Seems like every geek has done a post like this and although I am a bit late to the game, I thought I might share with you all what I thought was my top 20. So here it is in no particular order of importance:
1. Quicksilver - Free
Do you ever find yourself searching for an app that you don't always use in the Applications folder for too long? Do you feel like your dock is getting cluttered up with too many apps to find and launch easily? More importantly, do you feel like the unnecessary switching of your hand to the mouse from the keyboard is unproductive? Here's your solution! This is always one of the first apps I install after installing OS X. it lets you launch any application you have installed in just a few keystrokes. It's every Mac user's essential companion.2. Adium - Free
This is a multi-protocol IM client. It's essentially pidgin with a cocoa frontend. It's the best multi-protocol chat client out there with a sexy look to it. It however does not currently support video chat and some of the other nonsense features that I personally never use just yet. For video conferencing, Skype does the trick for me.3. Tweetie - Free w/ Ad's
Hands down the best Twitter client I have used. It's nice and compact and built with usability in mind. Tweetdeck is probably the only other app that is better for certain users but I find that Tweetdeck seems to be only optimized when it takes up too much space on your monitor.
4. iStat Menus - Free
Keep track of your CPU and RAM usage at a glance!5. Cyberduck - Free
GUI Based File Transferring Software. FTP, SFTP, and Many more! I love using the command line personally but there are certain tasks that helps to have a GUI to work with.6. Parallels + MS Office Professional - $99.99 + $499 / $60~if you have a friend that works at MS.
Let's face it. As much as I love Macs and love Linux, MS has a huge place in the market. That and there are just certain areas that MS still dominates in features and performance. When you are collaborating with and/or supporting MS Windows users, you just need to have Windows and MS Office handy. Rebooting doesn't cut it. Virtualization is your answer.7. Dropbox - Free for up to 2GB of Storage
Want a seamless way to share files with friends and co-workers? Or even just a way to work on the same files between your computers no matter where you go? Dropbox is the ultimate solution. Best of all, it supports Windows, Linux, and Mac.8. OmniGraffle - $99.95 (Standard)
An award winning diagraming program. This is my bread and butter. I have to be able to communicate with my clients visually.9. The Gimp - Free
Can't justify the cost of photoshop because you are not a professional graphic designer? This is the perfect alternative to Photoshop.10. MS Office for Mac - $399 / $50~if you have a friend that works at MS.
I am old school and like my e-mail, calendaring, and contacts all in one window. I can't wait for Outlook for mac to come out. Until then, Entourage and a set of native office programs are essential to my day-to-day work life.
11. Colloquy - Free
A free IRC program. Believe it or not, IRC still has a lot to offer. This is where I get help and advice when I encounter issues that my IM friends can't fix. ;)12. Skype - Free (Prepaid Long-Distance and Local Calling to Regular Phones w/ Low Rates)
This is how I keep in contact with my disparate teams around the world at the lowest cost possible.13. TextWrangler - Free
Whenever I am not using VIM, this is what I use to take a quick look at code, edit config files, or make notes with.14 Navicat Lite - Free
Need a gui to display your DB queries in an organized manner that supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Oracle? This is it!15. Firefox - Free
I have been a Mozilla fan since the beginning and even though 3.5 has been a little slow, my browser usage habits are so tied to Firefox, I find myself still preferring it over faster alternatives such as Safari and Camino. It just feels natural for me to be using Firefox and I think a lot of my friends that might not have as much of an extensive background with Mozilla would agree with me too.
16. SSHFS - Free
This is a utility that allows you to mount a remote file system via SSH. A must have if you work with Linux servers as much as I do. It's also a secure alternative to windows file sharing.17. TrueCrypt - Free
This utility allows you to create encrypted images to store files that are confidential.
18. Cocoa Packet Analyzer - Free
An alternative packet sniffer to Wireshark for Mac users. Very useful when you are analyzing a network and its traffic.
19. TunnelBlick - Free
GUI utlity for OpenVPN; one of the best VPN solutions I have ever used.
20. Remote Desktop Connection - Free
Need to remotely login to Windows servers? There's a native app for mac! =)
So there you have it! My 20 "must have" apps. It really was hard to narrow down to 20 because there are a lot of other Mac apps that I love and use all the time. Regardless, I had a lot of fun putting this list together. =) Hope this blog entry was useful to you all and I would love to hear your comments.
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