Here is a list of all the software that I have on my 15″ MacBook Pro. I am unable to function without 90% of this software running just about constantly on my laptop. So here is the list:
Internet Tools:
Adium is a fast and free instant messaging client which supports AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Yahoo! Japan, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Novell Groupwise, and Lotus Sametime. Adium supports beautiful WebKit message display, tabbed messaging, encrypted chat, file transfer, and more. Give it a try; you won’t look back. Adium is currently translated into Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
The award-winning Web browser is better than ever. Browse the Web with confidence - Firefox protects you from viruses, spyware and pop-ups. Enjoy improvements to performance, ease of use and privacy. It’s easy to import your favorites and settings and get started. Download Firefox now and get the most out of the Web.
X-Chat Aqua is a MacOS X IRC client. If you are familiar with XChat for UNIX/GTK+/X Windows, then you will be at home with X-Chat Aqua. X-Chat Aqua uses the IRC engine from XChat and has been designed to look and feel like XChat.
Transmission is a free, lightweight BitTorrent client. It features a simple, intuitive interface on top on an efficient, cross-platform back-end. NOTE: I would recommend you go to the website and download the latest nightly build.
CoRD is a remote desktop client for Mac OS X ported from the UNIX program rdesktop. It is a Universal Binary, and allows you to connect to multiple servers concurrently.
Transmit is an excellent FTP (file transfer protocol), SFTP, and iDisk/WebDAV client that allows you to upload, download, and delete files over the internet. With the most Mac-like interface available, Transmit makes FTP as simple, fun, and easy as it can possibly be.
KisMAC is a free network stumbler that operates in passive mode, allowing the program to run completely invisibly without sending any probe requests (unlike active scanners). In addition to standard stumbler logging and graphing features, KisMAC reveals cloaked SSIDs and can perform deauthentication, packet injection, and several other attacks against WEP/WPA encrypted packets. GPS mapping is also included. KisMAC is the only stumbler to support Apple’s Airport Extreme card in passive mode. It is also compatible with original Airport cards and several third party cards (see website).
SSH Tunnel Manager is a tool to manage SSH Tunnels (commonly invoked with -L and -R arguments in the console). With SSH Tunnel Manager you can setup many tunnels as you wish, each one containing many port redirections as you wish. Once tunnels are configured, all you have to do is Start, or Stop the tunnels.
The initial reason for the development of Shimo was the lousy software-implementation of the Cisco-VPN-Client for MacOS. Shimo wants to do it the MacOS-way: That means to reduce the interface to the important features and integrate it right into the user-interface of the OS. Thus the interaction with this piece of software is absolutely intuitive and self explanatory.
System Tools:
OnyX is a maintenance, optimization, and personalization utility for Mac OS X. It also makes it possible to configure certain hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, and Safari, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, preview the different logs and CrashReporter reports, and more. OnyX is Freeware, gratis and freely usable; you may copy and distribute it at will. You can use it for as long a time as you want.
HimmelBar provides an icon in the menu bar to quickly access your installed applications by scanning standard locations such as local, user, network and developer applications. You can also add a custom location such as the Classic Applications folder, or any other folder of your hard disk that contains applications.
iTerm is a full featured terminal emulation program written for OS X using Cocoa. We are aiming at providing users with best command line experience under OS X. The letter i represents a native Apple look and feel of the program interface, and an emphasis on complete international support.
Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X: it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications.
Tracks last 20 (or less by preference) cut/copies. Kinda like Klipper from KDE.
A menubar iTunes controller like Menuet, but free. You have to get a free serial number at youfotware.com to register it.
HexEdit is a hexadecimal file editor for the Macintosh. The most widely used editor of its kind on the platform, HexEdit can handle file sizes of up to four gigabytes with ease, yet has memory requirements of less than a megabyte (with colour turned off). It can also compare files for similarities or differences.
LiquidCD is a freeware for burning CDs and DVDs built for Mac OS X.
“VirtueDesktops” is a virtual desktop manager for Apple’s Mac OS. It offers features, eye candy and configurable options that no other desktop manager on the mac has added yet, and is under active development.
Drive genius is a wonderful utility app that can perform a multitude of maintenance tasks on a harddrive. It can scan for bad blocks (a feature difficult to find), repair directory damage, defragement, edit sectors, and non-destructively repartition. Absolutely critical for someone trying to support Macs as bad blocks on drives can cause all sorts of issues.
Chamonix is a CHM viewer. It has read every CHM I’ve thrown at it, but it still needs support for exporting an entire CHM to PDF, printing an entire CHM, and customizable toolbar. What it does so far though, it does very well.
Media Tools:
Corripio is the premier tool for gathering album artwork. By searching four sources: the iTunes Music Store, Coveralia, Best Buy, and Walmart, Corripio enables the user to get the best artwork available for their iTunes libraries with the click of a button. The user now has the ability to search for song lyrics. The lyrics will automatically be added to each songs’ ID3 tag.
HandBrake is a GPL’d multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. HandBrake was originally available on the BeOS, but now has been ported over to MacOS X and to GNU/Linux.
iEatBrainz is a MusicBrainz client for MacOS X. MusicBrianz is a song/album/artist catalog, that unlike CDDB and friends computes an audio-bound hash for each track, and matches that to the database.
MPlayer is a multi-platform movie player supporting many formats and A/V codecs. MPlayer OSX is the GUI frontend with precompiled binaries optimized for PowerPC and AltiVec
VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
TriTag helps you to get a clear MP3 collection by either creating a new filename out of the ID3Tag or filling the metatags using the information found in the filename using a user defined pattern - easy due to a pattern builder. The first mode also allows to create a unique directory structure (artist/album/) similar to the one generated by iTunes “Consolidate library”. Search the FreeDB database if neither the filename nor the tag contains correct information.
There are many good reasons that someone would have to transfer music from her iPod back to her computer. There are many good ways to do it, too. Senuti is the only alternative that will give you the power and convenience that you need, wrapped in an interface that is extremely easy to use, at a cost that you can’t complain about.
Productivity Tools:
Smultron is an open-source text editor written in Cocoa for Mac OS X with many of the features that you need. You can easily work with many documents and select one quickly in a list.
Taco HTML Edit is a full-featured HTML editor and PHP editor. Taco HTML Edit empowers its users to rapidly create their own web sites. It is designed exclusively for Mac OS X and has many advanced features including spell checking, live browser previewing, PHP previewing, syntax checking, and much more.
NeoOffice is a fully-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, vector drawing, database, and macro functionality) for Mac OS X. It can import, edit, and exchange documents with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office. NeoOffice is focused on making OpenOffice.org a better Mac OS X citizen, with dozens of standard Mac features not found in OpenOffice.org. NeoOffice does NOT require the X11 windowing system.
For Mac users who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, WriteRoom is just about you and your text. Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
VoodooPad is a new kind of notepad. It’s like having your own digital junk drawer where you can jot down notes, web addresses, to-do lists… Anything on your mind. VoodooPad automatically links each page together, to form a miniature world wide web, on your desktop! Anybody familiar with the WikiWikiWeb will feel right at home with VoodooPad.
Non-Productivity Tools (read addictive as hell):
Quinn is an implementation of a popular falling-blocks game. Written specifically for Mac OS X, it features a neat user interface, perfectly integrated with Aqua, and a smooth look and feel for best user enjoyment. The goal was not to reinvent falling-blocks games with yet another modification of the rules, but to preserve the simplicity of the original idea. Still there’s everything you might expect—including a two-player mode, network play with Bonjour support, an online server list and highscore database, and five different multiplayer rules.
Frozen Bubble is a popular free puzzle game. User controls a small canon, shooting bubbles and tries to hit other bubbles so to create groups of 3 or more bubbles of the same color. Whenever this is accomplished these bubbles go away. The purpose of the game is to eliminate all bubbles from stage.
Solitaire XL is a stunning version of the well known one-person card game, Klondike Solitaire. It builds on the power of Cocoa and OpenGL to provide integrated 3D effects during gameplay. Download this freeware version of Solitaire for Mac OS X now.
Random Software:
CandyBar is the easiest, quickest and by far, the safest way to customize the icons found in the system and application toolbars of Mac OS X. CandyBar also lets you customize apps, folders, clipping icons, locations and even the OS X Trash icon!
Magic Number Machine - mac software for download at iusethis
A free, full-featured, graphically laid out, high-precision, scientific calculator.
A revolutionary calculator. And yet extremely easy to grasp. The way it should have been from the beginning.
pabrantes | 02-Dec-06 at 8:17 pm | Permalink
Congrats, you’ve put up a good List .
I didn’t know virtue desktops, I use desktop manager but I’m gonna give it a try to see if it is cooler:)
Regarding your browser choice..err… I’m a Safari guy nowadays, like it better
But oh well it’s a matter of taste.
pabrantes | 02-Dec-06 at 8:21 pm | Permalink
Oh and I forgot to say that you have forgotten one of the most kick ass applications, QuickSilver.
“A unified, extensible interface for working with
applications, contacts, music, and other data.”
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
I definatly cannot live without it!
pabrantes | 02-Dec-06 at 8:25 pm | Permalink
Not trying to spam your blog I must say I just installed virtue desktop and I have to say it’s cooler that desktop manager and it works with expose!
I’m happy, thanks for the tip!
pabrantes | 02-Dec-06 at 8:38 pm | Permalink
Damn I keep remembering things I forgot to post… Regarding remote desktop clients also check out Chickens of the VNC, http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/chickenofthevnc.html
Ok and that’s my last post (for now)
Sorry for the 4 posts
MANOWAR^ | 03-Dec-06 at 12:31 am | Permalink
Hehehe nothing wrong with some posting on the website
. As far as Quicksilver goes… I have not been able to get myself to use it… it just seems a bit too much work plus I have found that the combination of himmelbar, you control is so much nicer and easier than quicksilver+plugins. As far as Chicken of the VNC I would suggest you check out: http://osx.iusethis.com/app/vncdimension
And as far as Safari is concerned, well I used to use it but then I got Firefox and all the cool nifty little extensions that I can’t get for Safari and it made it a worth while switch… maybe I will switch back to it in Leopard.
pabrantes | 03-Dec-06 at 4:53 pm | Permalink
I can’t live without my command + space action type a few letters and I’m already firing up the application I wanted
And then all the quicksilver plugins indeed can get in handy… but I don’t use many.
I also know VNCDimension they say on the site it’s faster then Chicken but for me it looks the same, but I’ll give it another chance.
Well indeed firefox has much more extensions than Safari, but at least I found Safari capable of doing everything. Although I had to go to pimpmysafari.com and get a nice search system. I now have AcidSearch instead of just the regular google search.
Acid Search: http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/acid-search allows you to add search engines to your safari’s google search.
I have to admit I can’t live without at least dictionary.com, imdb and wikipedia