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OCC's Definitive Mac OS X Software List

d3bruts1d

By d3bruts1d
in OS: Non-Microsoft

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d3bruts1d Newbie

d3bruts1d

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Over the last several weeks, I've noticed that there are actually quite a few people here at OCC that are either using OS X or considering switching to a Mac. Apple use to use the slogan "Think Different" and when you switch from Windows to OS X that is exactly what you have to do.

 

You not only have to learn to use a different operating system, you'll most likely need to find software that will allow you to continue doing what you did with Windows. When I switched, I found this thread @ Neowin.net to be an extremely useful place start.

 

So here is OCC's Definitive Mac OS X Software List. All software should be free, and universal, unless otherwise noted. Also, let me know if anything should be added. Will update as I can.

 

Web Browsers

  • Firefox - Gecko/Mozilla based browser that everyone knows.
  • Flock - Gecko/Mozilla based browser designed for Social Network lovers.
  • Camino - Gecko/Mozilla based browser designed exclusively for OS X (Cocoa).
  • Opera - Fast browser with built in email and BitTorrent.
  • Safari - Apple's WebKit based browser, included with OS X.
  • WebKit - Basically the nightly builds of Safari.
  • Shiira - Lite WebKit based brower designed as a Safari alternative.
  • OmniWeb - WebKit based browser with many extras. $15

Instant Messaging & IRC

RSS/Atom

  • NetNewsWire - One of the fastest and streamlined aggregators.
  • NewsFire - One of the slickest RSS readers.
  • Vienna - RSS reader.

Office/Productivity

  • OpenOffice.org - Free office suite, compatible with Microsoft Office.
  • iWork - Apple's Office Suite. $80
  • Office 2008 - Microsoft's Office for Mac. $150+
  • NeoOffice - OS X specific build of OpenOffice.org.
  • WriteRoom - $25
  • Schoolhouse - Assignment organizer for students
  • Scrivener - Word processor. $35
  • OmniFocus - Professional task-management. $80
  • OmniGraffle - Awesome chart & diagram app. $80
  • Evernote - Create private and public notes (text, audio, and video) for later use. View online or on your iPhone.
  • Anxiety - To Do list that syncs with iCal, OS X 10.5 only.
  • Letterbox - Give mail.app a three vertical column look like Entourage.
  • BusySync - Sync iCal across a network or with Google Calendar. $25
  • Spanning Sync - Sync iCal with Google Calendar and Address Book with Google Contacts. $25/$65
  • BusyCal - Called "iCal Pro". Can sync with the iPhone and MobileMe. $40
  • Things - Simplistic but powerful task management software. $50
  • On The Job - Time and expense tracking, also does invoices. $40

Graphics/Design

  • Adobe Creative Suite 4 - Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign, etc. Will cost an arm and a leg.
  • Pixelmator - Image editor. $59
  • Gimp - GNU Image Manipulation Program. Free and open source.
  • Acorn - Easy & powerful image editor. $39
  • DrawIt - Image editor. $39
  • Pixen - Pixel image editor
  • iPalette - Color utility.
  • Layers - Take a screenshot of your desktop, creating a PSD file with each app in its own layer.
  • ImageWell - Image editor.
  • Aperture - Apple's professional RAW work flow app. $300
  • Lightroom - Adobe's counter to Aperture. $300
  • GraphicConverter - Image editor. $30
  • Picaresque - Quick image editor geared towards web images. $20
  • Seashore - Based on GIMP but in Cocoa.
  • LiveQuartz - Image editor.
  • Paintbrush - Bitmap editor.
  • PhotoLine - Image editor. $90
  • Raw Developer - RAW image processing. $125
  • VectorDesigner - Vector drawing app. $69
  • Picasa - Google's photo organizer and iPhoto competitor. Almost identical to the Windows version.
  • iPhoto - Apple's photo and image organization utility. Part of the iLife suite, included on new Macs. $79/$99 (Suite)

Multimedia

  • VLC - Amazing media player.
  • Perian - Component for QT which plays a wide assortment of codecs/containers.
  • Flip4Mac - WMV/WMA components for Mac.
  • ffmpegX - Video and audio encoding tool.
  • VisualHub - Universal video converter. $23
  • Xee - Image viewer.
  • Max - Ripper with various codec support including flac, ogg, etc.
  • Audio Hijack Pro - Record streams from almost any source. $32
  • Handbrake - Awesome DVD ripper/converter. Options for iPhone, AppleTV, HDTV, etc.
  • MacTheRipper - DVD ripper.
  • KillTheRipper - MacTheRipper adds a hidden folder that contains a list of all DVDs that you have ripped, this will kill that folder.
  • MPlayerOSX - Media player.
  • Audacity - Audio editor.
  • Senuti - Get songs off your iPod (spell senuti backwards).
  • Cog - iTunes alternative.
  • CoverSutra - Control iTunes, and display what's playing on your desktop. $15
  • Amadeus Pro - Audio editor. $40
  • Audial Hub - Universal audio converter. $19
  • Podcast Maker
  • Delicious Library - Amazing app to keep track of movies, music, tools, gadgets, etc. Also supports exporting to the web (see example). $40
  • iSquint - iPod video conversion.
  • Nice Player - Video player that uses QuickTime's codecs.
  • EXIF Viewer - EXIF viewer.
  • You Control Tunes - iTunes control.
  • Last.fm - Keep track of the music you listen to and find new music. Don't forget to join the OCC Group!
  • TiVo Butler - Track programs from multiple TiVo units.
  • Tangerine - Analyzes the BPM and the beat intensity of your music, to create custom playlists. $25

Customization

  • Shapeshifter - Theme changer for use with GUIKits. $20
  • CandyBar - System wide icon replacement, integrated with Pixadex. $29
  • LiteIcon - Alternative to CandyBar.
  • ThemePark - Theme creation software.
  • Uno - System wide unified theme.
  • Visage Login - Login screen customization.
  • Dislaperture - Rounded corners in Leopard (10.5).

FTP, P2P & Downloading

Development/Editors

System Maintenance & Other Utilities

  • Onyx - System utilities and tweaking.
  • Mac Pilot - Unlock hidden tools & features of OS X. $20
  • AppZapper - Removes extra stuff left behind by removed apps. $13
  • AppCleaner - Alternative to AppZapper.
  • CleanApp - Similar to AppZapper, deletes based on application monitoring. $10
  • iDefrag - Advanced defragmentation of your HDD. $30
  • Tidy Up! - Searches for duplicate files and packages. $30
  • WhatSize - See what's taking up space.
  • Monolingual - Remove unnecessary language files.
  • Cocktail - System tweaks and utilities. $15
  • Xslimmer - Remove unnecessary code from your apps. $12
  • PathFinder - Finder replacement. $35
  • Hardware Monitor - Monitor most sensors. $10
  • The Unarchiver - Unarchiver.
  • BetterZip - Archiving/extracting utility. $20
  • StuffIt - File compression & archive utility. Free-$80
  • AppFresh - Check for software updates.
  • coconutbattery - Battery utility for MacBooks.
  • iPartition - Intelligent partitioning without destroying data. $45
  • UnRarX - Expand and restore corrupt RAR archives.
  • Pacifist - Extract individual files & folders from pkg, dmg, tar, tgz, tar.gz.
  • TinkerTool - Similar to Cocktail.
  • BitClamp - Trusted strong encryption. $20
  • iStats - System monitoring tool
  • SecureFiles - Create password protected encrypted disk images.
  • SpringyArchiver - Archive utility. $18
  • Chicken of the VNC - VNC client.
  • Psst - Change the volume of the startup chime.
  • InsomniaX - Disable sleep on your MacBook.

Misceallenous

  • Quicksilver - Extensible app-launcher and data manger.
  • Witch - Switch to different windows, not just different applications, open/close minimized windows.
  • Toast 9 - Highly rated burning software. $80
  • Burn - Burning software.
  • Growl - System wide notification app.
  • Adobe AIR - Runtime for rich internet apps outside of the browser.
  • WinSwitch - Keyboard shortcut for fast user switching.
  • FFView - Comic viewer.
  • MarsEdit - Blog publishing application. $29
  • Blogo - Blog publishing application. $25
  • Ecto - Blog publishing application. $18
  • File List - Batch file rename.
  • Awaken - Alarm clock & sleep timer. $13
  • Paparazzi - Take full size screen shots of web pages.
  • Wallet - Keep track of all your passwords and keys. $15
  • 1 Password - Manage passwords, secure notes, automatically log into websites. $40-$65
  • LightMe - Keyboard shortcut to turn off your monitor.
  • Mactracker - Detailed information on every Apple Macintosh computer ever made.
  • Sticky Windows - Tab browsing to your desktop. $16
  • Overflow - Application organizer. $15
  • iClip - Multiple clipboard and scrap manager. $29
  • SiteCrawler - Website downloading application. $20
  • Stellarium - Astronomy application.
  • iShowU - Record anything from your screen. $20
  • Jing - Like iShowU but limited to only exporting to .swf.
  • pzizz - Need help going to sleep? $30
  • Remote Buddy - Extra features for your remote. $27
  • grabbICON - Get the application icon without going through the whole package.
  • Cooliris - Previews search results instead of links in your browser.
  • PicLens - Online image viewer for sites such as flickr, Google images, etc
  • JumpCut - Clipboard buffering software.
  • CoRD - Remote desktop client for Windows servers using the RDP protocol.
  • Wallpaper Clocks - Shows time/date on desktop.
  • LittleSecrets - Utility to encrypt private data. $9
  • Wakoopa - Keep track of what apps you use. - Don't forget to join the OCC Team!
  • Folding@Home - Use your computer to help find a cure for cancer. Don't forget to join the OCC Team!
  • Google Earth - Satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky.
  • Google Desktop - Find and launch applications, add gadgets (widgets), and more.

Backup

Usenet/Newsgroups

  • Unison - Newsgroup reader. $25
  • MT-NewsWatcher - Alternative to Unison. Free
  • Thoth - Discontinued, but still distributed as shareware.
  • Osiris - Add-on to MT-NewsWatcher/Thoth to automate posting.

Networking

Safari Plug ins

Quick Look Plugins

  • Folder QL - Inspect a folder with Quick Look.
  • Zip QL - Inspect a ZIP with Quick Look.

Menubar Extras

Virtualization

  • VMWare Fusion - Popular Virtual Machine software for OS X. Allows running of Windows apps seamlessly with OS X. $80
  • Parallels - Competitor to VMWare Fusion. $80
  • VirtualBox - Competitor to VMWare Fusion.

Dashboard Widgets

Security & Antivirus

Edited by d3bruts1d

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Kash Newbie

Kash

Posted
Posted

Wow D3, I didn't realize that you were that much into Macs.

 

This is an excellent list, I couldn't think of anything to add to it. I would also recommend the Missing Manual, I bought one for Tiger back when I first got my Mac and it's been a tremendous help.

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d3bruts1d Newbie

d3bruts1d

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I've updated the list and added a few more things to it and moved a couple of items around.

 

 

Wow D3, I didn't realize that you were that much into Macs.

When I got my Mac, I wasn't expecting much out of it. Heck, I made fun of 'em for years. But it really hooked me, and it is all I use at the house. My old PC (AMD64 3000+) has basically been taken over by the wife. I never use it anymore. The only time I'm on a Windows system these days is when I'm on the XBox 360 or at work, and I'm trying to get management at both jobs to spring for a Mac. :D

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CelticaFLM Newbie

CelticaFLM

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I've updated the list and added a few more things to it and moved a couple of items around.

 

 

 

When I got my Mac, I wasn't expecting much out of it. Heck, I made fun of 'em for years. But it really hooked me, and it is all I use at the house. My old PC (AMD64 3000+) has basically been taken over by the wife. I never use it anymore. The only time I'm on a Windows system these days is when I'm on the XBox 360 or at work, and I'm trying to get management at both jobs to spring for a Mac. :D

 

 

 

And by "taken over by the wife" he means I got the scraps. I wouldn't mind having a Mac myself.......

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