Here’s my current list of applications that I wouldn’t want to live without.

General-use applications

  • Dropbox is a slick and excellent way of keeping a directory in sync between N computers. Every time you save a file, it keeps that version around for a while, so you can “undo” to a prior save — on a DIFFERENT COMPUTER — and share files that stay in sync between friends!
  • VLC (excellent video player)
  • Adium (cross-protocol IM client)
  • Evernote (tagging + amazing OCR + iPhone app + firefox add-on makes for fancy note taking)
  • Skype. Now with easy screen sharing!
  • OmniGraffle (Excellent diagramming tool)
  • OpenOffice (reads and writes Microsoft Word and Excel files more predictably than iWork’s Pages and Numbers)
  • Cooliris (Firefox plugin that makes browsing photos on the web jaw-droppingly immersive)
  • TaskPaper (simple and elegant todos)

System utilities

  • Fan Control (allows you to ramp up the MacBook fan speed more aggressively than the default, to keep it a reasonable temperature)
  • Jumpcut (multiple clipboard manager, essential for coding)
  • Quicksilver (application|bookmark|file action performer. Ask a friend for a demo)
  • The Unarchiver (Multi-format unarchiver app for OS X)
  • MenuMeters (adds network/disk/cpu/ram monitoring graphs to your menubar
  • Apimac’s Timer (simple stopwatch/timer with fancy-pants full-screen support and other niftiness)
  • GlimmerBlocker (web proxy that filters out unwanted content)

Developer applications

  • IntilliJ IDEA / Eclipse (Java/… IDEs that makes coding and refactoring doable)
  • MacPorts (brings the missing unix tools you know and love to your mac. Updates ((used to be)) bumpy, though, and expect compilation failures or other porting bugs.)
  • Smultron (nice text editor)
  • xPad (stickies, but without the placement and organization mess)
  • iTerm (Terminal.app substitution. I switch between the two when one gives me grief.)
  • Web Developer (Firefox add-on that gives a CSS editor, DOM browser, form muck-abouter, document anchor tag highlighter, and generally helpful web swiss-army knife that makes Firefox indispensible)