Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

[phn1x]

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?

[boundlessdreamz]

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/

[Skeuomorph]

This list is great. Here's some more "FREE" software (some would appreciate a donation/purchase but are not crippled):

1. This may be obvious but as of the latest version, you don't gain much from a corporate email program like Entourage. I use Apple Mail, with IMAP and Google Apps for Your Domain. One account has 3.8GB of email and another has 4.1GB, according to Google. It scales fine and stays in sync across devices. Plus Address Book links to Google Contacts, and iCal links to Google Calendar.

2. I prefer MagiCal (http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical) rather than Eigenclock as it includes options to put "yyyy-mm-dd [day] hh:mm:ss" by the Spotlight icon, with [day] clickable for the calendar.

3. I like SpeakTime (http://www.mecanisme.net/software/speaktime/) for putting a row of glance-able analog clocks at the lower left of my screen (semi-transparent so they look like part of the background) to be aware of alternate time zones.

4. I use Skitch (http://www.skitch.com) for screengrabs with annotations to share with colleagues/clients.

5. I use Serverskine (http://www.serverskine.com/) to keep track of server logins.

6. I use Foxmarks (http://www.foxmarks.com/) to keep bookmarks in sync across all browsers and computers.

I don't use QuickSilver, Spotlight gets the job done.

I'd also recommend the following paid apps depending on your needs:

1. iWork '09 (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) for all office apps needs with MS Office 03-07 compatibility. It's worth the $79 for the polish and usability. The "free" alternative will cost more in the long run.

2. OmniGraffle Pro for diagramming with Visio (even Visio binary file) compatibility.

3. OmniPlan for MS Project compatibility.

4. Coda for text based web development. (Yes, TextMate is in my dock. But so is Coda.)

5. 1Password for credentials management across browsers and computers

6. Things for "GTD" methodology (or OmniFocus for more features)

[maximilian]

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

I used to use transmission, but then I started using uTorrent, which I find has better performance. http://www.utorrent.com

[KirinDave]

Why does anyone recommend Quickisilver? It's suffering from massive bitrot these days. Most users report frequent crashes, hangs, problems waking from sleep, and general slowness compared to Spotlight and LaunchBar?

I really wish it wasn't the case, but Quicksilver seems to have had its run and no one is stepping up to the plate to preserve it.

Most everything else you list is awesome though (although I think Evernote is far from essential and I'm not sure "free" is the right word for it ;)

[rabidsnail]

Perian - All of the codecs supported by vlc made available for use by quicktime (and any apps that use quicktime, like iMovie).

[elai]

I would use uTorrent for a bitorrent client now. I find it's just more effective as a BT client. NetNewsWire is a good RSS client. And I would use VMWare Fusion as a virutalization software vs. Parallels.

[mark_h]

There's a new effort to make a native OSX interface for mplayer incidentally; seems fairly active so far, and includes apple remote integration, etc: http://mplayerosx.sttz.ch/

[njharman]

> 1. Adium

Doesn't do IRC. In fact I've been unable to find any osX chat client that does IRC and IM.

Anyone found a solution?

[tortilla]

Others mentioned here are great. In addition, check these out:

http://perian.org/ - adds native support to QuickTime for many video formats

http://www.fluidapp.com/ - Fluid, SSB (site specific browsers)

http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/ - LittleSnitch, Monitor and block outgoing internet connections

http://www.skitch.com/ - Skitch, screen capture and sharing

http://derailer.org/paparazzi/ - Paparazzi, Full screenshots of websites

http://www.sequelpro.com/ - SequelPro, MySQL gui (I like Querious, but that's a paid app)

http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html - The Unarchiver, unpacker program handles almost every format

http://freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=7013 - Think, helps you focus on a single app

http://www.heliumfoot.com/mercurymover/ - MercuryMover, resize, move windows with keystrokes (If you're OCD about window sizes like me)

Other honorable mentions: Coda, Transmit, TwoUp, Typinator, UnRarX, CSSEdit

[robin_reala]

Thumbs up for Fluid. I use it for Google Reader and BBC iPlayer. Reader in particular works well as Fluid has built in support for it: it tags the Dock icon with the number of unread entries (à la Mail.app).

[Jakob]

Dont’t use Transmit. It’s slow and they haven’t released an update for months (years?).

Yummy FTP ist the fastest and feature-richest FTP-client for the Mac. It’s synchronization feature is really good. (I bought both)

[JoshRosen]

Gitx is a native OS X GUI for git. It comes with a nice command line tool, gitx, that works like gitk. http://gitx.frim.nl/

[udfalkso]

Cyberduck (ftp - http://cyberduck.ch/) Adium (IM - http://adium.im/)

[cmac]

I used Cyberduck for several years but some of the later versions became so buggy that I switched to Transmit. Haven't looked back since then. (Don't know if Cyberduck's stability has improved since.)

[weaksauce]

Cyberduck is a great ftp/ftp-over-ssh client.

[jhickner]

1.) SteerMouse - tweak the mouse acceleration curve. If you're coming from a PC and you feel like your mouse doesn't move right, this will help.

2.) SizeUp - size and and position windows with hotkeys. For example, quickly set two windows to use exactly one-half of the screen each.

3.) Expandrive - mount S3 buckets, ftp sites, sftp sites as network drives. (Works great with textmate)

4.) Miro - excellent video player and torrent client with rss built in. Sort of like a torrent TIVO.

5.) Warp (http://www.ksuther.com/warp/) - adds some new methods for switching spaces. I have mine set to switch if I drag the mouse to a screen border while holding command.

6.) Also, if QuickSilver doesn't suit your tastes, give LaunchBar a try. Getting used to using one of those two apps pays huge dividends.

[ropiku]

Another +1 for SizeUp, since I bought a display for my MacBook I love it. I also like if for "name your price".

[crad]

boundlessdreamz covered a lot, here's a few more (mostly commercial but still awesome):

1. Things - Awesome task management - http://www.culturedcode.com/

2. Mailplane - If you use GMail this is a must. - http://mailplaneapp.com/

3. AppZapper - Remove everything about an app - http://www.appzapper.com/

4. LittleSnitch - Filters and prompts on outbound ip connections - http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

5. Undercover - Stolen Laptop Recovery app - http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/

6. Fugu - SCP/SFTP App - http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/

7. On The Job - Time and Expense Tracking - http://stuntsoftware.com/OnTheJob/

8. Versions - Awesome SVN client - http://versionsapp.com/

[citrik]

I'll add my vote for Things! I was designing my own app to do this then Things came out. If you've ever been inspired by GTD - Getting Things Done, by David Allen, Things is an indispensable app, My third most used app next to Mail and Safari. It also has great support for syncing with the iPhone so you can take your lists on the road and store your tasks or ideas wherever you are.

[tortilla]

Mailplane is great, especially if you have multiple gmail and google mail accounts.

[jemmons]

Things' lack of reliable, convenient syncing killed it for me. OmniFocus, while not as sexy and certainly more complicated than Things, has rock solid syncing to your iPhone or Mac via MobileMe or any other webdav server you choose. And its robust configurability means you can set up a very Things-like workflow if that's your bag. And the iPhone version is sweet!

If you want to have todos available in more than one place, Things will bring you nothing but tears.

[elai]

Cornerstone is a good alternative SVN client. Cyberduck is a pretty good general purpose SFTP/FTP/S3/etc client. I like billings better than on the job personally.

[mwbrooks]

+1 Things: This app has changed my day-to-day to-dos

[soundsop]

macports (http://www.macports.org) for installing unix utilities that are not already included in OS X.

[phn1x]

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

http://osx.iusethis.com/

[durdn]

I was about to suggest that as well. It is tied to a very cool app called AppFresh. Recommended.

[chris24]

Here are some of my favs:

1) Quicksilver. (free) http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver

2) VLC Media Player. (free) It plays pretty much every type of video file. http://videolan.org/vlc

3) Skitch. (free) Essential for quick screenshots, and quick annotations of screenshots. http://plasq.com/skitch

4) Tweetie. (free - ad supported - or $20) The best native Mac app for Twitterring. http://atebits.com/tweetie-mac

5) TextMate. (~$54) It's handling of projects, bundles, etc. is excellent. http://macromates.com

6) HTTP Client. (free) http://ditchnet.org/httpclient/

7) OmniGraffle. ($100-$200) Excellent for constructing user flow diagrams. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/OmniGraffle/

8) The Hit List. ($50) It's one of the best GTD apps for the Mac. http://www.potionfactory.com/thehitlist/

9) TinkerTool. (free) For customizing OS X. http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html

10) Secrets. (free) For easy access to hidden application preferences. http://secrets.blacktree.com/

11) Sequel Pro. (free) For accessing MySQL databases in a nice GUI. http://www.sequelpro.com/

12) Fluid. (free) If you have a commonly accessed site, Fluid is great to create a SSB (site-specific browser) for it. I have a Fluid SSB created for railsapi.com, which allows me to easily launch it with Quicksilver and start searching the Rails docs right away. http://fluidapp.com/

[bayareaguy]

Here's a related thread from last year:

- Ask YC: Mac virgin wants to know, what would you install? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=131241

My earlier list http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=131263 hasn't really changed but I do find the recently posted Black Tree Visor http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=465334 to be very useful.

[papa]

Lots of excellent pointers from others...I'll add a few I haven't seen posted:

- InstantShot: nice little screenshot utility (I use it daily)

- VueScan: swiss-army knife of mac scanning apps if you need to hook up a scanner. Costs a little, but you get lifetime upgrades. Well worth it.

- LittleSnitch: network monitor. tracks what kind of network activity your apps are up to. Costs a little, but also worth it if you value your privacy.

- JollysFastVNC: fast and free VNC client (I've been using it over Chicken of the VNC).

- OmniDiskSweeper: Disk utility shows you which files are hogging up the most hard disk space. Free. I also recommend many of Omni's other products. Omnigraffle (not free) is also excellent for diagramming.

Also, not mac specific, but the sqlite manager plugin for Firefox is also very helpful.

I don't know where others go to find different Mac apps, I usually hit macupdate.com (and sometimes versiontracker) these days, mostly out of habit, but would love to hear other recs for this.

[sirsean]

MacFUSE w/ sshfs, and MacVIM.

[elai]

Or ExpanDrive. It's alot cleaner than MacFuse + sshfs.

[karl11]

textmate

[mrduncan]

or, macvim (http://code.google.com/p/macvim/)

[vaporstun]

Aquamacs (http://aquamacs.org/)

[chaosmachine]

komodo edit

http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/

free and open source.

[benofsky]

Nothing compares to textmate, fantastic price, unbelievably awesome editor.

[Derferman]

I just found Smultron, and I love it.

http://tuppis.com/smultron/

[lallysingh]

BBEdit. But the two hit different crowds, it seems.

[raquo]

Coda

[access_denied]

BBedit is the best editor on the mac, by far. (ok, I am a cheapo and use emacs)

[makecheck]

Some of the things I use:

- DragThing; you will never miss Apple's Dock, this is an absolutely essential desktop enhancement, e.g. to create multiple tabbed docks anywhere you want, with themes.

- OmniWeb (now free); I've tried many web browsers, and I like this best. Safari engine.

- MacTelnet (tabbed terminal). It now works for local programs and not just servers, so I use it instead of Terminal.

- SnapzPro X (or alternatives), useful for doing more intelligent screenshots or video captures.

- DesktopCalendar (by Takashi Hamada), a really nice use of space and very configurable. Also has a menu option.

- Growl, for pretty and unobtrusive notification windows. This is actually really well supported by 3rd party applications.

- SCPlugin, if you're a Subversion user; nice Finder integration.

[jgranby]

I second OmniWeb. It's the best browser there is. The tab implementation is second to none, in particular the ability to discontiguously select multiple tabs. Site-specific preferences are also incredibly useful.

[lmoorman]

1password. A must that makes your life much easier.

[chris24]

1Password's nice, but I've found Sxipper [1] to be better if all I need to use is Firefox. Sxipper has a really nice way of handling password changes, multiple accounts, and comment forms.

[1] - http://www.sxipper.com/

[philwelch]

If your file system ever gets corrupted, DiskWarrior.

DiskWarrior will reliably maintain and rebuild your FS. It will work when fsck fails and is better than the other paid alternatives. It looks like (and is) a Mac OS 9 port, but it's the same filesystem so no worries.

If your filesystem is ever, ever fucked, DW will save it if anything can.

It costs $100, so don't buy until when you end up needing it. But at that moment, buy it (unless your data is worth less than $100, I guess).

[scottymac]

Some stuff I use that I didn't see mentioned:

MenuMeters: http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

Hyperspaces: http://hyperspacesapp.com/

Yojimbo: http://barebones.com/products/yojimbo/

Leap: http://www.ironicsoftware.com/leap/

[vansteen]

I've got my Macbook pro 6 months ago. The best thing I ever buy. I'm programming and I use to use a Windows and a FreeBSD box before. Here, some free and commercial softwares I use everyday:

1. Terminal: Visor - Quake-style terminal http://visor.binaryage.com

2. Uninstaller: AppTrap http://konstochvanligasaker.se/apptrap/

3. SFTP: http://www.expandrive.com/mac

4. Quick remote filesharing: http://www.getdropbox.com

5. IDEA: NetBeans or ZendStudio

6. Virtual machine: Parallels - http://www.parallels.com

7. Text editor: TextEdit or TextWrangler - http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

8. VPN: The native OSX thing does the job

9. Mobile sync/Addressbook: iSync does the job (Use http://www.feisar.com/ to find your mobile plugin if iSync doesn't have it natively)

10. SIP softphone: Telephone (works with Googlevoice+Gizmo5 and my local UK SIP provider) - http://code.google.com/p/telephone/

11. Notifier: Growl - http://growl.info/

12. Movie player: VLC or Quicktime+Perian codecs - http://perian.org/

13. Chat: Adium

14: Desktop display: GeekTool - http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/

[swombat]

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.

[travisjeffery]

Editors: MacVim, Emacs.app (build from source `./configure --with-ns` -- f Aquamacs and last resort TextMate

Torrent: uTorrent

RSS: NetNewsWire

PDF, Document Reader: Skim

[mwbrooks]

+1 NetNewsWire