Essential OSX Applications?

[Matt]

I thought it might be good to have a thread containing essential applications for OSX. It'll help me and maybe others to make the move from Windows easier.

FTP - Cyberduck - http://cyberduck.ch/ - Free
Video Player - VLC - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ - Free
IRC - Colloquy - http://colloquy.info/ - Free
IM - Adium - http://www.adiumx.com/ - Free
Anti Theft - iAlertU - http://www.slappingturtle.com/home/?p=12 - Free (beta)

 

[spirit]

Newsgroup - panic unison - http://www.panic.com/unison/ (not free)

mega list here

http://madsenblog.dk/?page_id=11

 

[MagSafe]

my favourites...

FTP Client - Transmit (http://www.panic.com/transmit/)
Text Editor - TextMate (http://macromates.com/)
Video Convertor - iSquint (http://www.isquint.org)
DVD to iPod - Handbrake Lite (http://www.http://www.isquint.org/handbrakelite/)
Compression - Stuffit (http://www.stuffit.com)
Disc Burning - Toast (http://www.roxio.com/en/products/toast/)

 

[nomore]

Networking
Bits On Wheels: Fantasic OS X only Bit Torrent client with 3D packet views... very stable, and much more responsive than Azureus.

Video
Video Downloader: Not strictly a Mac application, but this allowes you to download videos from YouTube, Google, MySpace etc. from any web browser. Change the file extension to .flv and then use iSquint (above) to convert to MPEG4/h.264

Disk Utilities
Disk Inventory X: Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (and later). It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way. It's awesome. Check out this screenshot: http://www.derlien.com/files/screenshot_small

 

[AJUK]

OnyX maintenance utility, it is an easy way to run the scripts
Pith Helmet web filter/ad blocker for Safari
Little Snitch outbound monitor so that you can see what is trying to phone home

 

[uchuff]

Nice, I saw TextMate before I got my Mac but couldn't remember the name - downloading now. I didn't get on with Colloquy so I'll recommend:

X-Chat Aqua - Alternative IRC client, no official Universal Binary release yet though, works fine under Rosetta.

Also not really an application but:

XviD component - Play XviD encoded videos in Quicktime and FrontRow.

 

[M0KUJ1N]

fink- apt-get esque package for Mac OS X- cant believe it's not been mentioned already as it is probably one of the main selling points of the Mac.

 

[unknowndomain]

Why use VLC when quicktime works and u can patch it to play windows media player files

 

[Moredhel]

I don't like quicktime's lack of timeshifting audio, or it's interface in general. Then again I don't like VLCs interface much either, so I use:

MplayerOSX: http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/
That, Safari, DVD Player and iTunes are pretty much the only OSX native apps I use. Everything else is a *nix app.

That Disk Inventory X app is pretty nifty. I've already cleared several gig out of /Library and ~/Library using it! Good find that man.

 

[Mat]

The first time I remember this coming up there was a glut of apps posted. Many of them will have Universal binaries by now but some, such as Flip4Mac (the ever so useful WMV enhancement for Quicktime) are on the way...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17415780&highlight=Essential+apps

Also, another one I came across is Coconut Battery which gives a bunch of info on the battery in your Powerbook / iBook (unfortunately its not MacBook friendly yet):

http://www.coconut-flavour.com/index.html

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Handbrake: http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Neat DVD Ripper and converter, easy to use and very poweful

 

[Sic]

Why use VLC when quicktime works and u can patch it to play windows media player files

because i like to play my videos fullscreen without having to pay for it

 

[Matt]

I've just tried out Delicious Library! How cool is this program It basically stores a library of your cds/dvds/books/etc... but you can use your iSight to scan the barcodes, and it works very well.

 

[uchuff]

because i like to play my videos fullscreen without having to pay for it

Front Row?

I've just tried out Delicious Library! How cool is this program It basically stores a library of your cds/dvds/books/etc... but you can use your iSight to scan the barcodes, and it works very well.

Ooh looks cool

 

[Mat]

I've just tried out Delicious Library! How cool is this program It basically stores a library of your cds/dvds/books/etc... but you can use your iSight to scan the barcodes, and it works very well.

Thats an awesome piece of software! Now thats what I like... merely scan a CD and the computer does the rest! marvellous. Now if I could just find a use for it...

 

[MagSafe]

bah, nevermind ... mod's please delete

 

[titchard]

Front Row?

Not all macs have front row.

Rich

 

[punky_munky]

Teleport - http://www.abyssoft.com/software/teleport/

This program allows me to use the mouse and keyboard connected to my Mac Mini with my Macbook simply by moving the pointer off the side of the screen and onto the Macbook. It's nice because I'm lazy and don't have to move my hands

 

[Burbleflop]

Teleport - http://www.abyssoft.com/software/teleport/

This program allows me to use the mouse and keyboard connected to my Mac Mini with my Macbook simply by moving the pointer off the side of the screen and onto the Macbook. It's nice because I'm lazy and don't have to move my hands

I use a program called Synergy2 (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net) to do the same thing. Main difference I see is that S2 works cross platform so I have a keyboard and mouse plugged into my PC and use them to control my Mac Mini and linux box.

 

[Andy C]

Uno

If you're fed up of various parts of the GUI looking different then you can use a little app called Uno to make everything look the same. Apparently "Uno" is Latin for "as one".

There's an overview of the options etc. here.


Andy.