OS X Applications

Here's a list of some of the apps that I recommend to others - especially those who are new to OS X. It doesn't include the standard apps that most people know about - instead it is intended to be a heads-up for some apps that you might need or want but might otherwise escape your attention.

Of course this list has apps that appeal to me and so you are likely to find that some of them are of no interest or use to you.

The two main places to look for apps are:

• www.macupdate.com
  
• www.versiontracker.com

Getting open source software

• Fink
• MacPorts

System Utilities

keyboard-based launchers (and pasteboard extenders)

• LaunchBar
• QuickSilver
• Butler
• PTHPasteboard

system monitors

• X Resource Graph

wireless (Airport) monitors

• iStumbler
• Airport Management Tools (Apple) (see the link on the bottom right of that web page)

disk repair (filesystem repair)

• DiskWarrior

disk space utilities

• Disk Inventory X
• JDiskReport
• GrandPerspective
• OmniDiskSweeper

removal of extra languages & architectures (to save disk space)

• Monolingual

screen capture utilities

• FreeSnap (free and quite good)
• SnapZPro (great but costs $$)

remote control of other (Mac or otherwise) computers

VNC (server & client) - google to find out about this - note that Leopard's "Screen Sharing" in the Sharing preferences provides a VNC server.

contextual menu utility

• OnMyCommand (provides access to Unix commands and AppleScripts via the contextual menu - i.e. via right-click)

man page utilities

• Bwana (man pages in the browser)

backup utilities

• SuperDuper
• Carbon Copy Cloner

preference panes

• RCDefaultApp (to set file associations for extensions, MIME-types, etc)

extracting files from packages (e.g. the Install CD/DVD)

• Pacifist

to keep my Downloads folder organized by date

• FolderOrg

prevent Mac from dimming screen or sleeping when no keyboard or mouse movement

• Jiggler
• Caffeine

to change the screen colours and brightness for low-light situations

• DarkAdapted

to put weather info (current conditions & forecasts) in your menubar or Dock

• Meteorologist

GUI for the 'locate' command

• Locator

Text editing

• Text Wrangler (an extremely capable text editor - free!)
• SubEthaEdit (collaborative editing over the network)
• Komodo Edit (powerful text editor with syntax checking for Perl, Python, etc - free!)

Graphics

image editing & browsing

• Graphic Converter

technical drawing/diagramming

• OmniGraffle

Network debugging & scanning

• Wireshark (low-level packet inspection)
• Zenmap (GUI for 'nmap' security scanner)

Audio

• Audacity (general audio editor)
• Audacity tutorial
• SignalScope (oscilloscope)
• Play Sound (faceless background app for playing sound files)

Video

• VLC video player (alternative to QuickTime Player, has some advantages)
• Perian (component for QuickTime that supports almost all "other" video formats)
• EvoCam (webcam software but more generally useful)

Music

iTunes utilities

• pearLyrics (finds lyrics for songs)

Web

offline web page viewing

• SiteSucker (downloads a copy of a web site to your Mac)

web page RSS reader

• NetNewsWire Lite

web proxy server (runs on your Mac) - customizable filtering of ads, etc

• Privoxy
  • ClickToFlash Block Adobe Flash on web pages - but view blocked Flash with just one click

  P2P

  • Acquisition
  • Transmission

  Running MS Windows

  • VirtualBox Free and open-source virtualization (you need a valid MS Windows CD)

  Software development

  • AppKido (Cocoa docs)
  • Apple's performance tools (Note especially "Shark" - comes with the "CHUD Tools" - allows easy determination of hot spots)
  • ValueConverter (allows you to easily convert between various numerical formats: decimal, hex, binary, etc)
  • Hex Fiend (hex editor that handles very large files)

  Science/Math

  • Atom in a Box
  • SysQuake LE
  • Golly: Conway's Life cellular automata

  Games

  chess

  • SigmaChess/Hiarcs
  • ExaChess database

  other games

  • JewelToy

Mac OS X  /  Favourite Applications