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Does the world need another “Essential OS X Apps” list?  Probably not, but my friend Chris does.  He is buying his first Apple computer (not counting the iPod touch, of course) and asked me for my recommendations.  Maybe you will find this list useful too.

(All the apps listed here are free as in beer, by the way, unless I say different when describing that app.  You will also notice that many URLs contain the word “sourceforge” so many are free as in speech, too.)

Install These Right Away

If I had a brand new, out of the box Mac, there I are three programs I would install RIGHT AWAY, even before changing my desktop background, and probably in this order:

• Firefox – My favourite browser, mostly because: it doesn’t suck ass like Explorer (though many browsers can make that claim, including OS X’s bundled browser Safari) AND; it’s free (but again, so is Safari) AND; extensions rock the casbah (sorry, Safari).
• Quicksilver – An app launcher app, and so much more.  You can launch web bookmarks, have multiple clipboard items, append text to lists, use it as a calculator, and that’s just to get you going.  The developer claims that once you start using it, computers that don’t have it will appear broken.  A bold claim, but one that is 100% true.
• jEdit – An awesome text editor.  Has syntax support for a number of programming languages, a plug-in structure for adding specific functionality (examples: text expanding, “online” editing, text folding, file comparisons and so forth).  Admittedly, if you don’t spend a lot of time wading around in text files, this might not be so necessary.

Get These ASAP

With Firefox and Quicksilver on board, we can slow it down a little.  These next apps are definite “must haves,” but I wouldn’t worry about installing them right away, just as needed.  Alphabetically, we have:

• Audacity – Audio editor.  Doesn’t work with all file types, so you will need some audio conversion tools, which are further down the list.
• Burn – A disk burning util, which gives you more options on how your disks are written.
• Chicken of the VNC – A VNC client that seems to work for me.
• CiphSafe – A password storage program.
• Cyberduck – An FTP program (though I find myself using the FireFTP extension for Firefox more and more, since it is quicker to start-up and I usually have FF open anyway).  Has Growl support, which is nice for those long file transfers.
• ffmpegX – A shareware video conversion program.
• File List (now Name Mangler) – An INCREDIBLY USEFUL (back to free) program which renames files.  It doesn’t sound so sexy until the first time you need it and then you realize how much it r0x.  I considered putting this in the first list, it’s that cool.
• Flickr Uploadr – A program that uploads photos to Flickr.  I don’t use it that much, but only because I’m not much of a photo guy, not because it sucks or anything like that.
• Flip4Mac – A program that sets up your Mac so that Windows Media files play through QuickTime.  Very nice.
• FontAgent Pro – One of the few commercial apps on the list, this program does a great job of managing fonts for OS X, which  is something I have always thought was a pain in the ass.  If you aren’t a font junkie, you might not care about this so much.
• Freemind – Mind-mapping software.  Great for brainstorming.
• Fugu – An SFTP client.  Some people seem to hate it, but I haven’t found a reason to look for something else.
• The GIMP – Okay, I have Photoshop (I own a design studio with a couple of partners, so it’s essential to my business) but if I was just looking for an awesome, free image editing program, this is what I would get.
• Growl – A helper program that pops up notifications, if other programs choose to use it.  More awesome than it sounds, because notifications become consistent and less obtrusive.
• HandBrake – Another useful video conversion program.
• JDiskReport – A great, cross-platform app that shows you how your disk-space is being used.  Hopefully, on a new Mac, you won’t need this for a while!
• MacTheRipper – An app for ripping DVDs.
• Max – An audio file conversion program.  Used it just the other day!
• Minuteur – A simple timer program.  You can set alarms for X minutes from now, or for specific times.
• NeoOffice – Probably the first program you will install from this list, this is an office suite based on OpenOffice.org, which lets you create MS Office compatible text documents, spreadsheets, slide-show presentations and so forth.
• NetNewsWire – A cool RSS reader.  I have never been a fan of Google reader, and this program is great because you can get a NetNewsWire app for your iPhone which syncs with your desktop one.
• Nocturne – A great app that makes your display go monochrome and/or inverts the colours.  Great for late-night coding.
• Remote Desktop Connection – A program that lets you connect your Mac to your Windows box at work.
• SlimBatteryMonitor – Another awesome app whose importance isn’t realized until it is used, this replaces OS X’s horizontal laptop battery indicator in the status bar and replaces it with a VERTICAL one.  Seriously, it rocks.
• Switch – Yet another audio converter.
• Tomato Torrent – A simple torrent client.
• TonicPoint Viewer – The downside of NeoOffice is that, like MS Office, it is pretty bloated and slow.  This lets you quickly view any PowerPoint files without having to fire up the behemoth. Turns out that the company that makes this was bought in 2007 by Google.  Maybe someone knows of an alternative?
• UnRarX – Useful for un-RARing files, where ever you are getting those from.
• VLC – A video and DVD player that happily skips past all the commercials at the start of the disc and ignores its DRM too.

Mac Stuff You May Actually Use

Apple actually makes software you might want to use, and all of it is bundled with OS X.

• Activity Monitor – Sometimes, your computer will slow down.  You can use this to figure out why.
• Address Book – All your contact info goes in here.  Then, they can be synced to your phone, used in Mail, etc.
• Finder – The OS X file browser.  More awesome than Explorer, especially the “column” view, which is very quick and easy to use.
• Grab – A screen grab utility.  It won’t let you do screen caps from DVD player, but you’re using VNC now, aren’t you?
• iCal – A pretty good calendar app if you don’t need to view your items on another computer, or need to share it with another person.  Then, you need to sign up for Apple’s MobileMe pay-service, and you should then just use Google Calendars instead.
• Image Capture – A utility program for getting images of your camera, or your scanner, etc.
• iTunes – Honestly, the best music app for the Mac.  I loved WinAmp when I was a PC dude, but I haven’t found anything like that for the Mac, and Songbird is still a long way away.
• Mail – A good mail client.  Thunderbird is good too, but I like Mail.
• Preview – A PDF and image viewer.
• Safari – A good browser which unfortunately isn’t as good as Firefox.  You may have another opinion, though.
• Stickies – A cute app for leaving quick notes for yourself without wasting paper
• QuickTime Player – A video and audio player that you will use for most web-based audio and video that isn’t wrapped in Flash
• Terminal – The command-line interface for OS X.  Yes, you may never need to get in there, but it’s more fun that way.  Also, lets you see hidden files, which Finder doesn’t.
• TextEdit – A quick and dirty text and RTF editor.  Warning:  TextEdit thinks it can open doc files.  Don’t bother.  Use NeoOffice instead.

Mac Stuff You Will Hate

Yes, Apple also makes stuff you will hate.  Here are my favourites for this list:

• iLife – So…VERY…disappointing.  You get the impression that these apps will have you making cool beat samples in GarageBand, and making cool movies in iMovie, and authoring cool DVDs in iDVD, but the apps are so basic that you feel like all you are making is shit.  And so far, I have yet to see anything made in iLife that proves me wrong.
• Automator – Also…very…disappointing.  You get the impression that you will be able to create all these cool scripts to take care of routine processes you can’t otherwise take care off.  Turns out, the command list is so limited, you can’t do fuck all useful with it.  Boo!
• DVD Player – I guess there is nothing wrong with it, but why use it when there is so much right with VLC?  Plus, the first thing you want to do when you can’t take a screen grab because DVD Player won’t let you is to put your fist through the screen while yelling, “You can’t tell me what to do!”  Annoying.
• Dashboard – Ho hum.  I can check the weather.  Or use a calculator.  Or see what time it is.  Oh, and all the data takes 60 seconds to load?  And takes a meg and a half of memory?  For each app?!?  Never mind.

I feel a little bad about ending on a sour note.  Honestly, my iBook G4 is my favourite computer of all the ones I have ever used, and seems just as quick and useful as when I bought it four years ago.  And OS X is, to me, the perfect blend of UNIX power and dumbed-down usability.  I guess the moral is, “Don’t let a few bad apps ruin the whole bunch.”