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Essential Mac Programs
I've deliberately kept the following list as short as possible only
mentioning software that I find really useful. Let me know if I missed
anything.
Included with Mac OS X
A lot of software already comes packaged with it, just check for it via
the shell.
- Examples: Apache, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl etc.
- Developer Tools (an extra install disk): CVS, gcc etc.
Unix Software
- Fink
is a SuSE Yast like package manager that gives you even more unix
software.
Office Software
- OpenOffice: Completely
obviates the need for any Microsoft Office software. The Mac version
has come a long way. In fact so far, that I now prefer it to the
slightly more Mac-compatible NeoOffice.
Internet
- Firefox, Skype, Google Earth: are cross-platform
- TV-Browser: Excellent
program for displaying the German TV schedule.
Audio
- Audacity: Not the
greatest of all user interfaces, but suffices for simple audio editing
tasks.
- Audio
Recorder: If all you want is record audio from the mic.
Video
- VLC:
Plays many movie formats (divx, avi etc.), including some that
QuickTime cannot handle.
- Handbrake:
Great program for transcoding movies (e.g. from VOB to AVI).
- New: Now transcodes many movie formats (and not just DVDs).
This is great for converting movies to be watched on an iPod or iPhone.
- Flip4Mac: Makes QuickTime
play WMV (even if streamed on the web!), free.
- Perian: QuickTime components for
playing files such as .flv.
- RealPlayer: is cross-platform.
Graphics
- The
Gimp: The well-known open source graphics program.
- OmniGraffle
[commercial]: Indispensible program for drawing all kinds of diagrams,
not too expensive!
- GraphViz:
The Mac version is awesome!
- Skim: PDF viewer
and annotater. Apple Preview has worked really well
for annotating PDFs since 10.5 Leopard. But Skim is still indispensable
for LaTeX editing, because it watches PDF files and auto-updates their
display if they change.
Editors
- SeaMonkey: The
old all-in-one Mozilla internet suite. Only interesting, because it
still has a good HTML WYSIWYG editor.
- TextWrangler:
Great text editor, free (light) version of the classic BBedit.
- Aquamacs: Great for LaTeX
editing (for which this Mac version has extra customizations).
Device Support
- Remote Buddy [shareware]:
I don't like FrontRow completely taking over my computer. Thus, Remote
Buddy is like FrontRow, but with normal Mac applications. An on-screen
menu lets one change many settings with the Apple Remote.
- Alarm Clock 2:
Turn your Mac into an alarm clock. Works very well, because it also can
wake the Mac up for an alarm. Furthermore, it can play any iTunes song
or playlist of your choice instead of a simple beep.
- nova
media phone plugins: With 10.4 Tiger I could send text messages
from my Mac via my old K700i Sony Ericsson. With 10.5 Leopard, this
functionality was gone. Thankfully, the nova media phone plugins bring
it back.
Backup, File System, Synchronization, Configuration
- Unison:
Brilliant program for synchronizing the files between two accounts. I
use it to keep my (Linux-based) account at work in sync with my iMac at
home.
- The
Unarchiver: Decompresses many more file formats than the standard
Apple unpacker.
- BusySync [commercial]:
Keeps iCal and Google Calendar in sync. Also lets you share iCal
calendars on a LAN, but I've never used this functionality.
- TinkerTool:
Lets you play with more options. I use it for two things:
- Displaying the Dock in the upper right corner (as opposed to
centered
on the right)
- Completely hiding everything on the Desktop (when recording
screencasts)
To Be Reviewed
TODO:
- http://osx.iusethis.com/
- Mac model databases:
- http://apple-history.com/
- http://support.apple.com/specs/
- http://mactracker.dreamhosters.com/
- ScreenFlow: http://www.flip4mac.com/screenflow.htm
- http://www.apimac.com/timer/ (e.g. for timing presentations)
- Monolingual
- MPEG Streamclip.
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
- MPlayer OSX Extended. http://mplayerosx.sttz.ch/
- Widgets
- Sol 1.2.3: http://captaindan.org/sw/Sol/
- http://www.corecode.at/smartreporter/
- Similar to TinkerToy: http://secrets.blacktree.com/
The following programs look interesting, but I haven't yet had the need
the try them out.
- Date organization:
- Bento:
Personal data and file organizer.
- Tinderbox:
Note management, a combination of mindmapper, small database, outliner.
- Evernote: Versatile
note-taking application that synchronizes with an online account and/or
mobile devices.
- Vector graphics: OmniGraffle currently fulfills all my needs. But
there are some interesting and relatively cheap vector graphics
applications out there:
Document History
- 2006-06-06: First version of this document
- 2008-10-13: Bringing the information up-to-date
Axel
Rauschmayer