Geir Arne Brevik, January 8 2006:

20 Mac OS X apps I can't live without

I looked at Mac Specialist’s list of essential Mac OS X applications, and thought well, I can do better than that! So here’s my list; if you’re setting up a new mac, this is the software you need.

  1. TextMate – The best text editor for the Mac. Read why I switched from BBEdit
  2. NetNewsWire – RSS reader, sorry, THE RSS reader.
  3. Adium – Multi-protocol chat client (MSN, AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, Bonjour, Google Talk)
  4. Transmit – FTP/SFTP client. Works nice and looks awesome.
  5. Quicksilver – Application launcher and much, much more. Keeps my fingers on the keyboard.
  6. Gmail Notifier – Notifies me of new email on my Gmail account. Made it convenient to switch to Gmail fulltime.
  7. Synergy – Let’s me control iTunes from the keyboard (play/pause, skip, volume, rating) without switching to iTunes.
  8. MarsEdit – Blog editor. I’m writing this in MarsEdit.
  9. Saft – Addition to Safari that puts in all the things that is good about Firefox and more (multiple search engines, reorder tabs, fullscreen browsing, ad blocking++).
  10. AntiRSI – Keeps my hands off my keyboard in intervals, and keeps me somewhat healthy.
  11. PSPWare – Syncs photos, videos, songs and gaming data to and from my PSP
  12. FlickrExport – iPhoto plugin that makes Flickr easy.
  13. DropSend – Desktop client for the superb file transfer service.
  14. BluePhoneElite – Bluetooth phone integrator. Lets me backup my SMS messages from my phone.
  15. SuperDuper! – Simple and elegant backup utility.
  16. Delicious Library – Cataloging your books, DVDs, games and CDs with barcode scanning. A bit too slow on my three year old PowerBook, but still good looking.
  17. HandBrake – DVD ripper. Useful for backups and for making PSP-ready movies.
  18. VLC – Video player. Not exceptionally good, but you need it.
  19. SideTrack Trackpad scroller for iBooks and PowerBooks

…and of course MegaManEffect, the least effective way to start your applications.
What do you think?