I've recently had cause to refresh everything installed onto my Macbook Pro, which got me thinking about the applications I love and use the most. The first five apps I immediately download and install onto any computer I have to work on are:
- Jumpcut is a super minimalist clipboard buffering application that I've been using since 2003. It's easily my favorite application of all time, as it's saved my ass multiple times a day every day since I first installed it. You should get it!
- Alfred lets you easily launch applications and search your computer or the web for anything. I used to use Quicksilver for this, but I've found that Alfred does the trick quicker and better.
- Chrome is Google's browser, which I use because it loads pages faster than any other browser, lets you search in the address bar, and perhaps most importantly for my needs, it can handle having a gazillion tabs open in multiple windows at the same time for months at a time without constantly crashing on me like both Safari and Firefox are prone to doing.
- Postbox Express is my favorite mail client [1], which says a lot since I've been dissatisfied by every single OS X option available to me since I left Windows—and Pegasus Mail!—behind over a decade ago. I use privately-hosted IMAP for my primary email (instead of Gmail like most people do) partly because I'm paranoid and don't want my entire life living on Google's servers, and partly because I find myself far more productive with a desktop email interface. It just does everything I want it to do.
- Meteorologist lives in the menu bar and keeps you updated on current and future weather; it balances having a stripped-down view and being fully-featured better than all of the other current menu bar weather applications [2]. I walk a LOT, and like being appropriately dressed for whatever temperature it is outside, so this app is key for me!
- Fraise is a super simple text editor. Everyone needs one, even if you don't work with many text files and so don't think you do, and this is the one I like best. [3]
A few other applications I use and love: the Last.fm scrobbler, for tracking the music I've been listening to over the past few years; Flickr Uploadr, for when I have a huge bunch of photos to upload to Flickr; VLC, the best media player for OS X; Transmission, the best torrent client; Paparazzi, for taking screenshots of webpages; Dock Dodger, for disabling dock icons of apps that are assholes about not letting you choose to keep them in the menu bar; Dockdrop lets you drop files onto its icon and immediately uploads them via ftp/webdav/Flickr; and everyone's favorite, Dropbox, for syncing shared folders to the cloud. What apps do you recommend?
[1] I'm sure Postbox 3 is fantastic, and I'd be more than happy to pay for an upgrade to it in the future if I need to, but Postbox Express currently meets all my needs.
[2] I switched to Meteorologist after WeatherDock 2, which I loved, stopped working, and might eventually switch to WeatherDock 3 when it eventually comes out if it's like the previous version.
[3] Fraise is based on version two of Smultron, before the latter's developer first stopped developing it and disappeared, and then reappeared, closed source, and started selling it. I might consider switching to Smultron 4 once I upgrade to Lion.
