You mean MacTheRipper and VisualHub? I have both in the most current (I'm a "gifter" to the MTR project), and they're both good. I actually don't use MacTheRipper that much any more, but I use VisualHub to convert content I pull off my ReplayTV (which is a funky variation on MPEG-2.)
Handbrake (freeware), on both Mac and Windows, can be used not just to rip it, but to put it into a nice compact MPEG-4-based package (you choose as many or as few parameters as you want, including the type of output, such as AVI, MKV, MP4, etc.), but I probably wouldn't use it to get rid of my DVDs--I'd probably still toss them in a box somewhere. I use it to throw DVDs on my computer to take on a trip or to move them to my AVI-player for the TV (I get 1080i upscaling out of it--can't use one of those fancy new players because my TV doesn't have HDMI.)