.11a39-1      Creates ISO-9660 CD-ROM filesystem images
mpg123         pre0.59s-8     Real time MPEG Audio Player for Layer 1,2
mutt-ssl       1.4i-31        Sophisticated text-based mail user agent
ncftp          3.1.7-1        Browser program using ftp protocol
nethack-x11-gn 3.4.3-1        Console/X11 based graphical adventure game
netpbm         9.25-13        Graphics manipulation programs and libraries
nmap           3.75-2         Network exploration utility
openssh        3.9p1-2        Secure shell (remote login) client and serve
pstree         2.17-1         Shows the ps listing as a tree
screen         4.0.2-1        Multiplexes a physical terminal
sed            4.0.5-1        The stream editor, GNU version
tar            1.15.1-11      GNU tar - tape archiver
tidy           20021210-2     Utility to tidy up HTML code
transfig       3.2.4-6        Converts xfig objects to various graphics fo
unzip          5.52-11        Decompression compatible with pkunzip
urlview        0.9-11         Extracts URLs from text
wget           1.8.2-2        Automatic web site retreiver
xfig           3.2.4-4        Menu-driven tool to create graphical objects
xmms           1.2.8-2        Multimedia player development headers
xmms-bin       1.2.8-2        Multimedia player for the X Window System
xmms-shlibs    1.2.8-2        Multimedia player shared libraries
xpdf           1.01-23        Viewer for Portable Document Format (PDF)

I have Vim installed on my system but it doesn't seem to be listed in the fink packages so I'm not sure how that works. Same with gnu locate. Did they come with Mac OS? Don't think so.

System Pref Panels

iPhoto Addons

iTunes Addons

Safari Addons

Note that Safari extensions tend to stomp on each other and cause problems, so I eventually gave up trying to convert Safari into Firefox and moved to firefox instead. Some extensions I did try:

Mutt-NG

I've been using the mutt-ng mail program quite extensively but it is not clear if it is really much better than regular mutt. Either way, the mutt in fink is ancient and you should build from latest development source.

Cool Stuff. I should document what I have on my G5 this well. I do know I have 10.3.9 still though. -Matt