Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#1

Post by phn1x » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:11 PM UTC

Just purchased my first macbook and I'm already digging it. When it comes to Windows and Linux I have a standard set of apps for both programming and security auditing that I load up. I know what's available and where to get it.

With this new mac I've already loaded up some stuff but what else is available? What are some free, and even low cost "essential" mac apps I should look into?

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#2

Post by karl11 » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:16 PM UTC

textmate

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#3

Post by brk » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:19 PM UTC

iTerm http://iterm.sourceforge.net/

VLC Player http://www.videolan.org/

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#4

Post by gregk » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:37 PM UTC

TextWrangler (free text editor), Gimp and Inkscape (free graphics) or Photoshop Elements ($90), OpenOffice (free) or iWork (office like from Apple $90), or MS Office ($150) depending on what you know and who you communicate with, Firefox browser (free), Xcode for Mac or iPhone development (free), Skype (free), Tweetie, no virus scanner needed for now, and an external hard Disk so you can use TimeMachine for backups are what I have added in the first 2 months with my first intel mac.

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#5

Post by randallsquared » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:48 PM UTC

gregk wrote: post #4

TextWrangler (free text editor), Gimp and Inkscape (free graphics) or Photoshop Elements ($90), OpenOffice (free) or iWork (office like from Apple $90), or MS Office ($150) depending on what you know and who you communicate with, Firefox browser (free), Xcode for Mac or iPhone development (free), Skype (free), Tweetie, no virus scanner needed for now, and an external hard Disk so you can use TimeMachine for backups a…

I like Smultron over TextWrangler (and I say this as someone who paid for TextWrangler years ago, before they made it free). Also, Adium is very nice if you use any IM other than Skype.

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#6

Post by swombat » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:50 PM UTC

QuickSilver: http://quicksilver.en.softonic.com/mac - app launcher. Essential to a smooth OS X experience.

Adium: http://adium.im/ - general-purpose chat client

Cog: http://cogx.org/ - For those of us who don't like iTunes, or want to play FLACs.

WriteRoom or Scrivener: http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom | http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html - if you like to write (those are not for code)

Textmate: http://macromates.com/ - if you're a coder.

Transmission: http://www.transmissionbt.com/ - for your torrenting needs.

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#7

Post by phn1x » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:50 PM UTC

one of the guys I follow on twitter just recommended this:

http://osx.iusethis.com/

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#8

Post by boundlessdreamz » Sun, May 17, 2009, 2:51 PM UTC

I'm recommending only free software here.

1. Adium for chat. It is just awesome.http://www.adiumx.com/

2. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at that. http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list [edit: updated link to point to the recent versions]

3. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can click to prevent your Mac from going to sleep,dimming the screen etc. Very useful when watching long flash movies. http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/

4. MPlayer This is a video player which plays almost anything you can offer. Also comes with excellent keyboard shortcuts support making it the best video player on any platform. Most people prefer VLC though http://www.mplayerhq.hu/

5. Flip4Mac For those videos that MPlayer plays poorly, typically WMVs Flip4Mac provides a fee codec which integrates with your quicktime player. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcompo...

6. HandBrake For ripping your DVDs to MPEG4, there is no better tool. http://handbrake.fr/

7. Tweetie. if you use twitter, tweetie is the best mac twitter client by far. http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/

8. Virtualbox This virtualization product from Sun Microsystems totally eliminates the need for parallels or Vmware if you plan to use the VM sparingly. http://www.virtualbox.org/

9. Evernote http://evernote.com/

10. Eigenclock. I find the OS X, menu calendar extremely limted. Eigenclock is a good replacement http://www.twistedtheorysoftware.com/eigenclock/

11. Onyx for system tweaking http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html

12. Transmission - bittorrent client http://www.transmissionbt.com/