I recently switched to OS X and despite trying to use as much open source software as possible, I’ve found myself spending quite a bit on shareware.
I’ve bought TextMate for €39 ($58), Undercover for $49, $17.95 for ecto, Parallels for $79 and I still have to pay $40 for The Missing Sync. I guess it’s not much but for a complete operating system it isn’t very complete! Oh and that’s all within the period of a month!
I’m sure the total value of my software licences for my Windows PC are higher than the original cost of the hardware (£999).
Still, all are a necessary and useful investment. How much have you spent on software?
I was using Ubuntu before the switch to OSX. When I switched I spent a little over a thousand dollars on proprietary software. Mostly, however, that’s because I’m in web design and bought Photoshop CS3.
Not too much, actually. Even though I’m a Windows user, I find much of the software I need for personal use is the free stuff or online. (Now, at work, that’s a different story.) At home I use Microsoft Office. I also use Google Docs, but MS Office is much more robust and sometimes I need that. I use a bunch of the Windows Live services. For example, Live Writer is a awesome blog writer that I don’t know how I lived without. Live Photo Gallery is a great photo/video organizer, plus it has mostly replaced the flickr uploader for anything but mass batches. Firefox is my browser, of course.
SkyDrive and Box.net for online storage. Paint.net replaces MS paint. Avast for free AV. Oh, Gmail, of course, for email. Del.icio.us for bookmarks. Windows Movie Maker is about as advanced of a program as I need for my purposes (obviously, not very). Audacity. Videora iPod converter. Oh, Quicken for finances (not free!). The occasional tax program (ie Tax Cut). Google Reader for RSS feeds. I can’t think of what else I’m missing. Most of the stuff I use is online. So it looks like I’m only paying for Office & Quicken. Not too bad.
Ben: Me too, so that’s why it’s quite a shock!
Don’t be so hard on OSX, please. You don’t need TextMate or Ecto, since there are replacements (not as good, but are) out of the box.
I found myself buing apps since I’ve switched to OSX. On Windows there’s no such thing as “respect for someone’s work” I think. You just go to one of this serial-crack-keygen site and forgot about whole deal.
In my work with Apple blog I received many “how come X cost $y on Apple when it’s free on Windows?”. But X wasn’t free on Windows and many times I had to realize that to my readers.
I’m not sure what’s so special with OSX that makes me pay for apps. Maybe quality? And price itself! It’s around $30 for everyday app.