July 1, 2005
I think everyone has a set of applications that are absolutely essential to them. I’d like to list a few of the essentials and favourite apps that I use for OS X (I’ll do another list later for Linux). There are a lot of great applications out there… some open source and/or free, some shareware, and some commercial. I think each have their place and unlike some people, I don’t necessarily go for the open source and/or free ones first. I go for what fits my needs and if it works as I need, I’ll pay for it. If I can find something just as good (or better) open source, then I’ll obviously take that first.
Having said that, let’s get on with the list.
I’m going to break the list down by application/usage type:
Development Tools
By development tools I mean things like IDE’s, text editors, etc. Most of my development is in PHP (web design, web apps), with a little bit of perl, shell scripting, and applescript (sorta, still learning it) thrown in.
Browsers
Web browsers. Love ’em or hate ’em. Here’s a few I like:
Video and Audio
I do all of my audio with iTunes. It does absolutely everything I need. For video, I primarily use QuickTime to view what it can, but I’ve found it doesn’t view everything. I try to avoid Windows Media Player unless I absolutely have to use it.
Interface Customization
Coming from a Linux background where I can switch from GNOME to KDE to Englightenment and skin them any which way I want, the look of my desktop is important to me.. if for nothing else than to relieve some boredom since I look at it all day long. To that end, there are a few apps that help me manage because I think I’d go stir crazy or switch back to a fulltime Linux desktop if I had to stare at an unmodified Aqua all day long.
Networking Tools
From browsers to RSS readers to IRC clients… these are what I use:
Productivity Tools
By productivity I mean things like CRM, PIM, project management, word processing, etc. There’s a lot of stuff out there, and a lot of it is awful. Some is pretty good and I’m sure I haven’t found all of the good stuff, but this is what I use and like:
Miscellaneous Needed Apps
The other stuff that I use/need that doesn’t necessarily fall into the above categories and I just don’t feel like breaking out into a bunch of new categories… =)
And that’s my list. I’m sure there are heaps of great software out there that I’ve never even checked out before, but for what I need to do, these are the apps I am most often using and would have a hard time doing without. There’s probably a few that I’ve missed, but these are the ones I can think of right now…. regular apps are easy enough to see/remember, but it’s the little things that are preference panes, etc. that are sometimes easy to miss. If I think of more, or find some new stuff, I’ll be sure to update this entry.