top "must have" apps
 

what are the top ten essential apps to put on a Mac?
i'm a newbie switcher to PB G4 Panther, so suggestions would be great -- specially open source / freeware -- even tho having all the unix stuff is so cool.

Are there as many as ten extra essentials? A recent
slashdot thread for first 10 windows apps to load had one post about the Mac, which basically said that it came pretty much everything and all he loaded was LaunchBar (another post did suggest more for macs)

I've installed Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, to be consistent with my office pcs.

What extras should be in my toolkit?

My opinion, in no particular order:

DiskWarrior http://alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html the best drive repair program $79.95

BBEdit http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.shtml the best text editor $179

Henwen/snort http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/henwen.html a GUI for snort, a network intrusion detection system. Free.

GraphicConvertor http://www.lemkesoft.de/en/graphcon.htm graphic file conversion, handling, editing, etc. It's not Photoshop but eventually you'll need it no matter what you do with your computer. Shareware $30 or $35 (depending on whether you need a physical CD)

Escape Velocity Nova http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/ Everyone needs at least one game, and this one is a great one, a true classic. Shareware $30

fink http://fink.sourceforge.net/download...php?phpLang=en Not really an application, but it give you very easy access to hundreds of free open source programs. If you'd prefer a GUI for fink, the latest downloads of it include Fink Commander, which lets you point and click your way to these amazingly useful programs--all free.

Virtual PC http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/ For when you need to turn to the dark side of the Force. Expensive, but I can't recall how expensive.

Tinkertool http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html Gives you access to several cool system settings that Apple doesn't. (Well, Apple doesn't make it easy, anyway.) Free

Carbon Copy Cloner http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html Clones drives and more. Free

NMAP FE http://faktory.org/m/software/nmap/ An OS X GUI for the command line portscanner nmap. Free

Trevor

Butler, Quicksilver, MiCal, QuickAccessCM, Synk X, SideTrack, iTunes, Keynote, MacJournal, MailTicker, WeatherPop... Some of the best pieces of freeware/shareware available for OSX in my opinion. VersionTracker will have them all.

Other than Apple's applications, built-in command line applications, and FireFox, here's my list ( I'm a developer so there are development tools in here )

Must haves...
1) Fink & FinkCommander
2) NetBeans - my IDE of choice
5) Yahoo! Instant Messenger - gotta keep in touch with everyone right?
6) Glider PRO - Classic, addictive game

Optionals
1) GraphicConverter - For quick image conversion/manipulation/etc
2) CSSEdit - CSS editor with preview. More I use it, the more I like it.
3) MS RDC client - only application that crashes regularly on my machine but I have to get to the Windows boxes at work somehow right?
4) freeCiv - Another classic, addictive game

Hmm, nice app. And I've been using the CLI version all along! Cool!

It really depends on "what" you want to do with your Mac. However, some of the real "must have"s for me are...

DragThing (I use it for various applications like hiding all but the active app)
FruitMenu (for that ol' Classic apple menu)
BatChmod (for fixing permissions and trashing the untrashable file)
TinkerTool (for various tweaks)
iView (for cataloging media)
MacSword (For Bible research)
Quicktime Pro (let's not forget the basics!)
Watson (Sherlock done right)
Pic2Icon (because I love thumbnails of my photos)
Amadeus II (because Macromedia is too brainless to carbonize SoundEdit)
iKeys (for macros - http://www.scriptsoftware.com/ikey/)

I would say my essentials (running 10.2.8) besides the obvious are:

- LiteswitchX
- Butler (has replaced MaxMenus and Launchbar)
- FuzzyClock (for time) and PTHClock (for date), and MenuMeters in the menubar
- MacJournal

I guess this is a place to admit that yes...I'm an LaunchBar adict. once you use this it'll seem as handy as tabed browsing. Better than fried peanut-butter-banana sandwiches.

Here's a few more suggestions to add to the very good ones already mentioned.

- A link to macupdate http://macupdate.com/ That's where you will find listings for many utilities and apps, including free ones. Versiontracker is an alternative that does the same thing: http://www.versiontracker.com/

- An FTP client would be handy. Free ones are RBRowser Lite and Cyberduck.

- VideoLANClient will play some movie files that the OS has trouble with.

- SubEthaEdit is a free text editor, an alternative to BBEdit.

I second Watson http://karelia.com/watson/ and VLC http://videolan.org/

A good place to find open source software is http://sourceforge.net/ it's a great resource and always fun to browse through.

MacJournal is great. If you have a blog you can also try XJournal (for LiveJournal) or ecto or etc. There's also iBlog.

For security: Firewalk or Brick House, an anti-virus software (I know viruses don't usually affect Macs, but hey better safe), most will do, but none is great, so Symantec's NortonAnti-virus or Virex. Little Snitch is also a must.

For replacement for the all evil ms office, openoffice.org will provide with most of its functionnalities, but for free :D

My list:

1. Ambrosia's Wiretap. It records your computer's sound output, comes in very handy more often then you'd think, and it's free)

2. Launchbar. I tried it, now I can't picture the finder working any other way.

3. Carbon Copy Cloner. Very handy, especially for back-up freaks like myself :-p

4. OpenOffice.org. Not pretty, but it gets the job done.

5. MorphX. Free image morphing tool. Incredible.

6. EV Nova. Incredible game for an incredible price.

7. AP Grapher. Graphs AirPort Signal Strength, great tool to have.

8. LaunchBar. Yeah, I know, I already listed it, but damn that's some good software.

9. Synergy. Controls iTunes with Keystrokes. A tad buggy, but it works.

10. SubRosa File Utilities. Encryption, Decryption, Disk Wiping and File Shredding. Good to have for the tinfoil hat crowd, or those dealing with HIPAA or similar records confidentiality regulations.

Here are the ones I use regularly (read, nearly daily):

Utilities:
Mellel--best multilanguage wordprocessor (and rapidly replacing MS Word for me)
SubEthaEdit
PageSpinner--HTML editor
Bookends--Bibliographic software, works great and quickly.
iStumbler--WiFi signal sniffer
MacStumbler--ditto
WireTap--audio recorder
DNSUpdate--for dyndns.org
Renamer4Mac--great for renaming the digital photos and .pdf files
CyberDuck--FTP
Fugu--SSH/SCP GUI
ShareMyDesktop & OSXvnc
Chicken of the VNC

Games (I person has to have some diversions):
PocketTanks
RallyShift--the time-waster du jour

iTunes Controller:
Sofa--I realize it is something like Clutter, but I like the interface and functions of Sofa a bit more.


Darin

Racing games
 

What a great game! i hadn't heard of it before. It could end up on my list of top 10 essential Mac apps.

http://www.codeblender.com/products/...rallyshift.php

I may have to take Cro-Mag rally out of my top 10.

http://www.pangeasoft.net/cromag/index.html

I'm glad I could waste some of your time. I've really grown addicted to RallyShift, though I'm stuck on the fourth rally.

d

Mac Essentials, volume 1
 

You don't say whether you're a programmer, gamer, surfer or word-hack...

I'm a developer (paid) so let me give you the only essentials in my toolkit:
1. BBEdit - the ultimate in text processing
2. OmniGraffle - there is quite simply no better tool for creating diagrams such as database schemas or flowcharts.

I'm also a designer (paid) so here's those essentials:
1. The BIG THREE: QuarkXPress, Illustrator & Photoshop (although some are suggesting InDesign rather than the annoyingly stoopid Quark 6)

I'm also a surfer (unpaid) so here's the essentials there:
1. Firefox and a pile of other browsers
2. Hogwash for reading news
3. Eudora for my email
4. X-Chat for IRC chat

In general use I can't go past recommending that you leave the calculator in your dock, or if not there, some other place you can quickly grab it. I just wish it started up quicker!

For peace of mind, I'd recommend Impression for backup. I've tried quite a few of them and this one is sweet.;)

Panic Software's Transmit is also in my top 10... er somewhere in there.
http://www.panic.com/transmit/

well, it's true about how you use your puter. I tend to sweat and freak out when I don't see icons, lol. so for those times I use
http://www.northernsoftworks.com/pan...hecleaner.html
http://www.titanium.free.fr/us/onyx/index.html
http://homepage.mac.com/jim.mitchell/software/yasu.html and of course macjanitor.
others deal with web camming, ispq, yahoo messenger, ivisit, etc...
http://software.manoverboard.org/ for jefferson.
safari/mozilla for browsing.
http://jalbum.net/ because one day I will build a page. lol.

great info, much appreciated and will be used!

i'm an ex CP/M system coder lapsed into windows 2000 vintage desktop. The Mac is a breath of air.