Application suggestions

Browser - try 'em all, but I tend to use either the Firefox 3 beta or Omniweb. FF3 feels much more like a native app than earlier versions (especially with the GrApple theme for FF3), so might well be the top recommendation for a lot of people over the coming months. Camino is essentially a native GUI wrapped around the Mozilla rendering engine - it's good, but lacks FF's plugins. I _want_ to like Safari, but just can't get on with it - your mileage may vary.

Notepad: Free - try TextWrangler or Smultron - both excellent. Shareware - BBEdit and TextMate are the kings - BBEdit is a tad overpriced IMHO, but TextMate is equally awesome if you're a power user and much less expensive.

FTP: Free - Cyberduck. Great little app. Shareware - Fetch, Interarchy and Transmit all have their proponents. All good - give 'em a try.

BitTorrent: Transmission is liked by a lot of folks. Personally I use BitsOnWheels, which is freeware and has been 100% reliable here.

Media Player? iTunes + Quicktime does it for me... If you need WMV support, take a look at Flip4Mac, which is a QT plugin. Perian is another plugin package that adds a few more codecs

.zip is built into OS X, but The Unarchiver is a more powerful alternative and free. BetterZip is also well worth a look if you want to create archives other than .zip. I'd avoid Stuffit, though (which is the other major contender) as it's expensive and buggy.

IM: Googletalk is just a Jabber-based service, so works fine with iChat. If you want a multi-protocol messenger, though, try Adium - it's possibly the best available on any platform (although still not perfect *grin*).

You'll find all of the above software with a quick search on MacUpdate or VersionTracker.

 

Codecs: Perian and Flip4mac

 

Azureus isn't pretty, but it's a lot better at handling a large number of torrents than Transmission is. If he won't be working with more than a dozen or so at a time (seeding, downing, etc), Transmission is simple and attractive. If he needs µTorrent-like maneuverability, recommend Azureus.

There isn't anything like Media Player Classic on the Mac; the closest thing is VLC, which has the same flaws in OS X it does in XP.

For browsers, Firefox is consistent from XP to OS X.