Without going into what I could call
work applications, here is a list of small and handy programs I use in my personal life.
These are free to download and use, just Google them:
- Firefox: Alternative to Safari.
- gDisk: "Turns your GMail account into a portable hard drive so you can always have your important files accessible accross the Internet."
- Flip4Mac: Windows Media Components for QuickTime.
- Transmission: Lightweight BitTorrent client.
- Azureus: Full featured BitTorrent client.
- VLC: Convenient media player.
- HandBrake: DVD to MPEG-4 converter.
- iSquint: Converts most video files to iPod compliant format.
- Adium X: Multiple protocol IM client.
I think that's about it for free applications, for me anyway.
Some of the ones you have to pay for:
- DVD2oneX: DVD ripper.
- AppZapper: Application uninstaller.
- Fetch: FTP client.
- Toast: CD and DVD burning.
As for things that would modify the UI and make it
cooler looking as you would put it, there is CandyBar, Stattoo, ShapeShifter and a bunch of others. But I don't use those because I don't see the point of modifying the interface but that's just me.
You don't really have to get Toast if you don't need more than burning data discs, by the way. OS X will do that by itself.
) 
