list

It’s been a year and change since I switched to a Mac. Over that period I’ve collected an assortment of software that I use all the time and find indispensable now. I wanted to have a list just in case I needed to get a new Mac up to speed.

It later dawned on me that other people might find the list useful as well. I think all these apps are fantastic, many of them made even more fantastic by the fact that they are from small indy developers. Be warned, some of this stuff needs to be purchased for it to work right. Good software costs good money. Anyway, on to the list: 

1. iWork ’08 - Microsoft Office can suck it
2. CS4 Design Premium – Tools of the trade
3. Coda - The best damned web site development tool out there
4. VMWare Fusion – Current virtualization tool of choice
5. MacFUSE – Read/Write NTFS (among other things)
6. MozyHome – Cloud backup
7. SuperDuper! – Disaster recovery image creator extraordinaire
8. Logbook – Backpack journal logging client
9. Twitterific – Twitter client of choice + iPhone client
10. CoverSutra – Rate songs in iTunes using keyboard shortcuts, also, looks fantastic
11. MediaLink – Shares my Mac’s media library with the Playstation upstairs
12. Adium – MSN and more
13. Skype – VOIP done right
14. LoudHush – Asterisk IAX client for Mac
15. PodWorks – Copy songs off iPods/iPhones straight into iTunes
16. VLC – Because QuickTime isn’t good enough
17. Perian – Also because QuickTime isn’t good enough
18. Things – Task management + iPhone sync
19. NetNewsWire – RSS reader of choice
20. Firefox (with Firebug and View source chart)
21. PoxNora – Addictive little bugger
22. LaunchBar – Current launcher of choice, Quicksilver/Butler close second
23. OmniGraffle – Flowcharts and diagrams
24. Xtorrent – BitTorrent client of choice
25. Amazon MP3 Downloader – Yes, I buy my music
26. Cha-Ching – Money management
27. Colloquy – When EFNet beckons
28. GoToMeeting – Easy cross-platform conference + VOIP + screen sharing
29. Handbrake (and the replacement icon because I hate pineapples) – Video encoding
30. Transmit – FTP client of choice
31. Proxifier – For circumventing draconian Omani internet restrictions
32. Remote Desktop Connection – Windows RDC for Mac
33. smcFanControl – Currently boosting MBP fans to 4000rpm, India is hot
34. ScreenFlow – Kickass Screencast creator
35. VoodooPad – Wiki notes
36. StuffIt – For those pesky old archives and RARs
37. Sequel Pro (used to be CocoaMySQL) – MySQL manager