Charles Stroup from 123MacMini and I have created a list of 10 applications every new Mac user should download. These applications should help new Mac users get off the ground and running with OS X. We tried our best to narrow the list down to the most essential applications. Of course, this list could never include all the great applications available on the market, but these are 10 that we could not live without. You can always find more software on MacUpdate. MacUpdate is updated every day, listing the newest updates and releases of Macintosh software. Apple also has a downloads section on their website offering the latest freeware, shareware, demos, and widgets. Now, on to the list!
Adium is a versatile instant messaging client with a sleek interface. Adium supports instant messaging protocols like AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Jabber, ICQ, iChat, Google Talk, and more. If you like to chat with several people simultaneously, you’ll appreciate Adium’s tabbed messaging feature, where a single window can contain several conversations in separate tabs. Adium also supports Off-the-Record Messaging. This allows you to conduct private conversations over instant messaging with other Mac, Linux and Windows users. Adium’s functionality and appearance can be enhanced via the library of add-ons that can be found here.
Looking for a good full-featured FTP client? Cyberduck is a powerful open source FTP and SFTP client with an easy to use interface. This popular application includes support for multiple connections, resumable downloads, recursive transfers, bookmarks, folder synchronizations, and more. Cyberduck works great with Mac OS X system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, Keychain and AppleScript. It also integrates seamlessly with many popular external text editors like BBEdit, TextWrangler and Smultron. Fugu and Fetch are two other solid FTP clients that we suggest you take a look at.
Safari is great but Firefox’s amazing archive of valuable extensions, themes, and toolbars makes it king of the web browsers. Firefox has extended support for key shortcuts, such as switching between tabs, live bookmarks and version 1.5 ushers in a zippy browsing engine . Firefox’s search function is also much more robust than Safari’s. Firefox coalesces form and functionality just as well as it’s sister program, Thunderbird, does. If Apple’s Mail doesn’t do it for you, Thunderbird most certainly will. We also suggest that you take a look at Camino and Flock for alternative browsers.
Hard drive failtures, accidental deletions and other mishaps can all be remedied with recent backups from a great program such as iBackup. iBackup has the talent of backing up and restoring system and application preferences alongside the standard support for securing files and folders. iBackup also gives you the option of a selective backup, or sync, that only backs up altered files. All of this within the familiar domain of a Finder interface. We also suggest you take a look at Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper!. They are excellent programs for those seeking a simple one-stop backup solution.
Nvu was created as an open source web authoring platform from the people that brought you Linspire. Nvu’s broad feature set makes it a viable replacement for expensive alternative web authoring systems such as Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia (now Adobe) Dreamweaver. Nvu was created with the beginner in mind and is regarded as one of the best solutions for amateur coders. Users can readily switch between WYSIWYG and code views and manage their content with a tabbed interface. Nvu also features integrated file management via FTP. Simply login to your website and edit files on the fly, directly from your site.
Quicksilver is a highly extensible application that improves productivity and ease of system use. It can find applications and launch them with a few keystrokes, reducing icon clutter. Any file found with Quicksilver can be manipulated however you like, whether it be emailing that file, compressing it or uploading it to your server. Quicksilver’s collection of plugins and modules allow you to do things like display iTunes info, find a del.icio.us bookmark, perform command line tasks, integrate with Cyberduck, Safari and Firefox.
StuffIt Expander does one thing and does it well, for free at that. It can decompress pretty much anything you can throw at it. Mac OS X already has the ability to decompress and archive .zip files. StuffIt Expander takes this feature and adds the ability to quickly decompress files and folders in many compressed file formats, such as .rar, .sitx, .sit, .tar, .tgz, .zip and more. Those looking for a complete archiving solution should look no further than StuffIt Expander Deluxe. The deluxe version features a faster and more efficient compression algorithm and impressive Spotlight integration for searching inside of archived files.
Bare Bone’s Software’s prized text editor, recently awarded the MacWorld 2005 Editors’ Choice Award, TextWrangler allows for easy editing of any file. Easily recognized as the most comprehensive free text editor, TextWrangler features extensive FTP and SFTP support and can even perform Find Differences on a pair of files. TextWrangler is the text editor for a beginner all the way up to a coding guru, until you decide to make the step up to BBEdit. BBEdit adds professional web authoring and subversion server support to TextWrangler’s already impressive feature set. Smultron is another free text editor as well.
You will occasionally find that Quicktime may not be able to play a file or two that you find online. The standard installation of Quicktime lacks many key codecs required to play various video files such as AVIs. VLC player solves that with a small footprint, fast player that aims to have high compatibility when it comes to playing file types. It can successfully play just about everything you throw at it, except Windows Media. VLC can even keep you entertained with its ability to stream files.
Unfortunately, you cannot traverse the internet without coming across some video encoded in the Windows Media format. The only way to play these files is with the Windows Media Player. Unlike Quicktime, which has been kept up-to-date for Windows users, Windows Media Player has a horrid interface and lacks much functionality. However, a new application called Flip4Mac promises to give Quicktime the ability of playing Windows Media files. It also allows you to import, export and play Windows Media within your favorite QuickTime applications.
Update: Microsoft now recommends the use of Flip4Mac to play WMV files on Macs.
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This is some excellent information Paul. I am sure this will come in handy for people making the switch over the Christmas holiday.
I have tried all of the backup programs you suggest and neither one of them can handle incremental backups properly. I use LaCie Silverkeeper. It may be ugly, but it is also very fast and does incremental backups.
Huh, I’ve used Carbon Copy Cloner when cloning my 100gig Mac Mini hard drive to my external FW 300gig and it worked flawlessly.
A good round-up of apps – I’d never heard of AdiumX or Cyberduck before (but my Transmit demo will run out soon, and Darwinports is slow on Gaim updates, so I might as well try them!) Firefox, VLC, StuffIt, and TextWrangler 2 are all definite musts. Might look into iBackup as well…
Cheers,
Max
I agree – with almost all! but a quick question on quicksilver. I have heard about it, but how useful is it? I find usually either configuring my “elite” logitech keyboard or directly going to the apps folder – cmd shift a helps me out most of the times :)
Thanks,
Im in that state where im looking for pros and cons about the Mac and your guide helped me a little, because im thinking alot about buying a iBook laptop, but im always worrying about the software, on my pc im using UltraEdit for webdevelopment (php), any similar program to mac?. I have some criterias, and that’s there have to be ftp-client in the program, and a php/mysql/html/css/javascript syntax highlight, and macros.
Quicksilver, IMO, is the killer app for the mac. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now, and can’t even imagine using a mac without it. If you are a Tiger user, imagine Spotlight, but with so many other features that it’s hard to even start describing what you can do. Merlin Mann at 43folders has tried, though, so I’d recommend checking out what he has to say about using Quicksilver.
Here is an App that I think everyone should have in their Mac arsenal. XRG is an open source system monitor for Mac OS X. XRG allows you to monitor CPU activity, memory usage, battery status, machine temperature, network activity, disk I/O, current weather, and stock market data.
Suggest OmniOutliner for brainstorming and making draft of blog article. The conbination of Omni Outliner and Quicksilver really rocks, IMHO.
Thanks for letting us know logtar. XRG looks great.
@Paul: You misunderstood me. All of the programs will backup/mirror your drive/selected files perfectly, but the ones that you mentioned will copy all of the files every time whereas in an incremental backup only files that have been added/changed/deleted will be copied/deleted. This tremendously speeds up the whole backup process. Alternatively, you could use rsyncX/psyncX but both are much more technical and shouldn’t be recommended to novice users.
@Venu: QS is the best thing since the Mac itself. While most people use it as a simple launcher the application is so much more it just takes time to know how to use it, especially since most of the features are not properly documented in an easily accessible manner.
@Hasse: skEdit is probably what you are looking for.
Great article ! Though i don’t have an apple !… but I love red ones :P
What bout one for us, PC users ?
Thanks for this great list. I was going through this list of programs on my hacked Mactel today at school. They all seem like very useful applications, even more powerful then some of the Windows equivalents.
This list will come in handy when (alright, if) I get a Mac Mini this Christmas. Yeah it will only be a Mini, but you have to start somewhere with OSX. Hopefully by the time I start college this upcoming September I can get myself a more powerful Intel Powerbook.
@Luis –I thought Windows computers came with all the software you could ever need built right in? That being said, the only thing you need to know how to do on windows is this: Start > Run > cmd > Type ‘format c:’ … then install Linux and choose KDE as your desktop.
Cool list….IMHO SuperDuper is the best for backup bootable clones and it DOES DO incremental backups….only the new stuff is backed up…..it has a great interface and UNBELEIVABLE SUPPORT…..I had a problem once, posting it on Versiontracker,they saw it and they looked up my phone number and called me(NY) from California to help me for 45minutes!!!!
Those are some great applications. Thanks for sharing I will bookmark when I eventually switch.
Love the list but for Backups and sync I use FolderSyncronizer…..I tryed all of them this 1 works the best for me.
Thanks for the list
Good list. I do think you are missing some good ones though. OpenOffice or NeoOffice are great office suites. I strongly recommend getting the Windows Media plugin for Quicktime rather than WMP itself. MarsEdit is great for blogging.
The only software I’d pay for would be disk warrior. This thing is indispensible, warns of impending disk failures, write errors and recovers lost data.
I would definitely add TextMate as a replacement for text edit…
http://www.macromates.com/
instead of just using Apples text editing libraries that basically make every other text editor have exactly the same features, they built their own fantastic toolset.. If you edit any types of text files, you will like this software… One of my favourite features is a menu item that lets my take a document or selection and run it into a unix command and then have the output do something, like replace the text or create a new document… Think that is hard? These two commands make it great, sort and grep.
Another thing I like is the ability to select a column of text and then edit the entire column…
Try it.
Flip4Mac tends to cut short many of the WMV movie files in Quicktime sadly. Sometimes I only see a little over half of the file… that playing in Media Player shows all of. A good concept certainly… put the execution is a bit lacking it seems. Maybe an update would help. Hmmm…
NeoOffice/J?
Nice list. I was using most of the apps but I did see a couple that interested me so I’ll download and play tonight.
If anybody’s looking for a text editor, think Subethaedit.
http://codingmonkeys.de
Thank you so much for mentioning adiumX – it’s great, so much better than *shudder* msn messenger.
I too am a bit confused at why OpenOffice was not mentioned. Sure 2.0 is still “developers” for Mac, but still it is a mature office suite. Firefox is a no-brainer. It really is one of the best browsers out there.
Some I had some I didn’t…
Thanks!
Ryan
You really shouldn’t use Windows Media Player. It can’t even handle wmv’s as well as VLC can. What you should get instead is flip4mac wmv player. Plays ANY wmv file perfectly IN quicktime! It’s not free, but it’s well worth the $10.
Good list, I agree with all, but disagree that WMP should be in the top 10. I would put NeoOffice before it.
I also like FreeMind http://sourceforge.net/projects/freemind/ for creating mind maps.
check out optimized firefox 1.5 for mac.
http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2005/12/01/firefox15
I second eggbert’s subethaedit nomination. i love it.
i also lovelovelove adium. and think flip4mac is worth the $10 to never have to use wmp again.
Hasse R. Hansen
A few good editors that I have are…
– TextWrangler (Free)
– BBEdit (Commerical) Older brother to TextWrangler and as flexible as UltraEdit
– SubEthEdit (Commerical) Great Editor if you work with other users. I use it to walk developers thru some of their errors.
– XCode (Free with every Mac) Although it works with php project I use it exclusively for Objective-C
I also use Zend Studio. Mostly for it’s File Management/CVS/FTP
Pathfinder!!!!!! how could you miss this out… and version 4 (I am beta testing it) is even better !
this is such a powerfull app…
I agree with jambarama; DiskWarrior is a must. I move a lot of data around on my drives, and I run it about once every 3 weeks – keeps OS X running fast.
Overall, great list, Paul. Adium is by far my favorite and most-used app. Aesthetically it’s beautiful, and every time I use it I think, “How is this free?” If you IM and aren’t using Adium… get it. now.
You rock! Thank you so much for this list. I’ve been a Mac user for a whopping 2 weeks, and I’m very excited to try out some of the programs I hadn’t yet stumbled upon.
If you’ve got VLC, then you don’t need Windows Media Player as well. I haven’t needed WMP even once in the 8 months since I got my Mac… Otherwise, a great list!
Mark, VLC doesn’t play all types of Windows Media.
An excellent list full of good applications.
I’m going to second . SubEthaEdit is free for personal use and it’s cheep if you need to pay for it. It’s collaberation tools are top notch, but it’s simplisity in design, speed, and features make it my personal favorite with the text editors. I use the command line “see” to open files all the time, and I use it with transmit to edit files on ftp/sftp shares. Try it out, espicially if you find text wrangler a little too bloated.
No Mac software essentials list is complete without a link to VoodooPad, from my friend Gus Mueller. It’s a hybrid between a notepad application and a Wiki, so that you can spontaneously create hyperlinks in your notepad text that open up other note pages. You can build huge collections of free-form information and then export them to your iPod, the web, XML, etc. It’s an absolutely essential tool for anybody who does information seeking and organization of ideas.
Man, I gotta say great list. I’m still sorta a noob….been using X since January of this year and I’m still finding new and interesting apps that work great on X (the OS, not the pill :). Anyway, I think there are a couple that you left off that would also offer great functionality to new users of OS X:
Butler: A great application launcher, dare I say a Quicksilver killer (oooohh, chills). But Butler is more than just an application launcher: You can navigate open windows, search your entire computer for files and apps and search Google all from the Menubar. I don’t know how I lived without it.
Onyx: A VERY useful app for bringing out the extra and hidden features of OS X. You can use it to tweak Safari, the Finder, you can use it to schedule weekly or even daily cleaning of your volumes and a whole buncha of other stuff I haven’t even used yet!
Colloquy: From the Colloquy website: Traditionally, chat clients on the Mac have been anything but glamorous. Colloquy is an advanced IRC & SILC client which aims to fill this void. By adhering to Mac OS X interface conventions, Colloquy has the look and feel of a quality Mac application. This is the best IRC chat clien that I have ever used, bar none!
Carbon Copy Cloner: You’ve already mentioned this great back-up utility so I won’t say anything further.
iPodDisk: Most new users of OS X came to this great land of ours by way of the ubiquitous iPod (can you imagine what life would be without one?) So for those of us using one, we already know that Apple has neglected to add one key function into it’s second greatest achievement: The ability to take files directly off of it. iPodDisk changes this. Fire this baby up and iPodDisk mounts your iPod so that you can directly access all of your music, photos and video directly from the Finder.
CocoaMySQL: CocoaMySQL is GUI frontend for managing all of your MySQL databases designed in that wonderful Aqua eyecandy we all know and love.
HimmelBar: While I am in absolute love with Butler, I have a special place in my heart for this great application launcher. It was the first on that I ever used and I found it on the downloads section of the Apple website.
Pixadex/Candybar: The only two apps on my list that are NOT FREE, I still can’t see myself living in bliss without them. Pixadex by the Iconfactory is an app that lets one take stock of icons that can be used for OS X. Kind of like iPhoto, but for icons. Candybar, also by Iconfactory, is an app that will let a user change all of the systems icons in one fell swoop. Love it!
Safari Enhancer: Another great app for enhancing the functionality of Safari (Letter to Apple: Could you PLEASE buy this app from the Developer and include these things natively in Safari 3.0? Just a thought….).
Shiira: A beautifully Aqua and Cocoa designed web browser. Firefox watch out!
Ok, I think that that about does it for me. What do you think?
DesktopManager is indispensable to me. Along with Quicksilver, it is the app that makes it hard for me to use other Macs that lack it. It allows you to keep multiple desktops and has decent keyboard shortcuts to navigate to them.
Windows Media Player?! You’re nuts, that should be no where near the list of top 10 needed apps.
This is a fantastic list, but I have to elaborate on the qualities of 2 apps that I use frequently and are a absolute must for every mac user.
First is Quicksilver. An app that is very hard to describe to somebody who has not used it. It is a launcher and a manipulator of files, folders, web pages etc in so many ways that it is possible to not touch the mouse again. Very very powerful, extremely slick and has a great GUI to boot. Try it for atleast a week!
Second is SuperDuper for backups. It is cheap, very fast and efficient. It does incremental backups. It has a great GUI with many great features. the best bit is the support by “dnanian” the developer. You have to try this app if you are using OS X.
I would recommend Smultron in the text editor category. It’s open-source with GPL license, has a nice looking interface, and excellent feature set.
I used Nvu once and it mangled my existing web pages. Nvu sould be on a list of apps every mac user is warned against downloading.
I agree with all but one of your choices. Does’nt Spotlight in Tiger make Quicksilver irrelevant? Granted one cannot compose a mail or start a chat with a specific contact with Tiger.
It is Adium X not AdiumX.
Who said Path Finder? Bleh – too complicated. The Finder needs some help but I personally do not think that is it. Plus, it isn’t free and everything on the list is free…
Firefox? Yeah it is great. Themes and extensions and all that is great. But for pure OSX sweetness, Mozilla style, Camino is the way to go. Firefox in an OSX only suit and slick. My browser of choice.
To all of you touting VLC:
I use it already and use it in the place of Windows Media Player for stand-alone movies, like ones that I have already downloaded, but is VLC capable of playing streaming media within a browser, like WMP? Or am I just gonna have to keep it around that much longer because of that functionality?
Default Folder from St Clair Software is a real favourite of mine on OS X and ever since the OS 9 days.
Windows Media Player just doesn’t fit in this list.
Part of the reason VLC is in the list is because it will play most WMV files better than WMP. (It will do lots more and is a great player, but nonetheless…) Aside from which, including WMP in the list suggests every Mac user should download WMV files. Personally, I’d advise most Mac users to avoid WMV files entirely because even with VLC it’s not worth the trouble. Computing has moved far beyond the days of spending time trying to get a video file to play. (It’s the same with apps, if they are capable of crashing your Mac, they are poorly written and don’t deserve to be installed. Yah, I’m thinking of Office. Perhaps computing has just moved far beyond Microsoft.)
Thanks for the CyberDuck tip!
TechToolPro4.1.1
Drive Genius
File Buddy8.1.9
Liberer3.0
Service Scrubber
Pod2Go
Clix
Toast7.0.2
Speed Download3.x.x
SuperDuper2.0.1
Xupport3.xx
Xpad
MPlayer
VLC
CunningFox
QuickSilver rocks! Before I had it I was always reluctant to use the mac since I find finder one of the most userhostile interfaces ever, especially in OSX, but now I happily use my mac more and more…Great list and thanks for the tip on vlc ( now I can kick out wmp – wich will give me a peace of mind;)
Am I the only person who experienced serious OS instability when using Quicksilver? I got rid of it and my computer was happy again.
Good site!!! I found your site in google.
FYI: Flip4Mac’s WMV is now FREE!!!!!!!!!!! Gone is Windows Media Player from my system for ever and ever!!!!
Is Quicksilver really better than LaunchBar? I’ve been using Launchbar for a few days only. I just downloaded Quicksilver. I’d be interested in opinions and analyses of what is better about each.
Also: Good list Paul. I’ve been using macs for quite a few years, but rarely strayed beyond the big commercial apps. I recently got a new iMac and find it’s much more FUN than my old ones. The apps you recommended are interesting and expand my view of what can be done on a mac, even though I am a five year user.
Thanks again
as a new switcher (well, i still use Windows), these are most helpful! Hopefully someday i’ll be as good on a Mac as i think i am with Windows.
http://www.GrownUpGeek.com
Being without SpeedDownload (if on a broadband connection) is unthinkable.
TidyUP and Omni Disk Sweep are very useful
A Unix Front-End like “Mac Pilot” or “Maintain” “Onyx1.6.7″ “Xupport3.1.9″ “Tinker Tool System” helps a lot.
Stuffit Deluxe 10 is virtually requisite.
File Buddy I could not live without.
Tools like TechToolPro4.11 and Disk Warrior3.0.3 will save your bacon.
I always suggest to my Mac consulting vlients that they purchase “Drive Genius1.2″
“Can Opener” will open pesky files that you do not own the proper application to open it with.
The most user-friendly Backup application is, I believe, “SuperDuper”
“Font Finagler” is freeware that will ferret out your corrupt fonts that are slowing down your system boot up.
I always am using XPad and ScrapitPro X to organize my life.
VLC and MPlayer are the BEST ways to view (all) videos on your Mac. Forget about Quicktime.
I like “Cunning Fox” for use with less-than-quick Macs, especially those with limited RAM !
Pacifist1.6.3 is the ONLY way to extract and install applications from an O.S. Install CD/DVD without reinstalling the entire Operating System !
“Sticky Windows” is a great add-on, especially if your display real estate is limited.
Burning CD’s / DVD’s (including Dual-Layer) without Toast7.0.2 is a bad joke.
I could go and on … but I will stop here.
I’ll definitely look into that. Thanks for the tip.
I second the Butler recommendation. It’s awesome.
Quicksilver is indispensable to everyday Mac use. Excellent software, a little buggy a times though.
Show Desktop
The greatest little menu bar icon in the world.
Just get it.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10005
http://www.everydaysoftware.net/showdesktop/index.html
There are times when Exposé (F11) is what you want, when you want to briefly find something on the desktop then get back to your application.
But there are other times when you want to hide all apps and just deal with the finder/desktop. This little free app, when used in Menubar mode, is simply perfect.
(Mac users, old and new, need to be taught about the concept of hiding applications and switching between them with command-tab, as well as switching between windows within an application with command-~. I see so many people minimizing windows to the toolbar or, even worse, moving windows all over the screen just to have to shuffle them around again and again… )
The other great free Menubar addition:
MenuCalendarClock
http://www.objectpark.net/mcc.html
You can pay $19 to get the added features of it syncing with your iCal, but it’s free to have an awesome, beautiful, handy, tiny, perfect drop-down calendar in your menu bar.
I don’t know what i would do without MenuCalendarClock. I think it should be number one on the list. I look at it all the time to know what the date is. When I reformatted my hard drive, I was lost until I found MenuCalenderClock and reinstalled it. They have a Windows version that is probabably just as useful. Why can’t Mac or Windows show me the date and time properly?
Hi
About Nvu: I have an Intel Mac (running OS 10.4.6 ), and it paralyzes my machine.
Twice, I have :
1) installed Nvu (as instructed) by dragging it from the disk image to my desktop, then from there to my Applications folder
2) clicked to launch it
And twice, it has frozen everything. My desktop seemed to be turned to stone – no force quit possible, nor any other command.
Both times, I had to restart by turning the Mac off from the power switch.
There seems to be a serious problem here, and I’m probably not the first to experience it.
Best wishes
X.Kreiss
One of my new favorite apps is FREE MIND. Open source opening possibilities once again. It has made brainstorming on the mac a breeze!
freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
I’m a total mac noob and this helped out a lot
I’d like to make some additions to the list:
MenuMeters – the ultimate way to display system information – CPU, network and hard disk activity, RAM usage, and more, all in a HIGHLY customizable display right in your menu bar – don’t waste your dock space with the bland Activity Monitor icon anymore.
PithHelmet – hardcore ad-blocker that is a treat for any Safari user. It even zaps built-in banner ads! SICK!
iKey – fairly decent hotkeying program. The reason I choose iKey over Quicksilver is that it allows you to assign hotkeys for changing the system-wide volume (I have a PowerBook and wanted the function keys for application launching via Butler, and didn’t want to hit Fn and the key to change volume).
Does anyone know of a better hotkeying program that allows you to assign hotkeys for system volume? I’ve tried almost everything!
Adium – by far the slickest chat program for Mac. If you are still using iChat, then you are missing out bigtime here.
Acquisition and Acqlite – both the shareware and freeware versions of this program are good-looking and effective (no more zero results for searches).
Grand Perspective – at first I thought this program was a gimmicky joke. When I ran it, I found out it was exactly what I had been looking for to find where all of my hard disk space was going. Just check it out, it is THE best program for determining what you should delete to free up your hard drive.
Hallon – from Peter Borg, a handy organizer / shortcutter / to-do list maker. This extremely flexible program resides in your menu bar. You can add ANYTHING to this menu with a key combination, and even assign it a “due date” so that Hallon can give you reminders about it (useful for quickly filing away websites, documents, email messages, etc.).
mail.Appetizer – because I’m cheap and didn’t want to pay for the simpler solution, DockStar, mail.Appetizer is right up my alley. Do you use Mail and divide your inbox into several folders? This program is for you, because instead of the mysterious red dot (which mailbox do I have mail in??) it will hit you with a good-looking pop-up telling you who the message is from, the subject, and even the message body if you so choose. There are even buttons on the appetizer pop-up which allow you to reply without even looking at the message in Mail.
MultiAlarm – one of the coolest uses for the Sudden Motion Sensor that I’ve come across (although check out the DesktopManager tap trick). Once armed, the MultiAlarm will sound obnoxiously if your laptop is moved, and require a password to shut up. Great for scaring off your punk friends who think it’s cool to mess with your computer.
CoconutBattery – the key feature of this little app is that it will tell you how much battery power you’ve lost since buying your Mac – that is, it displays the maximum charge your battery can carry versus the maximum charge it could carry if it was brand new.
XBench – essential for all of you OS X tweakers out there. This is a comprehensive benchmarking program for your Mac. The best part is that, when your test is completed, it’s automatically logged online, and you can compare your computer to hundreds of others like it. Very useful for determining if something slows down or speeds up your system.
SizzlingKeys – BAR NONE, the best iTunes controller app out there. Although it’s painfully ugly (especially if unregistered), SizzlingKeys offers some features that you just can’t find anywhere else: First, you can hotkey a dialog box that allows you to search your entire library (or any playlist) for a specific song, and then play that song. MUCH faster than switching to iTunes, using the search, playing the song, and then sitching back to whatever you were doing. Second, you can hotkey and then search though a list of your playlists. Another great way to cue up music without having to switch to iTunes.
Concierge – the simplest, best sidebar plugin I have found for Safari. The best part is that it organizes your history by domain and allows you to search through it.
ClearDock – an Application Enhancer haxie that allows you to custom-color your dock background. I personally think that no background is super slick.
Default Apps – this preference pane allows you to assign filetypes and extensions to a specific program. I find it indispensable. For example – make all of your movie file types go directly to VLC, or all of your text files to Smultron instead of TextEdit. Never use the “Open With…” function again.
Handbrake – the best program for ripping DVDs (although MacTheRipper with FFMpegX come in a close second). With Handbrake, you can rip and encode in one fell swoop. Especially useful for extracting chapters or episodes from a DVD. Simple-to-use, sleek interface.
Tremulous – I had to mention at least one game in here, even though gaming on a Mac sucks. This is a free cross-platform strategy shooter based on a Quake engine. I have found it really really fun – it’s far more than a button-smasher.
OurTunes – essential for the college student – Godly abilities on a dorm-wide network with 500 students running iTunes.
UNO – in my opinion, the best-looking GUI tweaker for the OS. UNO eliminates the much-hated brushed metal and allows you to unify all of your windows with an aqua or pleasant gray shade (Safari, Finder, dialog boxes, iTunes, Mail, QuickTime…yeah, pretty much everything). It really does look very nice, and is simple to install and uninstall.
Shiira – an open-source alternative to Safari that offers some interesting features – for example, tab expose and a contextual menu item for a highlighted paragraph “open all links in tabs.”
MonoLingual – a simple app for uninstalling all of those language files that you will NEVER use. I saved 200 MB of space. Yippee!
That’s about all I can come up with. Hopefully someone finds this useful, because it took me a while to find all of this good stuff.
By the way, another random quesiton: how do I stop Safari’s downloads window from smacking me in the face (taking focus off of the browsing window) every time I download something?
Great list, I have pretty much all of these apps already, except for iBackup which I’m downloading now!
I tried Cyberduck once, but now I regularly use RBrowser:
http://www.rbrowser.com/
Works a charm :)
Nvu looks good but unfortunatey it does not support publishing to SFTP sites. Does anyone know of a good alternative that does?
is ichat and @mac.com account free for mac owners?
having a problem registering
I use dreamweaver on my PC. Will NVU work with the new Intel iMac? What’s this ‘universal binary’ all about? Sorry but I’m new.
Awesome list… too bad I’ve already downloaded these. Can we get an updated list with only new ones that came out over the last 6 monthes?
if you want to rip dvd movies to your (external) HD check out a little app called HandBrake. It’s very simple and straight forward, and I haven’t found a similar app that does the same thing (for Intel macs). If you have an alternative one, let me know!
Windows Media Player should be replaced with Flip4Mac!
I really like PTHPasteboard http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard
You are wrong in your comments about the Windows Media format. For the size of the file it is hands-down THE best media codec in wide use at the moment. There is no need to turn this into a mac/pc argument, Im sure Apple could do the same if they put the same amount of R&D cash into a codec. At the same time, there is simply no argument. Test it for yourself, I am a DVD author by profession and have spent many hours working with media codecs for my job. On a personal note though your comments about Windows media player lacking functionality are utter tosh. Full screen anyone?
wow.. i jux got my macbk and this is really a great help!
especially when yu want to play a .wmv file,
Thnks dude
I am a MAC newbie.
I stumbled accross this page and found it very useful.
Great work! The suggestions are very accurate and I am glad you care enough to share your MAC wisdom.
Cheers,
Leo
windows media player is the worst app for mac i have ever seen starting with it being more than 3 years old and finishing with it (like most microsoft application for mac) seeming to be purposly made to annoy and infuriate. i would strongly sujest for mac users to rather get “Flip4Mac WMV” it is better in every way imaginable
how can u turn css off on nvu for mac? is it an option?
Superb site!
For daily freeware for OSX feel free to visit my blog at http://osxfreeware.blogspot.com
Cheers!
While Nvu hasn’t had an update in years, it does live on in the guise of KompoZer, “the unofficial bug-fix release for Nvu.”
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kompozer/
I’ve just opened in Kompozer a css layout I handcoded and it rendered it perfectly in WYSIWYG mode – unlike Dreamweaver and GoLive which screwed it up. Will be a pleasure to follow it’s development…
Heres a list of 30+ apps that a great addition to new and old mac users.
Mac Utopia
I just converted to mac 4 days ago. I want to download windows media player, because i have a lot of wma music on my external harddrive. I don’t want to convert it for itunes, because i have so much music that i would rather keep it on my external harddrive and off of the comps. But, when i tried downloading the windows I get a .sitx file, and my mac says there are no default programs to open the file. What do I use?
Thank you
has anyone mentioned Camino I have used alot of browser for Mac since i got mine and i recon this is the best one.
Have a look guys.
Good list, but personally I totally disagree with StuffIt, The Unarchiver (http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html) its way better, its free and supports a variety of formats (.7z, .rar, .sit, sitx, etc etc).
.sit files SHOULD be avoided, there’re other compression formats out there that are not propietary, that have better compression ratios and wider supported.
.sit is old school… should not be used, really, if you send files to PC or Linux user it’s a PAIN to open .sit files, also, apple has discontinued releasing stuffit with OS X, so there is NO POINT in continue using it.
Those’re my 2cents.
Cheers,
Paul! Kudos !
Yes very usefull , I have to much problems agonizing through a 5 to 6 DVD Back up ,using Back up , and then recieving a notification at the end of the last DVD, informing me that This back up failed , and to throw out these unreliable disks,
If I may suggest adding for all the iMovie fans, to your list
“Slick Transitions and effects” and Vertex effects and transitions , so they can realy go to town Thank you !
Hi Paul,
My name is Nic and I am the proud new owner of an iMac. I had a question: each and every time I try to play a streaming video, it automatically starts downloading the video as opposed to buffering and subsequently playing. If you could help me out with this, that would be great.
Thanks.
I want to say that help me a lot. Good stuff on one place and I don’t have to bother with searching.
Great list. I would add Default Folder X to that list of must have’s. Also check out these guys who pump out quick reviews of mac apps every day.
10 Applications if you want your mac looks like a PC
Hey Paul. Are you ever gonna do a updated version of this list? Especially since it’s been a few years since you posted this. It would be very helpful and appreciated.
I finally got to take advantage of this article! Being new to Mac and being an owner of a brand-new MBP, this helps a ton! Thanks Paul!
Why is a list from 2005 still being read?
It should be updated of course.
Most of these appl’s are quite good, but some have been left in the dust.
I don’t think Windows Media Player is needed anymore. Flip4Mac and Perian seem to handle every other major format out there (through Quicktime) which is very cool.
whats upm peeps, umm i jut wanted to notify you on a new app called LinCher. if theres a nigger u dont like, it will find their personal information so u can track them down!!!!! great app, worked many times.
A really good post, and despite having been a mac user for 2 years, i’ve found a few apps i’ll be downloading!
Text Wrangler is a great, free, alternative to BBEdit, but i feel with the inclusion of this, you’re missing an ftp program!
Adium? For what? Use iChat!
Cyberduck yep, but only because its for free. I recommand you Transmit.
Firefox? For what? If you dont develop websites use Safari.
NVU? Have you ever heard about an app called textmate?
Quicksilver, yep thats a great app launcher.
TextWrangler – Use Textmate
Stuffit, yep youll need that.
Microsoft Media Player, come on dude dont put M$ Software on your mac. Use The QuickTime Plugin for wmv-files.
VLC – Maybe but normaly you wont need it because for all the important movie formats you can use QT with plugins.
iBackup – Use TimeMachine
Thanks for the great list. I found it last week (Sept of 2008
) even though it was created way back in 2005. I would love to see your new top 10 or top 20 list. After all there is a veritable cornucopia of new apps out there today…
Thanks and keep up the good work
Hey Paul,
After creating my own list, I went around searching Google for others opinions. Our lists mostly agree, which is a great thing!
But I’d have to disagree with windows media player, and mostly stuffit expander. I don’t believe any archive format should be on a pay-to-use basis such as stuff it (i.e. stuffit deluxe).
Anyways, check out my list if you have the time.
http://macnuggets.ca/2008111389/The-Top-10-FREE-mac-only-apps.html
My different twist on it was to only include FREE apps, and mac-only apps (eliminating great but cross-platform programs such as Firefox)
I just fell in love with a really hot girl, her name is Audium :)
Thanks for opening my eyes to the light XD
Thank you so much for compiling this user-friendly list. The links were extremely helpful. These are great downloads, and I know this information must have taken some time to compile. I am grateful for your hard work!