Whether you are a devoted Mac user or a new switcher, here are some of the best Mac applications I’ve come across and think that most people should have! All applications in this list are completely free.
Essentials
Growl
A system-wide notification tool. It is compatible with many applications such as Adium, Google Notifier, Appfresh, Transmission, Firefox, and much more.
Adium
The most popular multi-protocol instant messenger. Adium works with MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, GTalk, and many more.
See Also: Colloquy for IRC, aMSN for Windows Live
Mozilla Firefox
The best multi-platform browser. Firefox supports a plethora of add-ons and themes so you can customize it to your will.
See Also: Camino, Shiira, Opera, Flock
The Unarchiver
Replacement for OS X’s built in archive extractor. The Unachriver supports many more file extensions including rar, 7z, ace, and tar.
VLC
The media player that plays almost anything you throw at it without the need to mess with codecs.
See Also: Perian for Quicktime
Recommended
Burn
A basic tool for burning discs. Burn allows for creating Data discs, Audio CDs, Video Discs, and burning to and from an image file.
See Also: LiquidCD
Google Earth
“Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places and share with others.”
Transmission
Transmission is a lightweight and simple but effective Bittorrent client.
Perian
Codecs for Quicktime. Perian is a System Preferences pane that allows you to play various video files that Quicktime normally can’t. And because of that, it will enable Quick Look in Leopard to work with those videos as well.
Flip4Mac
Allows your Mac to play Windows Media files. Also supports browser integration.
iBackup
If you don’t have Leopard or don’t prefer Time Machine for some reason then iBackup should be your free backup tool. (Thanks for reminding me of this, Antonio.)
Appfresh
With all of these applications, you’d have trouble making sure each are up to date. Appfresh will scan your installed applications and check if a newer version is out. It will also download and install them automatically for you. Apple software updates, Microsoft updates, Adobe updates, and even Dashboard Widgets are supported as well.
See Also: LogicielMac Update, Widget Update
Noteworthy
Caffeine
If you have a laptop, Caffeine will prevent your display from dimming or sleeping.
Google Notifier
Official Gmail tool that checks your GMail account for new messages. Supports Growl.
Skype
The hottest and polished VOIP client for OSX.
Cyberduck
A popular FTP and SFTP client. Now supports WebDAV. Supports Growl.
AppDelete
Cleanly uninstall applications. AppDelete will search your computer for related files other than the application itself and delete them along with the original app.
More
VirtualBox
A virtualization application similar to VMware and Parallels, but free!
SMARTReporter
SMARTReporter monitors your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status to warn you of impending disk failures. If you have important data, then you should install this. I’ve lost a hard drive on my Macbook recently.
Filed under: Mac | 1 Comment
Tags: applications, essential, free, Mac
Good list! Appfresh looks like something I need. I have too many apps to know if they are all up to the latest version.
I’ve found iusethis.com for a source of popular apps and such. Off the top of my list would be the Unsanity products HERE, of course, as you’ve listed it already, Flip4Mac, and a few other good ones…for back up, Superduper, and a simple free one, iBackup….and an excellent vital info database, info.xhead, and another one by the Flip4Mac people, Drive In.