Newbie seeking advice

OK guys - I'm a "new convert" to the Apple life. I am a professor in an advanced nursing program, so just wanted to know what "can't do without" programs you can recommend. I have already purchased and installed Adobe Acrobat (every assignment must be a pdf file - and I grade and return them on-line) and the Microsoft Office suite for Mac. What else do you believe that I need as a new Apple person?

Congrats on the switch! You won't regret it
Preview, a PDF program, actually already comes installed on your Mac. Was there a specific feature you bought Acrobat for?
For Office I personally prefer the iWork Suite (Pages for Word Processing, Numbers for Spreadsheets and Keynote for Presentations). Office may be easier for you if you're switching over from Windows, though.
What did you typically do on your PC so we can recommend apps that are comparable for the Mac? I prefer Safari for my internet browsing. I use [Things|http://culturedcode.com/things> as a simple but powerful to do list. I find [1Password|http://agilewebsolutions.com/onepassword] an indispensable password manager worth every penny. Perhaps you don't even know you needed it until you start using it. IMHO one of the best application ever developed for the Mac platform. I'll post back if I think of anything else!
-SM

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    Often when opening an app, the dock icon doesn't bounce smoothly, but rather stutters up and down.
    TRANSPARENT MENUBAR
    Sometimes the background of the menubar disappears. Weirdly, the shadow remains.
    SLOW DASHBOARD
    Even after the Dashboard has been loaded for the first time, it can be grindingly slow. It usually zooms into place okay, but activating an module and using it can take 10-20 seconds.
    SLOW SCROLLING
    Sometimes, very rarely, the whole computer will have a scrolling seizure -- scrolling a window will become VERY unresponsive, and very stuttery when it finally does respond. Happens to all apps, and quitting the app doesn't appear to fix it. Only restarting (or logging out and in).
    COVERFLOW
    Like other things, can be jumpy.
    IN SUMMARY, **** IS SLOW
    Basically, sometimes everything just slows. Even the simplest thing is impossible to do, like opening a menu, or finder window, or typing -- it'll stutter and spits out my letters in big chunks.
    *--- THINGS I'VE TRIED ---*
    I've added more RAM. When I went from 2GB to 3GB, things appeared to be fast again. That lasted a few days. Later, I went from 3GB to 4GB, with no noticeable change.
    I've cleared out my fonts. I deactivated all fonts in FontExplorer except for a couple dozen essentials.
    I've verified all fonts in FontBook and removed the offending ones. I fixed any conflicts in FontExplorer.
    I've cleared the cache any number of ways, including with Cocktail. Cocktail offers a variety of configurations for cache clearing, and I've tried a bunch of them.
    After doing all the above for the first time, I actually thought I had cleared out whatever ugliness was invading my system. Things were opening snappily, and Flash movies were playing smoothly. That lasted a day, and things went back to normal. I've tried it again several times since, and while I've seen some mild improvement, it's been nothing like that one miraculous time.
    *--- WHAT NEXT? ---*
    I've seen Apple Store Geniuses about this a few times. It's been very frustrating. What it usually comes down to is: reinstall your system. I did it the first time they suggested it, and the problem always came back. I'm not going to do it again, because it's a major hassle, and obviously doesn't fix the problem.
    The other thing they say to do is look at Activity Monitor. I have done that, but I'm not totally clear what to with the information I see, other than to quit more apps to free more memory. Here's the thing: I'm seeing no discernible difference in free memory between a 3GB system and 4GB system. Same slowness, same sliver of free memory in the pie chart.
    I've done a lot of looking around online, including in this forum, and the one thing I read consistently is that you want to avoid pageouts. I look at my Activity Monitor and see gigs and gigs of pageouts. What I can't find is tips on how to reduce them.
    I've been living with this for a while, because it's just on the threshold of tolerable. It comes in waves, and the times of easygoing make it easy to forget the annoying times. But I'd like to fix it at its root. If you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.
    *--- SCREENSHOTS ---*
    - The garbled menubar
    - An example of very active Activity Monitor with 3GB
    - And one with 4GB
    Thanks!

    Erase the hard drive, install 10.6 from scratch, download and install the 10.6.3 vers. 1.1 Combo Updater, then allow Software Update to download and install any other additional software.
    Do not yet reinstall any third-party software but take some time to test out everything, In this way you will be able to better now if some problems remain which may be indicative of hardware malfunction.
    Since you say these problems have been long standings, I'm surprised you didn't downgrade to Leopard or take the computer in for repair. Letting problems go without solution tends to cause new problems and/or exacerbate existing ones.

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