It’s now official – I’m a Mac user. After flirting with Ubuntu Linux for a year, watching Knut Sætre (my coworker) use his MacBook Pro and reading all the switch stories around the net I decided time had come for a change. So far, I’m definitely not regretting anything. OS X seems to me like Plug ‘n Play the way it was supposed to work. Everything integrates out of the box, and I’ve so far never even SEEN the word "driver". :D I’ve always meant that my "work computer" should work without fiddling and never need tweaking. This was the reason I waited so long to try Linux, and this is exactly the reason I love OS X.

As those who know me might know, I love researching stuff on the net. In addition to that, I’ve also got a personal policy of always using freeware when it does the job – my own way of avoiding pirated software. It also helps freeware authors get a nice user mass, so I can’t say I feel sorry for NOT buying commercial alternatives.

So one of the first things I did (actually before I received my black new-model MacBook with 2GB ram) was researching for apps I needed. And now, after actually testing them I figured I might publish my findings, so others could benefit from it as well. :) So here it is, my list of Mac OS X "must have" freewares:

0xED

There comes a time in every man’s life where he needs a hex editor. This is it, ’nuff said.

Adium

When first arriving from Windows, a Jabber transport (in iChat) was the only way to view your MSN contacts statusmessages. But since then, Adium (and libpidgin) has received proper MSN protocol support. And this IM is so smooth, it’ll make you go "aaahhhh" every time you start it.

AppFresh

Integrates into iusethis.com and keeps all your apps and widgets up to date.

AppleJack

AppleJack is a small rescue script, meant to be used from single-user mode. It can do a number of maintenance tasks and rescue operations. I have been able to repair filesystem inconsistencies, which Apples normal Disk utility couldn’t fix and I wasn’t even able to boot my Mac. So install it before it’s too late. Once installed, you will be reminded of its usage every time you login in single-user mode (command-S).

AppTrap

Uninstalling could be as easy as dropping the application in the trash, but there’s always some settings left behind. This application integrates with your trash, so that when you drop application in it, you will be asked if you want to remove other files beloning to the application as well.

Audacity

Easy straight-forward digital audio editor. Wav, MP3, Flac and so on. Great for cropping ringtones and such.

Audio overload

Small player for those obscure mod / NES / Spectrum / whatever files.

Burn

Burn is a CD burning software. It’s not much to say about it, it does what it’s supposed to do.

Sequel-Pro

A desktop client for MySQL. Think of it as phpMyAdmins agile little brother. :)

CocoaPacketAnalyzer

Awesome packet analyzer for that really technical stuff.

CocoASpell

Sadly, OS X doesn’t come with a norwegian spelling dictionary. Installing this gem will take care of it. :)

Colloquy

I’m a regular IRC’er, and sadly Mac only has one decent client and this is it. It’s still a bit rough in the edges, but works nicely.

Cyberduck

Sometime you need a real FTP client. I seldom do, but when that happens, I use Cyberduck. Why people still insist on Transmit is beyond me.

Disk Inventory X

Analyzes a given directory (or disk) and its subfolder to give you a report on disk usage. Nice to find those space hogs on your harddrive.

Dockless

Dockless let you make any app run in the background (no dock icon).

DropBox

DropBox is a universal internet disk service. It has revisions (how did this file look like a month ago?), automatic sync (all your computers has identical files), allows you to share files with other DropBox users, it even let you share pictures in your DropBox as a web gallery. The free account is 2GB, I bought myself a 50GB for all of my projects.

Flip4Mac

This is a WMV (Windows Media Video) plugin so you can watch online video encoded as such.

Fluid

Fluid is a Site-Specific Browser (SSB) that allows you to create desktop applications out of webapps. I use it for API lookups, Google Reader, GMail and more.

FStream

A small netradio app. Handles a lot more types of streams than iTunes.

Growl

Gives youy nice bubble notifications from a lot of programs. Very configurable and very pretty. :) Make sure you also install the extra utilities, like HardwareGrowler to get instant statusnotifications on USB devices, network connections and so on.

Handbrake

Video conversion and ripping done simple.

IdentiTwitch

My microblogging client of choice. Supports both Twitter and Identi.ca.

ies4osx

While some people might prefer a root canal before running Internet Explorer, some of us actually need it.

iStumbler

Wireless network scanner, which shows a lot more info than the normal airport menu. Also does Bluetooth and Bonjour.

JustLooking

A good picture preview program. Nice for browsing large collections.

Komodo Edit

Komodo Edit is the freeware (or light if you prefer) version of ActiveState’s Komodo IDE. Even this stripped-down version has more features than any other free alternative out there. It’s also a big bonus that it look and feels identical on Windows, Linux and OS X. Syntax coloring, project management, inline compilation, error checking, autocomplete and much more.

last.fm

I consider the statistics and scrobbling secondary features. What really makes last.fm awesome is the ability to play automatic net radio based on tags or artists.

Livestation

I have tried several TV-streaming applications, but this one is the only one that delivers on all accounts. Good selection of channels, good quality, easy to use.

MacFusion

Wouldn’t it be nice to mount ftp and SSH servers as network folders, accessible directly from your desktop? MacFusion does exactly that! It requires MacFuse from Google installed.

MacPorts

The BSD Ports system adapted for Mac. Gives you all those geeky UNIX tools. ;-)

Menumeters

I’m addicted to know at a glance how my computer is working. Menumeters does exactly that by giving you small menubar indicators of your network, memory, cpu and disk usage. All completely configurable.

MPEG Streamclip

Video software for conversion, batch processing and more. I use it to convert any video type into DV format so iMovie will use it.

muCommander

A universal filecommander, because most computers need one. This one does several protocols (FTP, SFTP, SMB, NFS, HTTP and Bonjour), several archive formats (ZIP, RAR, TAR, GZip, BZip2, ISO/NRG, AR/Deb and LST) and all the usual operations.

OpenOffice

I guess I don’t really need to describe this one. :)

Perian

Adds support for a ton of additional media formats to QuickTime. Too many to list here.

PhotoBook

A Facebook photo browser for the Facebook addicts out there.

Remote desktop connection

Because you have to, not because you want to. :)

Renoise

Trackerbased music sequencing software. Mostly for nostalgic reasons.

SIDPlay

For that old C64 feeling! ;)

Skitch

This is the ultimate picture… uhm… faciliator. :-P Inputs from screenshots, files, drag’n'drop. Annotate, draw, edit. Outputs to drag’n'drop, webpublish, file, anywhere. I use this all the time!

Skype

While iChat has very good conference abilities, it’s not cross-platform. For audio/video conferencing with Windows users, this is the only viable alternative.

SlimBatteryMonitor

It has always bugged me that OS X’s battery meter can’t be set to show only when actually on battery (or charging). Luckily, this one can.

Smultron

Smultron is what is known as a "Notepad replacement" in the Windows world. It does syntax highlighting for most programming languages, and has some very powerful text processing tools available.

SOAP Client

A simple SOAP Web Service client. Nice for debugging. The same author also has a XML-RPC Client.

Spark

Spark lets you create global hotkeys for just about everything. I use it to start Terminal.app, control iTunes and much more.

Spotify

The program that really changed how I consume my music! Listen to any song, create and share playlists, etc.

The Unarchiver

For extracting any archive format you throw at it.

Transmission

A simple and effective BitTorrent client. Though the upcoming beta of uTorrent also looks promising.

VLC media player

The ugly and cumbersome, but extremely powerful media player. :) I install this on all operating systems. It uses builtin codecs for all media formats you can throw at it. Whenever I encounter a file I can’t play elsewhere, VLC will. It even has conversion abilities.

And a couple of games:

• Otis – Easy puzzle game
• Quinn – Tetris
• Solitaire XL – Solitaire
• Tetrinet Aqua – Multiplayer Tetris clone

And the few programs I actually found worth paying for:

• JungleDisk – Real "in the cloud" backup. Uses personal Amazon S3 accounts for storage.
• Meerkat – Just plain awesome tunnel handling. SSH tunnels, Bonjour support, Application triggering… This one does it all.
• NetworkLocation – Dynamically changes system settings (and more, for instance start a Meerkat tunnel) based on your location. Location may be derived from wireless networks, cabled networks, bluetooth and USB devices.
• Today – A "day at a glance" app which show your daily appointments and tasks, fetched from iCal.

And my screensavers:

• Lotsawater – Water effect on top of your desktop.
• PongSaver – Pong as a screensaver.
• ShuffleSaver – Slideshow based on tags/authors/sets from Flickr
• Space Invaders – The classic game as screensaver.
• Surveillance saver – Live AXIS surveillance cameras straight from Google. Gotta love the information super highway. ;)
• Word Clock – A typographic screensaver featuring the current time and date.
• …White Knight Logic – A collection of 3D screensavers.

Some might want to know which I browser I prefer for Mac, but the truth is that I’m still testing out my options. I started out with Opera, went through Camino, Safari 3 beta, Opera 9.5 alpha, Safari 3 and Firefox 3. I’ll let you know when I’ve settled in. :) Here are my Safari extensions (I have a separate blogpost with my Firefox extensions, but it haven’t been updated for ages):

• Sogudi – Keyword search from adress bar
• SafariBlock – Small and effective adblocker
• Inquisitor – Inline AJAX-style search bar
• Webkit webdev tools – Just what I said

I will probably update this entry as I discover new applications (and scrap my old ones), so if you’re a Mac user yourself, feel free to bookmark it. :)

Edited: 11th july 2007, 27th june 2007, 24th september 2007, 24th september 2007, 13th december 2007, 3rd december 2008, 6th december 2008, 7th december 2008, 3rd january 2009.