Top 10 Mac Apps

[Chad]

I saw this meme hit blogs recently and thought it would be interesting to see what Mac users here consider their 10 indespensible apps. Forget the Microsoft Office or any of the applications that are bundled with an Apple. Instead, focus on small freeware and shareware applications. I have also been wanting to update the Essential OS X Apps thread, so this will help do that.

Try to keep the list to 10 or less. Here are mine, in no particular order.

Quicksilver - with QS and Spotlight, I rarely use the dock anymore.

VLC - all-world video player

Sidenote - multi-document drawer that hides in the side of your screen. Great for making or accessing notes quickly.

Witch - command-tab on roids

Tinkertool - It doesn't slice bread, but it can do just about anything else

OmniWeb - yeah a little slower, but unmatched for features

skEdit - tried a few text editors and stuck with this one

Seashore - a nice, light image editor based on Gimp

Salling Clicker - almost a necessity if you have a bluetooth-capable phone

CandyBar - I HATE the folder icons in OS X.

[NeoTrunks]

Nice list. Some of these are my new favorites. :)

[toastyghost]

Quicksilver - with QS and Spotlight, I rarely use the dock anymore.

VLC - all-world video player

skEdit - tried a few text editors and stuck with this one

CandyBar - I HATE the folder icons in OS X.

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Those are personal favourites, but since I'm such a ###### for applications, I'll add ten more.

Soulseex - For accessing the Soulseek network in a nice OS X interface. You know what for :shifty:

NetNewsWire - Newsfire looks awesome but just doesn't have the flexibility of this. Best RSS reader ever.

Cocktail - Similar to Tinkertool, but supports Automator and has some other options.

FlyGesture - I tried this out and now its hard to live without it. Quicksilver for mice.

Coverflow - Makes my MP3 collection feel like real records, and impresses anybody watching.

Xyle Scope - Perfect for getting 'inspiration' from websites for your own designs.

xPad - I use this like an all-in-one Stickies replacement. Store FTP info, to do lists, anything that needs to be written down in one nice drawer.

Textpander - System-wide text snippets. Capable of inserting images as well as text. Invaluable for quick coding.

PopCharX - All of those pesky foreign characters and accents in a neat popup menu.

CSSEdit - Quick and easy CSS. Click the buttons, fill the fields, then tweak to perfection. Then add all the dirty hacks for IE's sake.

[smurfiness]

My favourites:

HimmelBar -- Adds a programs menu to the menubar. Can't live without this one. (free)

Adobe GoLive -- The best webpage editor (very not free)

CD-Erase -- Quick-and-dirty CDRW erasing application (free)

Transmit -- Excellent FTP client; probably the best I've used on either Mac or Windows (a bit pricey, but totally worth it)

[GoogleNinja]

1. Cocktail

2. MenuMeters

3. Acquisition

4. VLC

5. Adium

6. Handbrake

7. Sizzling Key 4 iTunes

8. JHymn

9. Carbon Copy Cloner

10. VZW minutes widget.

[fuzzy_logic]

Quicksilver - Absolutely essential app. Something I would pay for.

PDF Browser Plugin - Display .pdf in your browser instead of downloading and viewing them in Preview.

QuickImageCM - A contextual menu plugin that lets you view image file directly from Finder.

VLC - Video player that kicks ass.

Fetch Art for iTunes - Automatically grabs album art for all your (il)legally downloaded music.

Adium X - Chat client that supports multiple networks.

CSSEdit - Free CSS editor.

[jlmodell]

VLC

Adium X

Shapeshifter

Candy Bar

Sidenote (thanks, its much better than the ugly 'stickies' i was using before)

Snak (irc)

Shakespeer (dc++)

Senuti (getting songs off my iPod)

Fetch Art (getting ready for my iPod Nano, thanks)

Cyberduck (Ftp-freeware; functional, but lately it is not working well, Transmit is better, by far)

[toastyghost]

CSSEdit - Free CSS editor.

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It works great without registering, but the character limit got too annoying for me. Well worth the money.

[Morgan]

VLC and CandyBar are great!! :)

[FOOOD]

I couldn't live without iSnip (clipboard manager) :yes:

Store email addresses, phone numbers, frequently used pieces of text to insert into emails ect. as snippets :D

[SPeedY_B]

VLC - For watching... anything :D

SubEthaEdit - Text editor with syntax highlighting and collaboratve features. Only of it's kind to my knowledge.

QuickSilver - Best thing, since bread was first sliced.

Irssi - Terminal based IRC client, used with screen, can ssh to my IRC session from other machines.

Cyberduck - FTP Client, supports SFTP, does everything I need.

KisMac - Best stumbler I've found, however can be a little unstable, sometimes use AirStumbler.

EvoCam - Webcam software, kinda handy when you run a camportal :p

OSXVnc - VNC Server for OS X.

Chicken Of The VNC - VNC Client for OS X.

SharePoints - Easy way to add and delete AFS and SMB shared folders, great when on a network with Windows users.

[enigma-penguin Veteran]

[seashore]

[sidenote]( love it for little notes)

[HimmelBar]

[sizzling Keys] (global hotkeys for itunes)

[Desk shade](for the lock)

Thats all from me that I can think of right now, besides Adium, Text wrangler and conversation.

[deepfriedmario]

BurnX Free - BurnX Free makes it very easy to burn CD's with multiple sessions in an hybrid format for compatibility with other platforms. Free.

Cyberduck - A open source FTP and SFTP browser with an easy to use interface, integration with external editors and support for many Mac OS X system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, the Keychain and AppleScript. Free.

Fetch Art - Fetch Art will allow you to automatically download album art for your music in iTunes. Free.

Handbrake - HandBrake is a GPL'd multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. Free.

iTunes XHTML Playlist - iTunes XHTML Playlist is a program that takes exported iTunes playlists and converts them into simple, clean XHTML 1.1/CSS compliant web pages. Free.

Paparazzi! - Paparazzi! is a small utility for Mac OSX that makes screenshots of webpages. Free.

Quicksilver - An evolving framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of personal data. Free.

Synergy Class - Synergy puts three buttons to control iTunes in your menubar as well as providing you with visual feedback about the currently playing tune.

VoodooPad - VoodooPad is a new kind of notepad. It's like having your own digital junk drawer where you can jot down notes, web addresses, to-do lists... Anything on your mind. Free.

WMV Player - The WMV Player is an industry first product offering that allows you to play Windows Media directly in your QuickTime Player.

Edited September 12, 2005 by deepfriedmario

[PureLogic]

Roxio Toast 7.0.1 Titanium - Advanced easy-to-use burning software;

Pacifist - Utility to extract files from .pkg and .mpkg files, saved me from formatting multiple times;

Cocktail TE - Utility to tweak hidden Mac OS X settings;

iWork '05 - I especially use Pages for projects I have to do for college.

VLC Media Player - Multiple codec media player, plays almost every format;

Acquisition - P2P application, much much better and faster than Limewire;

StuffIt Deluxe 9.0 - Is capable of extracting almost every compressed file;

MouseZoom - Preference Pane to set your mouse's tracking speed beyond Apple's max speed;

Butler - Windows Startmenu-like application launcher located in the Menu Extras section of your Menubar;

CandyBar - Application to change your system icons with.

[San Diego]

Wow, keep 'em coming. These are great lists especially for new Apple owners. Thanks.

[chmsant]

Wow, keep 'em coming. These are great lists especially for new Apple owners. Thanks.

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heck yeah it is... much thanks!!

[the evn show]

textmate makes all other text editors its prison wife.

xscope is the sort of app that will keep macs the best (if not dominate) platform for web development for years to come.

OmniGraffle because Visio sucks even if you could run it on OS X.

Darwin ports it sucks less than fink - and let's face it: Apple's unixy side is a little funky out of the box.

synergy because some of us have more than one computer and mouse but don't want to use more than one keyboard or mouse. No, i'm not talking about that synergy

cyberduck battles ftp's like toilet duck battles nasty brown stains. Plus it teams up with textmate nicely.

[Vice]

Thanks for Synergy 'the evn show' Just what I've been looking for. :D

[spvath]

I just got synergy going on my three machines...2 PC's and a Mac....its sweet! I never thought about having a TCP/IP virtual KVM switch....thanks!

[ZZOOzzoo]

synergy because some of us have more than one computer and mouse but don't want to use more than one keyboard or mouse.  No, i'm not talking about that synergy

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I'm personally a big fan of "that synergy". :laugh:

[spvath]

I'm personally a big fan of "that synergy". :laugh:

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yeah I am too

[Syphonic]

Can someone tell me how to get Quicksilver to sit on the desktop as an application launcher like they have in the Apple shop on Regents Street? It has so many features it's quite daunting.

[Elliott]

Can someone tell me how to get Quicksilver to sit on the desktop as an application launcher like they have in the Apple shop on Regents Street? It has so many features it's quite daunting.

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That application launcher is a custom-made application made by Apple for those certain features of the Apple Stores. Quicksilver won't sit as an application launcher on your dekstop, as far as I'm aware.

[Trancosrt]

This will sound stupid, but... What is Quicksilver?? I read it's description on Quicksilver's site and couldn't figure out what it's porpise is...

As you can obviously tell, I'm a noob with Macs, so i can't recommend any APP!

[Chad]

This will sound stupid, but... What is Quicksilver?? I read it's description on Quicksilver's site and couldn't figure out what it's porpise is...

As you can obviously tell, I'm a noob with Macs, so i can't recommend any APP!

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Quicksilver is a search tool and file launcher. When you start using it, you'll realize there's a lot more to it.