
Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac? - phn1x
Just purchased my first macbook and I'm already digging it. When it comes to Windows and Linux I have a standard set of apps for both programming and security auditing that I load up. I know what's available and where to get it.<p>With this new mac I've already loaded up some stuff but what else is available? What are some free, and even low cost "essential" mac apps I should look into?
======
boundlessdreamz
I'm recommending only free software here.

1\. Adium for chat. It is just awesome.<http://www.adiumx.com/>

2\. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at
that. <http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list> [edit:
updated link to point to the recent versions]

3\. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can
click to prevent your Mac from going to sleep,dimming the screen etc. Very
useful when watching long flash movies. <http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/>

4\. MPlayer This is a video player which plays almost anything you can offer.
Also comes with excellent keyboard shortcuts support making it the best video
player on any platform. Most people prefer VLC though
<http://www.mplayerhq.hu/>

5\. Flip4Mac For those videos that MPlayer plays poorly, typically WMVs
Flip4Mac provides a fee codec which integrates with your quicktime player.
[http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcompo...](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx)

6\. HandBrake For ripping your DVDs to MPEG4, there is no better tool.
<http://handbrake.fr/>

7\. Tweetie. if you use twitter, tweetie is the best mac twitter client by
far. <http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/>

8\. Virtualbox This virtualization product from Sun Microsystems totally
eliminates the need for parallels or Vmware if you plan to use the VM
sparingly. <http://www.virtualbox.org/>

9\. Evernote <http://evernote.com/>

10\. Eigenclock. I find the OS X, menu calendar extremely limted. Eigenclock
is a good replacement <http://www.twistedtheorysoftware.com/eigenclock/>

11\. Onyx for system tweaking <http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html>

12\. Transmission - bittorrent client <http://www.transmissionbt.com/>

~~~
KirinDave
Why does anyone recommend Quickisilver? It's suffering from massive bitrot
these days. Most users report frequent crashes, hangs, problems waking from
sleep, and general slowness compared to Spotlight and LaunchBar?

I really wish it wasn't the case, but Quicksilver seems to have had its run
and no one is stepping up to the plate to preserve it.

Most everything else you list is awesome though (although I think Evernote is
far from essential and I'm not sure "free" is the right word for it ;)

~~~
swombat
QuickSilver is quicker than Spotlight. I don't want to have to wait a few
seconds for Spotlight to find stuff... QuickSilver is usually instantaneous or
very near it. Also, it doesn't depend on the spotlight indexing, so this means
I can disable the spotlight indexing jobs which have a nasty habit of using up
100% of my CPU at random times while I'm doing something.

Also, I haven't had any problems with crashes or anything like that... works
great here.

~~~
KirinDave
Spotlight is, generally, only slow the first time you search.

Usually it's as fast as LaunchBar except for the very first time it is used.
It has a reputation of being slow from 10.4 that is no longer justified.

~~~
swombat
I've found that it is consistently a few seconds slower. It's not slow as
such, just slower than QuickSilver. And when it come to app launching, these
few seconds kill, imho.

------
tortilla
Others mentioned here are great. In addition, check these out:

<http://perian.org/> \- adds native support to QuickTime for many video
formats

<http://www.fluidapp.com/> \- Fluid, SSB (site specific browsers)

<http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/> \- LittleSnitch, Monitor and
block outgoing internet connections

<http://www.skitch.com/> \- Skitch, screen capture and sharing

<http://derailer.org/paparazzi/> \- Paparazzi, Full screenshots of websites

<http://www.sequelpro.com/> \- SequelPro, MySQL gui (I like Querious, but
that's a paid app)

<http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html> \- The Unarchiver, unpacker
program handles almost every format

<http://freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=7013> \- Think, helps you focus on a single
app

<http://www.heliumfoot.com/mercurymover/> \- MercuryMover, resize, move
windows with keystrokes (If you're OCD about window sizes like me)

Other honorable mentions: Coda, Transmit, TwoUp, Typinator, UnRarX, CSSEdit

~~~
Jakob
Dont’t use Transmit. It’s slow and they haven’t released an update for months
(years?).

Yummy FTP ist the fastest and feature-richest FTP-client for the Mac. It’s
synchronization feature is really good. (I bought both)

~~~
jemmons
Transmit is every bit as fast as Yummy downloading and uploading a 10Mb file
(S3 and SFTP), so I'm not sure what your impression is based on.

The last release was 11/24/08. It's always updated to take advantage of/fix
bugs introduced by new OSes. There hasn't been a release in a whopping 5
months (?) because Leopard's been out for a while and there aren't any
outstanding bugs.

------
JoshRosen
Gitx is a native OS X GUI for git. It comes with a nice command line tool,
gitx, that works like gitk. <http://gitx.frim.nl/>

------
udfalkso
Cyberduck (ftp - <http://cyberduck.ch/>) Adium (IM - <http://adium.im/>)

~~~
cmac
I used Cyberduck for several years but some of the later versions became so
buggy that I switched to Transmit. Haven't looked back since then. (Don't know
if Cyberduck's stability has improved since.)

------
jhickner
1.) SteerMouse - tweak the mouse acceleration curve. If you're coming from a
PC and you feel like your mouse doesn't move right, this will help.

2.) SizeUp - size and and position windows with hotkeys. For example, quickly
set two windows to use exactly one-half of the screen each.

3.) Expandrive - mount S3 buckets, ftp sites, sftp sites as network drives.
(Works great with textmate)

4.) Miro - excellent video player and torrent client with rss built in. Sort
of like a torrent TIVO.

5.) Warp (<http://www.ksuther.com/warp/>) - adds some new methods for
switching spaces. I have mine set to switch if I drag the mouse to a screen
border while holding command.

6.) Also, if QuickSilver doesn't suit your tastes, give LaunchBar a try.
Getting used to using one of those two apps pays huge dividends.

~~~
ropiku
Another +1 for SizeUp, since I bought a display for my MacBook I love it. I
also like if for "name your price".

------
crad
boundlessdreamz covered a lot, here's a few more (mostly commercial but still
awesome):

1\. Things - Awesome task management - <http://www.culturedcode.com/>

2\. Mailplane - If you use GMail this is a must. - <http://mailplaneapp.com/>

3\. AppZapper - Remove everything about an app - <http://www.appzapper.com/>

4\. LittleSnitch - Filters and prompts on outbound ip connections -
<http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html>

5\. Undercover - Stolen Laptop Recovery app -
<http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/>

6\. Fugu - SCP/SFTP App - <http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/>

7\. On The Job - Time and Expense Tracking -
<http://stuntsoftware.com/OnTheJob/>

8\. Versions - Awesome SVN client - <http://versionsapp.com/>

~~~
elai
Cornerstone is a good alternative SVN client. Cyberduck is a pretty good
general purpose SFTP/FTP/S3/etc client. I like billings better than on the job
personally.

~~~
benofsky
I find cornerstone a lot better than versions. Although moved to Git now and
feel like an idiot for buying a subversion client!! :P

------
soundsop
macports (<http://www.macports.org>) for installing unix utilities that are
not already included in OS X.

------
phn1x
one of the guys I follow on twitter just recommended this:

<http://osx.iusethis.com/>

~~~
durdn
I was about to suggest that as well. It is tied to a very cool app called
AppFresh. Recommended.

------
chris24
Here are some of my favs:

1) Quicksilver. (free) <http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver>

2) VLC Media Player. (free) It plays pretty much every type of video file.
<http://videolan.org/vlc>

3) Skitch. (free) Essential for quick screenshots, and quick annotations of
screenshots. <http://plasq.com/skitch>

4) Tweetie. (free - ad supported - or $20) The best native Mac app for
Twitterring. <http://atebits.com/tweetie-mac>

5) TextMate. (~$54) It's handling of projects, bundles, etc. is excellent.
<http://macromates.com>

6) HTTP Client. (free) <http://ditchnet.org/httpclient/>

7) OmniGraffle. ($100-$200) Excellent for constructing user flow diagrams.
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/OmniGraffle/>

8) The Hit List. ($50) It's one of the best GTD apps for the Mac.
<http://www.potionfactory.com/thehitlist/>

9) TinkerTool. (free) For customizing OS X.
<http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html>

10) Secrets. (free) For easy access to hidden application preferences.
<http://secrets.blacktree.com/>

11) Sequel Pro. (free) For accessing MySQL databases in a nice GUI.
<http://www.sequelpro.com/>

12) Fluid. (free) If you have a commonly accessed site, Fluid is great to
create a SSB (site-specific browser) for it. I have a Fluid SSB created for
railsapi.com, which allows me to easily launch it with Quicksilver and start
searching the Rails docs right away. <http://fluidapp.com/>

------
bayareaguy
Here's a related thread from last year:

\- Ask YC: Mac virgin wants to know, what would you install?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=131241>

My earlier list <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=131263> hasn't really
changed but I do find the recently posted Black Tree Visor
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=465334> to be very useful.

------
papa
Lots of excellent pointers from others...I'll add a few I haven't seen posted:

\- InstantShot: nice little screenshot utility (I use it daily)

\- VueScan: swiss-army knife of mac scanning apps if you need to hook up a
scanner. Costs a little, but you get lifetime upgrades. Well worth it.

\- LittleSnitch: network monitor. tracks what kind of network activity your
apps are up to. Costs a little, but also worth it if you value your privacy.

\- JollysFastVNC: fast and free VNC client (I've been using it over Chicken of
the VNC).

\- OmniDiskSweeper: Disk utility shows you which files are hogging up the most
hard disk space. Free. I also recommend many of Omni's other products.
Omnigraffle (not free) is also excellent for diagramming.

Also, not mac specific, but the sqlite manager plugin for Firefox is also very
helpful.

I don't know where others go to find different Mac apps, I usually hit
macupdate.com (and sometimes versiontracker) these days, mostly out of habit,
but would love to hear other recs for this.

------
sirsean
MacFUSE w/ sshfs, and MacVIM.

~~~
elai
Or ExpanDrive. It's alot cleaner than MacFuse + sshfs.

~~~
rufo
Agreed - sshfs has some squirrely edge-cases that ExpanDrive handles very
gracefully.

------
karl11
textmate

~~~
raquo
Coda

~~~
arupchak
Coda is expensive ($99) but the convenience of working on remote files via
SFTP within the program is unmatched. If your session gets disconnected in the
midst of editing a file, nothing to worry about, Coda will automatically log
back in for you and update the file you were working on when you save.

~~~
zeeone
VIM does the same for free. $99 saved is $99 earned.

~~~
arupchak
You're right, but then I could also argue that any of these programs can be
replaced by installing a linux port via fink and a combination of shell
scripts.

My point was mainly comparing Coda to other GUI text editors for the mac. It
has other useful features such as one-window editing, integrated terminal,
ability to preview CSS/HTML changes side by side with code, etc.

------
makecheck
Some of the things I use:

\- DragThing; you will never miss Apple's Dock, this is an absolutely
essential desktop enhancement, e.g. to create multiple tabbed docks anywhere
you want, with themes.

\- OmniWeb (now free); I've tried many web browsers, and I like this best.
Safari engine.

\- MacTelnet (tabbed terminal). It now works for local programs and not just
servers, so I use it instead of Terminal.

\- SnapzPro X (or alternatives), useful for doing more intelligent screenshots
or video captures.

\- DesktopCalendar (by Takashi Hamada), a really nice use of space and very
configurable. Also has a menu option.

\- Growl, for pretty and unobtrusive notification windows. This is actually
really well supported by 3rd party applications.

\- SCPlugin, if you're a Subversion user; nice Finder integration.

~~~
jgranby
I second OmniWeb. It's the best browser there is. The tab implementation is
second to none, in particular the ability to discontiguously select multiple
tabs. Site-specific preferences are also incredibly useful.

------
lmoorman
1password. A must that makes your life much easier.

~~~
chris24
1Password's nice, but I've found Sxipper [1] to be better if all I need to use
is Firefox. Sxipper has a really nice way of handling password changes,
multiple accounts, and comment forms.

[1] - <http://www.sxipper.com/>

------
philwelch
If your file system ever gets corrupted, DiskWarrior.

DiskWarrior will reliably maintain and rebuild your FS. It will work when fsck
fails and is better than the other paid alternatives. It looks like (and is) a
Mac OS 9 port, but it's the same filesystem so no worries.

If your filesystem is ever, ever fucked, DW will save it if anything can.

It costs $100, so don't buy until when you end up needing it. But at that
moment, buy it (unless your data is worth less than $100, I guess).

------
scottymac
Some stuff I use that I didn't see mentioned:

MenuMeters: <http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/>

Hyperspaces: <http://hyperspacesapp.com/>

Yojimbo: <http://barebones.com/products/yojimbo/>

Leap: <http://www.ironicsoftware.com/leap/>

------
vansteen
I've got my Macbook pro 6 months ago. The best thing I ever buy. I'm
programming and I use to use a Windows and a FreeBSD box before. Here, some
free and commercial softwares I use everyday:

1\. Terminal: Visor - Quake-style terminal <http://visor.binaryage.com>

2\. Uninstaller: AppTrap <http://konstochvanligasaker.se/apptrap/>

3\. SFTP: <http://www.expandrive.com/mac>

4\. Quick remote filesharing: <http://www.getdropbox.com>

5\. IDEA: NetBeans or ZendStudio

6\. Virtual machine: Parallels - <http://www.parallels.com>

7\. Text editor: TextEdit or TextWrangler -
<http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/>

8\. VPN: The native OSX thing does the job

9\. Mobile sync/Addressbook: iSync does the job (Use <http://www.feisar.com/>
to find your mobile plugin if iSync doesn't have it natively)

10\. SIP softphone: Telephone (works with Googlevoice+Gizmo5 and my local UK
SIP provider) - <http://code.google.com/p/telephone/>

11\. Notifier: Growl - <http://growl.info/>

12\. Movie player: VLC or Quicktime+Perian codecs - <http://perian.org/>

13\. Chat: Adium

14: Desktop display: GeekTool - <http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/>

------
swombat
QuickSilver: <http://quicksilver.en.softonic.com/mac> \- app launcher.
Essential to a smooth OS X experience.

Adium: <http://adium.im/> \- general-purpose chat client

Cog: <http://cogx.org/> \- For those of us who don't like iTunes, or want to
play FLACs.

WriteRoom or Scrivener: <http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom> |
<http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html> \- if you like to write
(those are not for code)

Textmate: <http://macromates.com/> \- if you're a coder.

Transmission: <http://www.transmissionbt.com/> \- for your torrenting needs.

------
travisjeffery
Editors: MacVim, Emacs.app (build from source `./configure --with-ns` -- f
Aquamacs and last resort TextMate

Torrent: uTorrent

RSS: NetNewsWire

PDF, Document Reader: Skim

~~~
mwbrooks
+1 NetNewsWire

------
elidourado
Everyone is linking to Quicksilver. I am a former Quicksilver user, but I find
it unbearably slow and bloated. Instead, I use Google Quick Search box, which
does most of what Quicksilver does with much less bloat.

<http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac/>

------
teilo
Controllermate (<http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/>) - This is an
outstanding program that allows you to customize almost any USB keyboard /
mouse / controller / joystick to do exactly what you want, with a very clever
and powerful graphical scripting environment. I have a Logitech Dual Action
(with NO Logitech drivers instaled) wired up to switch spaces on the D-pad,
volume on one joystick, screen brightness on the other. One button plays and
pauses iTunes. I use it to add volume buttons to my Das Keyboard. No more
crappy HID drivers. You can also create custom acceleration curves for mice.

------
ronnieliew
This post might be useful:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/110065/must-have-tools-
fo...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/110065/must-have-tools-for-an-os-x-
switcher/110178#110178)

It listed all the userful tools that would be relevant to a programmer.

~~~
chris24
Thanks for that... I was just looking for a syntax highlighter for Quicklook!

<http://code.google.com/p/qlcolorcode/>

------
davi
(not free, but cheap)

taskpaper <http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/taskpaper>

scrivener <http://www.literatureandlatte.com/trial.html>

curio + small pen tablet <http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/>,
<http://www.wacom.com/bambootablet/bamboofun.php>

------
gregk
TextWrangler (free text editor), Gimp and Inkscape (free graphics) or
Photoshop Elements ($90), OpenOffice (free) or iWork (office like from Apple
$90), or MS Office ($150) depending on what you know and who you communicate
with, Firefox browser (free), Xcode for Mac or iPhone development (free),
Skype (free), Tweetie, no virus scanner needed for now, and an external hard
Disk so you can use TimeMachine for backups are what I have added in the first
2 months with my first intel mac.

~~~
randallsquared
I like Smultron over TextWrangler (and I say this as someone who paid for
TextWrangler years ago, before they made it free). Also, Adium is very nice if
you use any IM other than Skype.

------
sh1mmer
There are lots of great suggestions here, one I haven't seen yet is Spirited
Away. (<http://drikin.com/spiritedaway/>)

This app hides app you haven't used for a little while so the app you are
using currently is the most prominent thing on the screen. I find it really
helpful to declutter my screen in a non-invasive way.

You can also exclude things like video players and the like from being hidden.

------
appl3star
Developer: Coda, Cornerstone, TextWrangler or BBEdit, iTerm, ForkLift,
Querious, Changes, iChm

Web Designer: CSSEdit, Flux, Dreamweaver, xScope, Xyle Scope, Picturesque

Researcher: Evernote, DevonThink Pro, ConceptDraw MindMap

User: LaunchBar, Overflow, Little Snitch, Super Duper

Web Junkie: 1password, Firefox, Tweetie, NetNewsWire, ClamXav, DoorStop
Firewall, Net Monitor

Freelancer: TimeLog & GrandCentral

Photographer: Photoshop CSx, Portrait Professional, Aperture 2,
GraphicConverter, PhotoReview

------
ivankirigin
I actively use firefox (and camino + safari to have multiple sessions for the
same site), iWork, tweetdeck, birdshot, itunes, last.fm, VLC, uTorrent,
Quicktime pro, snaps x pro, skype, textmate, parallels (though switching to
VMware), RescueTime, DropBox, and QuickBooks.

About 40% are paid apps.

------
phn1x
I see a lot of people recommending virtual pc but does anyone have anything to
say about vm fusion? A buddy of mine was going to hook me up with a copy. I've
used virtual PC on linux quite a bit but I was always frustrated with the lack
of ability to bridge the networking.

~~~
tortilla
I think it's great (trouble-free for me). No problems with networking and
almost seamless. Though, I rarely use it for more than a few minutes each
week. Just to test web pages out in IE. Which MultipleIE is great for:

<http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE>

------
asciilifeform
Home and End Key Fixer. I found my machine to be nearly unusable without it.

Quicksilver, to avoid the terrible GUI as much as humanly possible.

(I have my MacBook because it is the only non-Windows notebook with fully
working suspend mode and peripherals. Why did you buy yours?)

~~~
jhickner
DoubleCommand works great for this as well, even in Firefox 3, and includes a
lot of other handy key-remapping.

~~~
chaosmachine
DoubleCommand can cause kernel panics.

KeyRemap4MacBook will give you a lot more options.

<http://www.pqrs.org/tekezo/macosx/keyremap4macbook/>

------
hbien
Terminal.app + Visor is a great combination for me since I use the command
line so much.

------
mad44
carbon emacs

------
hectcastro
Quicksilver.

------
sreitshamer
Nambu Twitter client. I like it much more than Tweetdeck.

------
coderholic
There is a good list of free (as in beer) Mac apps at
<http://www.freeapps.co.uk/mac>

------
pstinnett
Just adding in LittleSnapper for keeping screenshots of sites / designs I like
and also Wallet for keeping track of my passwords.

------
juliend2
I just reinstalled my mac today. Here is what i installed so far :

1-quicksilver

2-iTerm (terminal. with tabs)

3-Photoshop CS3 (cs4 is slow on my macbook)

4-Transmit

5-DropBox client

6-Textmate

7-Git

8-The Hit List (best osx app for lists)

9-LimeChat (irc client)

~~~
Oompa
As of Leopard, Terminal.app has tabs.

~~~
juliend2
Didn't know, thanks!

------
abyssknight
Quicksilver (App launcher)

Onyx (Maintenance scripts)

Apple Developer Tools (Terminal/GCC/XCode)

SubEthaEdit (Collaborative Editing)

Textmate (Defacto standard editor)

Cyberduck (SFTP Client)

Perian (Codecs)

------
zimbabwe
I'm going to be a fuddy-duddy and say: most of these apps are _not_ essential
for the Mac. Lots of them are nice, but you can skip them entirely when you're
just getting started.

Here are the ones I consider absolute essentials for my daily work:

MegaZoomer - <http://ianhenderson.org/megazoomer.html> \- lets you full-screen
zoom any application. That mixed with TextEdit gives you the best word
processor you'll ever need.

Quicksiler - linked all over - this will fill in every hole you have in your
computer usage. I use it to fix a lot of shortcomings in iTunes, for instance,
and while I don't use it as insanely as some people do, even light usage makes
your life a lot easier. It's also a full-featured file browser, which is
excellent.

Perian - <http://perian.org/> \- makes your life a lot easier when you're
watching videos or listening to music, without forcing a reliance on the ugly
VLC.

GlimmerBlocker - <http://glimmerblocker.org/> \- Unless you use Firefox, this
adds every feature you'll need to every browser you've got. (Firefox is an
_awful_ browser that rebuilds a lot of Mac features from the ground up, and so
it isn't affected by this.) It blocks ads (selectively, so you can allow the
ads you don't mind), blocks entire sites, and adds retroactive functionality
to sites. The big one for me is the Youtube downloader.

Growl - <http://growl.info/> \- This one's really easy to abuse, but if you
set it to notify you of all the really important things - FTP file uploads and
long processes and so on - then you get a very nice way of keeping yourself
informed of all your computer's goings-on.

Those are the ones that I absolutely need for my Mac. Here are the ones that
are obscure-ish and rarely recommended and yet are terrific:

Max - <http://sbooth.org/Max/> \- converts every format but wma, so your
library stays neat and organized without any complaints about iTunes.

Freedom - <http://macfreedom.com/> \- disables the Internet, so you can't
procrastinate at all.

FuzzyClock - <http://www.objectpark.org/FuzzyClock.html> \- makes your clock
much more humane.

Chax - <http://ksuther.com/chax/> \- Fixes a few things in iChat to make it an
acceptable chat system (I really dislike Adium for a number of reasons).

------
rw
gcc (not installed by default)

------
cericsmith
I just went through the same thing.

Follow me on twitter as I explore the world of OSX and my adventures with all
things "Hackintosh": @cericsmith

Here's my list:

1Password -- Perhaps the greatest piece of Mac OSX software. You must try to
believe it. Password storage/sync/creation/ID management at its finest.

<http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password>

Unison -- If Windows newsreaders hadn't stopped evolving around 1998, they
might have come up with something like Unison in... 2150.

<http://www.panic.com/unison/>

MusicBrainz Picard -- For fixing the "Unknown Artist/Album" issues.

<http://musicbrainz.org/doc/PicardDownload>

BluePhone Elite -- Neat Smartphone/iPhone tricks with Bluetooth. Ever wanted
to have your machine wake up or sleep when you were just out of range? This is
an app for you.

<http://mirasoftware.com/BPE2/>

Toast Titanium 10 -- Sure, Leopard can burn discs... but Toast is much more
than that, and it's elegance exceeds anything on Windows.

[http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.ht...](http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html)

iLife 09 -- iPhoto's face rec. is just cool, and iMovie beats the snot out of
Movie Maker.

<http://www.apple.com/ilife/>

Stuffit Deluxe 2009 -- Not as necessary as it used to be, but still nice to
have available.

<http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffit.html>

Parallels 4 -- Many people like VMWare Fusion, but Parallels 4 has support for
a lot more configuration of the VM -- support for up to 8 processors, the
ability to have VM's start off of CD and/or Disk Image/ISO, is killer.

<http://www.parallels.com/>

Little Snitch -- knowing when your applications are "phoning home" is
important.

<http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html>

DiskWarrior -- HFS+ disk maintanance package and more. Fix disk errors...

<http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html>

AppZapper -- Yes, theoretically uninstalling apps on the Mac is straight
forward, but AppZaper gets all the flotsom and jetsom that would otherwise be
left behind. Great for nuking preference files, etc.

<http://www.appzapper.com/>

ClamXav -- Ok, we know that Mac's don't get virii, per se... but this cross-
platform, donation-ware AV tool gives peace of mind when running random
software you download from the Net.

<http://www.clamxav.com/>

FileSpot -- Spotlight is nice, but FileSpot takes it to another level.

<http://mac.synthesisstudios.com/mac/filespot/about>

GimmeSomeTune -- integrates with iTunes and pulls/updates album art and
lyrics, and works with Growl. Updates iChat status and images based on what
you're listening to. Sweet.

<http://www.eternalstorms.at/gimmesometune/>

HighLight -- Instantly add file(s) or folders to your Spotlight search index.

<http://homepage.mac.com/superpixel/highlight/>

SimpleComic -- a great comic PDF viewer.

<http://dancingtortoise.com/simplecomic/>

TED -- This program scours the usual suspects for new TV episodes and
integrates with your favorite Torrent program to automatically download them!

<http://www.ted.nu/>

DropBox -- 2GB of free, sync'ed cloud storage for your Mac (or PC/Linux box).
Incredible in conjunction with 1Password.

<http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=lnx>

The Unarchiver -- Ok, so you don't like Stuffit? This will pull apart almost
anything.

<http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html>

Movist -- A media player based on ffmpeg/VNC that has a more polished UI than
VNC.

<http://code.google.com/p/movist/> VNC -- open and play anything.

Perian -- Add the ability to open and play most media formats that ffmpeg can
handle inside of QuickTime.

<http://perian.org/>

Pixelmator -- who needs Photoshop? This $50 application is the bees knees.
Cool UI, great features.

<http://www.pixelmator.com/>

doubleTwist -- Part media manager, part file conversion utility. If you need
those TV shows on your PSP, this can handle it. Notably, doesn't support
iPhone (yet).

<http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Home/Index.dt>

MPlayer OSX Extended -- the benefits of Mplayer on OSX. More polished than
VNC, more stable (at this point) than Movist.

<http://mplayerosx.sttz.ch/>

FreeDMG -- The ability to create Disk Images/.dmg files.

<http://www.kelleycomputing.net/freedmg/>

Tweetie -- The newest and most controversial OSX Twitter program.

<http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/>

Boxee -- a "10 foot interface" for managing your media and Internet content
sources such as Hulu.

<http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/>

SuperDuper -- quickly and easily clone your HFS drives.

[http://www.shirt-
pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription...](http://www.shirt-
pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html)

iWork 09 -- Pages is what Powerpoint will never be -- Fun.

<http://www.apple.com/iwork/>

~~~
s1lversmith
Argh. Encouraging people to use Stuffit is nearly criminal. Bloated, packed
with adware, greedy with filetypes - it's a menace. If you're unfortunate
enough to be given a .sitx file you may be forced to use their fairly awful
free Expander, but paying for the full version would surely be grounds for a
psychological review. If you really need to compress things that tiny bit more
than normal .zip, there's always 7zip.

------
tommy_chheng
Textmate - Best text editor hands down. Cyberduck - FTP client.

------
quizbiz
What about... games? :P

~~~
chris24
World of Goo is a must-have, even for non-gamers. It's makes for a nice break
from doing actual work. ;) <http://www.worldofgoo.com/>

------
brk
iTerm <http://iterm.sourceforge.net/>

VLC Player <http://www.videolan.org/>

------
jedediah
Carbon Emacs

------
hboon
* OmniFocus * CSSEdit

------
joechung
Stuffit Expander.

~~~
JoshRosen
I prefer The Unarchiver <http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html>

~~~
vansteen
I've seen many time Unarchiver saying a archive was corrupted or was unable to
decrypt with the right password. Now I use unrar in command line. (imported
from macport) . Much better!

------
pWneD
1\. Quicksilver - There are already explanations on this and I don't like
Spotlight that much.

2\. MacPorts - If you are a developer or you're just an open-source lover,
this is a must have app for you. It has 5811 open-source programs ready to
install, easy and... open-source! ( which is good... )

3\. TexMate - My every day editor, I don't use another one besides this one.

4\. Adium - For chatting.

5\. pgAdmin - For PostgreSQL administration. I don't use MySQL that much.

6\. Growl - Another must have for system notifications, I don't realy know why
Apple hasn't put one in OS X yet.

7\. OmniGraffle - For Visio projects and such.

8\. Things - For task managing.

9\. Tweetie - The best Twitter client I've ever found.

10\. Transmission - For P2P file transfers. I don't like uTorrent very much.

11\. AppZapper - To uninstall programs. When you delete an app some
configuration files are left behind, with this program all the files related
are also deleted.

12\. Evernote - Well... to take notes! Even better if you have an iPhone.

13\. VMWare Fusion - For virtualization

14\. Scribbles - For those moments when you get inspired and just want to make
some draws :)

15\. Adobe - Photoshop and Dreamweaver between others are a must.

16\. Teeworlds - Best game ever and... Open-Source!!!!

17\. Toast Titanium - For recording CD's and DVD's.

18\. ScreenFlow - To record your screen and make nice video editing

These are not by "like" order, they're by the order I remembered them. I
wouldn't recomend installing iTerm because Terminal.app does the job nicely
and it has tabs as well. I'll had more if I remember some.

------
zackattack
Cyberduck for FTP. Colloquy for IRC. VLC for video. Growl for notifications.

