Michele’s Freeminding

A few of my friends are becoming switchers and buying Macs — and maybe it’s partly my fault . ;)
So, I’d like to make a list of useful apps a use everyday for them — and everybody else — to get the most out of their Macs.

Web Browser

Safari (free): a web browser is probably the most used app by everybody, so it has to be light, fast and easy to use: that’s something Safari does great.
It’s UI is very intuitive and essential. It’s rendering engine is fast and mostly comparable in compatibility to Mozilla’s.

Camino (free): as its website says, it has Mozilla’s power, but with Mac style. Much better than its brother Firefox.

Mail

Mail.app (free): your usual mail program, but much better!
It fits perfectly within the system and can interact with most of the other application.
There’s no real competition for this one… :)

RSS Reader

Newsfire RSS (paid): an extremely light UI makes it for this one. It’s extremely functional and well-thought. Makes reading feeds much easier and faster. It does podcasts.
Lately, it surpassed NetNewsWire in my preferences.

Vienna (free): it’s very similar to Newsfire RSS, but it’s opensource. And it’s an app that proves OS software can be well designed. Given it’s OS X native, it feels like an OS X app, not like most opensource apps that have been ported to OS X.
It still has a few glitches, but nothing major. My biggest concern with the app is it doesn’t do multiple downloads, so it take a while to refresh all of the feeds. Otherwise, nice nice!
(Added Nov. 20th, 2005)

Text Editor

TextMate (paid): it’s a very well-thought editor. Great expandability.
And I guess it’s the only one that supports RubyOnRails properly.

Smultron (free): if you need a free text editor, Smultron is a no brainer.
It’s easy to add support for new programming languages and support code snippets very well. Plus, it’s opensource!

Note Taking

Noted (free): if you need a program to jot down quick notes, this is the one for you!
The UI is very minimal and intuitive. Uses very few resources.
Oh, and I’m the mind behind it…so you know where to head if you need help! :D

Organizing

OmniOuliner (paid): this one is a pure outliner. And is a great outliner, too, which means it’s extremely versatile.
If you need a way to organize your personal life, work, school, this is an app you might want to use.
I love it because I can create a different structure for each purpose.

VoodooPad (both free and paid): it allows you to create a local Wiki.
While it’s probably overkill for quick note-tacking, it is wonderful to organize my thought and keep different kind of information tidly ordered in one place.
(Added May. 29th, 2006)

FTP

Transmit (paid): if you do FTP and have a Mac, you sure have happened to try this one.
It’s considered the best FTP client by almost everyone — me, too — and Panic does a great job at keeping it ahead of the others.
Great UI, fast and FTP-licious. ;)

Cyberduck (free): it’s the best free FTP client you can get. Still miss a few things, though.
Anyway, it’s nice, fast and opensource. Plus, the developer is quickly adding features and making it better.
I guess it might become the best one also among paid ones anytime soon.

Chat

Adium (free): it handles almost every protocol, it’s opensource, extremely personalizable and very light on resources usage. What more could you possibly want?

X-Chat Aqua (free): if you happen to use IRC, you should use this one.
It has a very familiar look and feel to usual IRC users, plus it’s free and opensource.

Misc

Quicksilver (free): this is an extremely useful app, but also one that’s very difficult to explain what it does, because it does almost everything. Lets say it’s like Spotlight, but much much better and with more features.
This might be helpful in understanding what it does.

Ecto (paid): this one is a blogging tool. It allows you to manage your blogs from your desktop and it does it perfectly! It also helps in keeping a backup copy of your precious posts.
It’s great if you manage more than one blog.

Update (Nov. 20th, 2005): here’s a few more apps I’ve started to love after writing this list.

Cashbox (free): it’s a very simple and well-thought app to manage personal finances.
It still has a few things to fix here and there, but overall it works great and gets the job done. Plus it’s opensource…what’s better?

iBackup (free for personal use): this little app makes making backups as easy as it should be.
It can automatically backup various Mac OS X settings and preferences: mails, bookmarks, apps preferences, system preferences, etc.

Update (May. 29th, 2006):

Inkscape (free): an amazing app for vector drawing.
Sure, it’s not as fancy as Adobe Illustrator, but it’s open source and works perfect.
It needs X11.

VLC (free): need the best video player in town? Go no further.
And it’s open source. :)

This post was written 3 years, 8 months ago on October 18th, 2005 late afternoon.