the transmug report
By Yves Avérous
Beyond Vista
I love to compile our friend Jost’s Tool Kit, not only because I always learn interesting bits, but also because it reminds me of all the annoyances I don’t have to bother with anymore since I stopped being a regular Windows user. It also saddens me when he has to caution “when it ain’t broken don’t fix it.” After all, one of the pleasures of paying a lot of money for those fancy computers is to equip them with the latest technology. It is unfair to have to fear breaking the whole thing each time you want to try a cool new gadget or simply upgrade to the latest version!
As a Mac user, you can upgrade your apps endlessly without fear, and the best tool I have found for that purpose is the MacUpdate website (www.macupdate.com). Every time you download an app from the site, its reference is kept with your account and each new update is signaled to you by email. Mac shareware is fantastic and covers almost every productivity need you may have, and beyond. Try these applications without fear and keep them up to date; you and your Mac deserve it.
The Mac platform is getting new converts every day, particularly since you can now run Windows at full speed on a Macintosh (see my articles on the subject at www.transmug.com); so, to answer the much anticipated launch of Vista, Apple dressed all its store associates in “Beyond Vista” T-shirts. After reading a few critiques of the new Windows system, there are very, very few features I find that I haven’t been using for almost two years now in Mac OS X Tiger. Even the new Windows system font looks like the Mac’s! And Mac OS X Leopard is poised to bring great new breakthroughs anytime now …
After Macworld, I wrote online about the impeding incompatibility of Wordfast with the next edition of Office for the Mac (see www.transmug.com) and today, as I am writing this column, Wordfast creator Yves Champollion just announced that a Java version of Wordfast is in the works. NCTA members will meet with him when he visits SF on April 18th. To learn more about this, check the blog at www.transmug.com and come to the next TransMUG meeting on May 12th, where you will get the full report.
Stay up to date with this TM saga, and more, at https://transmug.com and by subscribing to the TransMUG list at https://groups.yahoo.com/group/transmug. Membership in this full-fledged Mac User Group recognized by Apple also offers advantages such as discounts on Mac products, among others. And it’s free!
