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The Unheard Word

One woman's slightly skewed views

My top ten must-have Mac OSX applications

A fellow Webweaver is “switching” from PC to Mac, and asked the Mac users on our email list which Mac software we consider to be must-haves — aside from what is already pre-installed. So as a follow-up to the Apple Mail post, I decided to compile a list of (some of) my favourites.

  1. Quicksilver (application launcher and much more. Saves me oodles of time and is always the first thing I install on a new system)
  2. SpamSieve (it’s super-accurate, and, when used in conjunction with Dockless, I never even know it’s there)
  3. Studiometry (I totally depend on this for my project management and billing — I love it!)
  4. Transmit (powerful FTP client — the DockSend function is a huge time-saver)
  5. Adium (multi-protocol IM client… I’ve tried ’em all but Adium is by far the most mature)
  6. Hogwasher (newsgroup reader — a few quirks but offers convenient features no other OSX newsgroup reader currently offers)
  7. NetNewsWire (a newsfeed reader I really love. I just about live in this proggy)
  8. Growl (notification utility)
  9. CiphSafe (password manager)
  10. MailUnreadStatusBar (a menubar icon displays the number of unread emails in Apple Mail — in any folder/s, not just the Inbox)

As previously mentioned, I’m a software junkie and it is really hard to narrow the list down to just ten items. (So I cheated a bit and snuck Dockless in there with SpamSieve. πŸ˜‰ But I couldn’t work out how to sneak any more in!) I also left out such software as Dreamweaver, Fireworks and StyleMaster, as they are not exclusive to Mac OSX.

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3 Responses to “My top ten must-have Mac OSX applications”

  1. JonasÒ€ℒ blog » More on mac applications Says:

    […] Stumbled over this list from Unheardword which add some applications (and links!) to my list. […]

  2. Peter Anderson Says:

    You really need to take a look at Windows – Text editors such as TextPad make the life of a web page designer very easy. FileZilla is a very good FTP client. etc. etc. While I probably share your dislike for all things “Microsoft” you can’t beat market share – 95% market share probably means 95% of developers are working on that platform.

    Regards,
    Peter

    PS: I got over my “Mac adiction” many years ago. Microsoft might be bastards, but Apple just pretend not to be.

  3. Vicki Says:

    Hi Peter,

    I worked full time on Windows, with OSX at home, until a year ago when I left to run my own business, and I know well what Windows is like, and I worked with many of the webdev applications. Some are quite good, I agree. I just prefer OSX and its applications. (I don’t know TextPad, but Transmit runs circles around FileZilla.)

    Personal choice. To each their own, etc etc. πŸ™‚

    (Indeed, I have a Windows machine here too, but only use it for testing.)

    But… if it’s many years since you looked at Macs, you’d probably love to have a look at OSX which is radically different to OS9 and below. I would not have “switched” to OS9, but OSX is different altogether. Admittedly, for the first couple of days I hated it and thought I’d made the most expensive mistake of my life Ò€” but now, obviously, I’ve changed my mind. πŸ™‚

    In any case, I wasn’t intending to bag Microsoft, just to share my favourite OSX apps. πŸ™‚