ANDY HEWITT  I think I agree with the need to update, although I only don't use VueScan for one reason, it's far too difficult to scan multiple images at once. I have an Epson 4490, and the EpsonScan software is actually OK. I don't apply filters, or do too much adjusting at the scan stage, but prefer to deal with images in post-processing. The EpsconScan has enough settings to get a good base image, and it's far easier to scan a strip of negatives, or a selection of prints.

I agree about HP software though, I've set up a few Windows machines with HP scanners, and it is truly awful.  
(Version 8.5.36)

ANDY HEWITT  Same problem here, MacBook 2.2. Completely unplayable. The graphics are so jerky the car seems to randomly appear in different places, and the sound is more like I got from my Atari 65XE.  
(Version 1.0)

ANDY HEWITT  The whole reason I use Safari is because it hasn't got the horrible screen wasting, and bug ridden toolbars.  
(Version 1.1.5b)

ANDY HEWITT  As much as I've always liked iPhoto, and have used it for may generations now, the '09 version isn't working well for me.

For the cost of iLife, it's undoubtedly a very good value media manager, and is still far better than either Picasa or Expressions. It's also worth remembering that this is a 'consumer' level application, not a Pro app, so in the right context it is one of the best image managers there is. (I also think it's unfair to knock down iPhoto for poor Raw format support - this is part of the OS, and affects anything that uses Apple Raw support, including Aperture).

However, there are some niggles for me. My biggest is very poor editing performance with Raw images. I use Olympus E510 pics, at about 10MB each, and editing them in iPhoto is actually pretty painful. If I do some quick adjustments, and move to the next image, iPhoto will eventually pause, sometimes for as much as two minutes. I can alleviate this by watching my iStat menu for processor usage, and waiting until it drops before moving on - this still takes a good 20 seconds per image though.

Fortunately I'm not a Pro, so it isn't critical.

As others have mentioned, the 'Faces' feature isn't quite there yet, and it seems to work less well as more faces are added. I'd like a function to disable the features altogether.  
(Version 8.0.3)

ANDY HEWITT  I've been using this since last year, after I got an Airport Express. Airfoil was a real life saver, or at least a cable saver :-)!

Although it allows playing of audio by wireless, I did find that lip-sync in movies wasn't too brilliant. However, that seems much better since the previous update (3.2.6).

Overall, these are a nice collection of tools that offer functionality missing from the Mac OS. Soundflower is quite impressive too. Movies play very well in the Airfoil movie player, although you can use VLC as well, but it takes a lot of fiddling with the audio delays to sync with the video. They're pretty stable too, and I haven't had any crashes to date (should I have said that?).

This is amongst the shareware apps I have been happy to pay for.  
(Version 3.2.7)

ANDY HEWITT  Just a follow up to my previous comments. It's now at the point where I only need it for using with MacSOUP, as I otherwise use the system-wide spell checker. I agree that as far as overall design of the software goes, it is really good, and I have no issues with the interface at all. However, even now, the background app still crashes at random intervals, and I find I'm typing away in MacSOUP with no spell checking working, and the background app will have crashed, again!

It's a real shame, but I could never rely on using this as a main spell checker when it won't reliably work with just one app. Unfortunately, I have neither the time, or enthusiasm, to try and fix this, although I do occasionally reinstall it as updates arrive to see if it has improved.

BTW, this has been happening on my system across two changes of hardware, and right through upgrades from OS 10.3 to 10.5, including clean installs.  
(Version 1.8.4b4)

ANDY HEWITT  I occasionally need to run MS Office in Windows, and test some sites in IE7. Setting up a BootCamp partition, and all the bother of swapping OS just wasn't worthwhile. I also cannot justify spending extra on VMWare or Parallels. I did run the Demo of both, or at least attempt to! Parallels wouldn't successfully install at all, so I deleted it. VMWare didn't offer me anything more than VirtualBox, for my needs.

I've now got VirtualBox running XP SP3, and Ubuntu 8.04. MS Office 2007 runs perfectly, and works just as well as the real PC I have here too. So far, I've less app crashes with VirtualBox than the PC.

Seamless mode is really nice, and fullscreen mode is superb - the speed is very good. Don't expect games to run well though, but then none of the VM software do well at that.

If you have modest VM needs, this works well enough to be productive with.  
(Version 2.1)

ANDY HEWITT  I find the versions from Wilbur Loves... are OK.

http://darwingimp.sourceforge.net/

These are only released from stable versions of Gimp. My experience has been that native apps seem to run better for me, whether they be ported to Aqua, or have to be used in X11.

Apart from that, Gimp is a great application at a very good price, but don't compare it to Photoshop. Remember, there's no such thing as a free lunch! Put these free apps into context, and use them if they suit your needs, otherwise you need to pay for the commercial stuff.  
(Version 2.6)

ANDY HEWITT  This isn't something that interests me much as I don't use the Visualiser very often. However, are you really sure you want to be naming this Dr. Glitter with reference to music use? It stood out to me like a neon sign.  
(Version 1.47)

ANDY HEWITT  Fantastic! I really missed this when I got 10.5, and it's good to see it back again. First run seems OK, and everything is working well after. This is a must-have utility.

Thanks guys.  
(Version 1.5)

ANDY HEWITT  Excellent product. I got this with the last MU Bundle, and was using Audacity before that. This is much faster, more stable, and easy to use. Does a fine job of filtering noise from old LPs and cassettes. Well worth getting if you have modest audio requirements.  
(Version 1.3)

ANDY HEWITT  My daughter loves this game, and after using the trial version for a while I decided I'd buy it for her. The purchase was easy, but as the trial version had expired it was asking for the registration number. I tried to enter the serial number once it had been emailed to me, but kept getting an error that it was invalid.

I tried deleting all the prefs and reinstalling, but couldn't clear this error. I emailed support and after a week have not had a reply. In the end I fixed it by installing it from fresh on my own Mac, and then copying all the supporting files to my daughter's Mac.

Despite that, I feel the game was a worthwhile purchase, as it seems to have kept my daughter quite well occupied.  
(Version 1.0)

ANDY HEWITT  I bought Grammarian Pro a couple of years ago, but I have stopped using it some time ago. While it works, it offers great features, I like the ability to spell check in MacSOUP for example. However, the background app just crashes all the time, and I have to keep restarting it. This is noted on the developers web site, and I have tried the solutions posted there many times. I have also posted off the crash reports a few times too, but with no response.

This has left me looking for an alternative now, and the fact that I wasted money on this.  
(Version 1.7)

ANDY HEWITT  Just watch this one, their last update stopped a heap of their products from working at all. My Marble Mouse wouldn't show up in the control panel, and I had to go back to a previous release (Logitech did eventually post it on their site). I only use it to program the extra buttons.

I would not install this if your device seems to be working normally. At least keep an eye on various forums for any issues.  
(Version 2.1.4)