Best of OS X

Alyce tells me she’s running Panther now!  And my tech support pal Rob got himself a Powerbook.  :-) He claims to be more or less of an OS X newbie and wanted to know what apps he should try, so I told him I’d come up with a list of the ones I like best.  Here goes…

Can’t live without:

• All the iApps — Address Book, AppleScript, AppleWorks, iCal, iChat, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, Mail.app and Quicktime
• Audio Recorder - Just a simple tool to record from the built-in mic. Why wasn’t this included in OSX?
• CDFinder - Keeps track of all my MP3s etc.
• LaunchBar - Essential for quick access to all my crap.
• NetNewsWire Pro - RSS newsreader. The free version is all I really need, but the pro features are nice too.

Other tools of choice:

• Audacity - Free simple multitrack recorder
• BBedit Lite - Still my favorite old plaintext editor.
• ChangeDesktop - Wallpaper changer
• Circus Ponies NoteBook - A wonderful outliner / text storage app
• GetiPodMP3 - I don’t often need to retrieve songs off my iPod; this little iTunes script saved me from installing another application.
• Harmony Assistant - for music composition
• iPhoto Library Manager - Keep track of multiple photo libraries
• Fetch - I’m used to it.
• MP3-Info CMM - Puts ID3 tags into my right-click menu
• Path Finder - A beefed-up Finder, about three days away from being fully ready for Panther. I had my doubts I’d get hooked on it, but I really have so I registered.
• Stuffit - I like DropTar but I dunno if it’s worth it just for that
• Tinderbox - I feel like I’m working in 1994 but it’s still a great text-wrangler. Not sure if I need it bad enough to renew my "subscription" but we’ll see.

Games:

• DopeWars
• JewelToy
• Tranquility

Nifty things:

• ClearDock - Why won’t OSX do this?
• Clutter - I don’t really use it but I like the idea
• Eyeballs
• FruitMenu - Not quite ready for Panther
• MacStumbler
• OmniDictionary
• Temperature Monitor
• wClock - Customizes the time & date display

Things I Use Because I Have To:

• Camino - I still prefer it over Safari, but just barely.
• Dreamweaver MX - I have it but I barely ever use it
• OpenOffice - Desperately needs help in OSX, but at least we have it
• Photoshop Elements - If only iPhoto had a few more features! I’m not much of a graphics person, so this is all the extra help I need.
• StickyBrain - Really needs a facelift! But Panther’s version of Stickies is buggy, the notes won’t stay put after a reboot. And the alarms in StickyBrain are more reliable for me than the ones in iCal, so I’m still using StickyBrain.
• URL Manager Pro - Bookmarks are a pain, there is no good solution
• Windows Media Player - I hate it but I’m forced to open it every six months or so