Most everyone needs an office document solution.
But if you are converting to a Mac, who wants to buy Microsoft Office for Mac?
Apple's iWork 08 is a high quality, user friendly office suite.
It is an excellent solution if Microsoft Office compatibility is not a prime concern.
I have experienced formatting issues when saving some files as Microsoft Office documents.
But iWork 08 is the best solution if you want a Mac-like office experience.
iWork 08 costs $80.
OpenOffice.org has released a native Mac version of their free award winning office suite.
It provides excellent Microsoft Office compatibility.
Everyone who has a Mac should download
OpenOffice.org.
Download the Aqua version.
DO NOT download the X11 version (it does not run native on the Mac).
If you just need to do simple photo editing, nothing fancy, then you may find you can get by with the Preview application that comes with Leopard.
Preview can do basic color adjustment, crop, resize, change file types, and more.
Leopard also comes with iPhoto, a photo album application which has a photo editor with about the same functionality as Preview.
That may be all you need.
But if you need more,
Adobe Photoshop Elements for the Mac is clearly the best application in this class.
Photoshop Elements costs $90, so you have to really want it.
For personal finance, take a look at
iBank.
It is not as functional as Quicken or Money on the PC, but for most people it will do the job.
It is very user friendly, very Mac-like.
iBank costs $60.
For instant messaging (AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more), check out
Adium.
With Adium, you can connect to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services.