For the n00bs who just got a mac, it might be usefull to compile an updated list of use full software.

I personally use a lot of the usual stuff, like mail.app, address book, ical, itunes, flip4mac, mplayer, vlc, perian, skype, adium X, toast, imagewell, quicksilver, iwork, chicken of the vnc, growl and of course seismac.

Freeware stuff I use:

Menumeters
http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/
Nice system stats in your menubar

Nufile
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20465
Right click, new file of type extension

Cocoaspell
http://people.ict.usc.edu/~leuski/cocoaspell/
Extend your spell checker with other languages

cord
http://cord.sourceforge.net/
windows remote desktop client

Camino
http://caminobrowser.org/
Gecko based browser, no plugins, but pretty good popup blocker (much better than safari's), and good os X intergration, like storing secret info in keychain. Fast too.

iterm (I like the full screen mode) http://iterm.sourceforge.net/
Terminal emu

Netnewswire
http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire/Default.aspx
Amazing RSS reader. I love the user interface.

D-vision
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8825
Nice litte tool to do all kinds of operations on your pr0n^H^H^H video files, like splitting, repairing, recoding, muxung and demuxing.

Mac the ripper or Fairmount

I use either for ripping DVD's. Fairmount is freeware, mac the ripper is donationware, mac the ripper also disables regions and UOP's.

Max
http://sbooth.org/Max/
The best tool for ripping and converting audio files, to mp3 (using lame encoder) and other formats. Much better mp3 encoder than the stupid Frauehofer codec that itunes uses. Also a lot of intelligence for handling damaged cd's. If you want to rip in itunes I recommend Itunes-lame plugin.

Senuti
http://www.fadingred.org/senuti/
For getting music of your ipod.

Disk inventory X
http://www.derlien.com/
Where did all my diskspace go?

Cocoamysql
http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/
Nice little tool to access my mysql databases

SSH keychain
http://www.sshkeychain.org/
Little gui for ssh-agent, stores keys in os X keychain

Gawker
http://gawker.sourceforge.net/Information.html
Funny little tool for time lapse video

Renamer for mac
http://www.power4mac.com/renamer/
Sometimes I am too lazy to do for in in backtick weuh...

Books
http://books.aetherial.net/
Keeps track of my bookcollection

I eatbrainz
http://6v8.gamboni.org/IEatBrainz-Universal-Build.html
For identifying your mp3's

Handbrake
http://handbrake.fr/
For ripping to xvid.

Darwine + ie64osx
http://www.kronenberg.org/ies4osx/
I use it to check my sites with ie6, discover that it breaks and then say F#ck mie6.

Shareware

Textmate
http://macromates.com/
My favourite texteditor.

Visual Hub
http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/
Extremely handy tool for converting video from and to avi, mov, mpeg, dv, flv, mp4 etc. Fast too!

Rapidweaver
http://www.realmacsoftware.com/
Because not every site that I make needs to be original and self designed.

Pzizz
http://www.pzizz.com/
Relax, have a powernap

Commercial

Logic studio
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/
The ultimale DAW, loaded with features

Lightroom
Nuff said.

Final cut express
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/
Great videoediting programme, and I really do not need the full featureset of final cut pro.

DVD studio pro
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/dvdstudiopro/
Great for DVD authoring, unfortunately part of logic studio which officially is not supported on macbook, but will install.

Adobe photoshop, illustrator, indesign and after effects cs3
Nuff said.

Sibelius
http://www.sibelius.com/products/sibelius/
The best music notation software. Great workflow. Great composer too by the way..

Ableton live
http://www.ableton.com/live
The best live audio performance tool


Data rescue II
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
Has saved my ass in the case of harddisc crashes more than once.

Omni graffle pro
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/pro/
Very nice graphing software. Who needs visio? Is actually compatible with visio.

Alien skin exposure
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/index.html
Nice plugins for photoshop fcp and after effects. Very nice film emulations, like, I want my picture to look like it has been taken with kodak tri-X 400 pushed to 800, or like E6 to c41 cross processing.

Tags: software,mac