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You said — I must admit however that downloadable software for the windows OS is much easier to find then for the Mac systems. More users I guess means more writers of the software. Simple economics huh ?

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I think you’ll find that Macintosh users get very picky about the type of software that is out there and that they expect it to be *good* (good user interface, not junky and works very well). Bad software writers get weeded out really quick and they don’t go anywhere. You better be good if you’re going to make software for the Macintosh and expect to get anywhere with it. So, that means that there are going to be fewer “versions” of software doing the same thing. Instead of ten packages doing one particular thing, you’re only going to find one or two or so, and that’s it, because it better be good or they’re going to go nowhere with it. Mac users will tell everyone in quick order that it’s *junk software* unless the guy does it real good (and these Mac developers know that).

I’ve seen companies on the Windows side just pop up a website, start selling a “rip off” of someone else’s software that claims to do one thing or another and sell their software, whether it’s any good or not. These guys are almost like “anonymous software developers” and you don’t know who they are, where they’re at and what’s going on...

But, with a lot of Mac software, you know who it is that is developing it or what company it is and they’ve got a “reputation” too. I”ve recently seen some of these “Windows style companies” pop up for some Macintosh software and I would never buy a single thing from them. You can’t tell who they are, where they’re from, how long they’ve been developing and there’s no way to contact them. You just buy the software and that’s probably the last you’ll hear from them... LOL...

That’s not so with the Macintosh software development community, it seems...

Anyway, check the following...

You can use these two web services for the various software that is out there for the Mac (a lot of small developers that produce very good software)...

Versiontracker for Mac OS X
http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/

MacUpdate
http://www.macupdate.com/

Then if you keep up on the Mac news and articles, they’ll introduce new software and also announce upgrades and so on...

Here’s one website for the latest Macintosh news and a list of various Mac websites at the bottom of the page.

MacSurfer Headline News
http://www.macsurfer.com/

There is another website that has a lot of Mac software on it (i.e., listing it so you know what is out there...), but I can’t remember that one right now...

ALSO, you might get on several of the major Macintosh forums around and ask around for something that fits what you’re looking for. And remember, don’t get *any Mac software* from faceless/nameless companies, unless they’re recognized and known in the Macintosh community and they stand behind their software... don’t buy junk from junk companies... (and that’s why you don’t find much of that in the Mac side of things).