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Top 20 Must Have Apps!

N

NYU02

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 13, 2007
120
0
Just bought a new mac and want to know what are the TOP 20 must have apps for my computer. Please include if they are free or not.

Thank you very much! I'm very interested in seeing what software everyone loves.

Thanks,
NYU02
 
iVolume - not free
Acquisition - free (limited though)
Switch - free
Handbrake - free
MacTheRipper 3.0 - not free
Burn - free
Picturesque - not free
Vuze - free
GIMP - free
PaintBrush - free
MoofMenu - not free
Enigmo - not free
Solitaire XL - free
MathType - free for me (student)
MS Office - not free
AppZapper - not free

I just read the apps that were in my dock... probably a few more though.
 
Here is what I will get if I were to purchase a new mac, although unlikely

1. firefox, free
2. uTorrent, free
3. adium, free
4. gimp, free
5. google Earth, free
6. skype, free
7. vlc, free
8. adobe reader, free
9. ms office, not free
10, adobe photoshop, not free
11, adobe illustrator, not free
12. songbird, free
13. miro, free
14. avidemux, free

can't think of 20 now,
 
All depends what you want to use your Mac for

With the included apps you have a great selection, add in iWork and you dont need much more
 
Chase R said:
AppZapper - not free
Click to expand...

AppCleaner is free and does everything AppZapper does IIRC. AppCleaner also has SmartDelete which basically integrates it with your Trash, so you can just drag an app to the Trash and AppCleaner will run automatically. Not sure if AppZapper does this. Check it out.
 
Photoshop
Illustrator
Firefox
OneButton FTP (Free)
Sound Converter
VideoHub (Now in Limbo)
Audacity
Final Cut Pro
Motion
Soundtrack Pro
Compressor
DVD Studio Pro
InDesign
Acrobat Pro
Suitcase Fusion
Cocktail
Corel Painter
Carrara 3D
Arttext
Fireworks
 
Outside of the obvious ones that come with the Mac OS like iTunes, Preview, blah blah, my list would be:

System stuff:
1. iFreeMem (free)
2. DeLocalizer (free)
3. Onyx (free)
4. AppZapper (not free) / AppCleaner (free)

Work Stuff:
5-7. Adobe CS3 Design Premium (inc. total of three apps I use regularly)
8. Apple iWork (for Pages/Keynote) ($79)
9. Adobe Creative Suite
10. Transmit ($29)
11. VMWare Fusion

Miscellaneous:
12. Dropbox (free)
13. Dockless (free)
14. Audacity (free)
15. Audio Hijack Pro (not free)
16. Mac The Ripper
17. MPEG StreamClip (free)
18. iSquint (free... while it was available)
19. Omni Outliner (free)
20. Transmission (free)
 
There aren't any "must have" apps. You download apps to use.
Do you people download apps just to download apps? :confused:

And you definitely don't want Firefox over Safari. Slow bloated pos.
 
sleeptodream said:
And you definitely don't want Firefox over Safari. Slow bloated pos.
Click to expand...

speak for yourself only please, with safari consumes 2x memory and up to 100x HDD space, just to be undetectably "faster", I dont really get what you are trying to say.
 
I must admit that I find some of these programmes to be a bit disappointing. The free ones that is.

I have tried many of them with much enthusiasm then find out that they don;t really help me that much.
 
Chase R said:
iVolume - not free
Acquisition - free (limited though)
Switch - free
Handbrake - free
MacTheRipper 3.0 - not free
Burn - free
Picturesque - not free
Vuze - free
GIMP - free
PaintBrush - free
MoofMenu - not free
Enigmo - not free
Solitaire XL - free
MathType - free for me (student)
MS Office - not free
AppZapper - not free

I just read the apps that were in my dock... probably a few more though.
Click to expand...

How did you get MathType for free? On their website an academic license is $37.
 
Bye Bye Baby said:
I must admit that I find some of these programmes to be a bit disappointing. The free ones that is.

I have tried many of them with much enthusiasm then find out that they don;t really help me that much.
Click to expand...

You get what you pay for right? ;)

waffles123 said:
How did you get MathType for free? On their website an academic license is $37.
Click to expand...

Anyone that is taking physics classes at my college can have it for free. A school has to have a special license and not all schools have it. BTW it's not the current version... it's version 5.1 (PPC).
 
clevin said:
speak for yourself only please, with safari consumes 2x memory and up to 100x HDD space, just to be undetectably "faster", I dont really get what you are trying to say.
Click to expand...

Agreed. While I use and like Safari, there are just some things that Firefox handles immeasurably better, like Flash. It also isn't the memory drain that Safari 3 is.


The the OP, another thing I haven't seen mentioned yet (or it was and I missed it) is Flip4Mac. It's a free app which allows you to download and play WMV files which, since we live in a windows world, may be useful.

Try there sites for lists of other apps.
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=571489

http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2008/01/top-100-essential-mac-applications.html
 
 
It doesn't have to be Firefox specifically. I recommend having at least two web browsers on a computer. That's why I said I would download Firefox immediately.
 
miles01110 said:
..and Ad Blocking...and expandibility...and it just does little things better. Like just assuming that the "www" and/or ".com" is implied in a web address, for example (did Safari 4 fix that?).
Click to expand...

And most of all... animated GIFs! Safari 4 pretty much commits suicide when it encounters more than three at once or ones that are larger than normal.
 
NYU02 said:
Just bought a new mac and want to know what are the TOP 20 must have apps for my computer. Please include if they are free or not.

Thank you very much! I'm very interested in seeing what software everyone loves.

Thanks,
NYU02
Click to expand...

All these lists will be different for everyone. For example Yes "gimp" is OK but what if you already use Photoshop? Same with every one of the others on the lists posted so far. Sometimes I think people colect these apps just because they are free, not because they have a use for them.

The Mac comes with about 300 applications already pre-installed. Most people could not even tell you what 20% of these do.

The way to go is, when you have a problem to solve get the software that you need. maybe after a few years you might have added 20, maybe not.

Yes I do have a list of the apps I use and like the most. Topping the list are a couple from Apple (Aperture and Logic) and Adobe (Photoshop CS4) These apps are the entire reason I own a Mac. But mmaybe you are using the Mac to work in Video post production. Then you've have a different list then a person who most plays games.
 
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