10 Mac Apps I Can't Live Without

A while ago I wrote an article called Apps that make switching easy and worth it. It’s definitely the most popular article I’ve ever written on Pixelspread, and made it to the Digg homepage and was featured on Arstechnica, amongst other places. Anyway, looking back on the list, and looking at what I use know, I decided it would be about time to give an update. It’s been almost a year since I’ve switched, and I now feel completely comfortable as a mac user. Much of this comfort comes from the ease of use these life-sustaining mac apps. Here are those apps:

Disclaimer: I won’t actually die without these apps, I just find them extremely useful. But that headline isn’t nearly as catchy, now is it?

1) Mail
Since starting to use my Mac, yes, I have switched to Mail from Thunderbird, and it’s the app I use more than anything else. It works just as I expect it to, and of course great plugins can be found. My favorite is GrowlMail.
2) Camino
I haven’t stopped using Firefox, but as time goes on, and more versions of Firefox come out, it just gets slower and slower and slower… Camino has all the benefits of Firefox, without the recent bloat, and with a much more mac friendly interface.
3) Adium
I’ve tried iChat, and I’ve looked around for other IM clients, but no one seems to be doing it like Adium. It’s got a great interface, supports pretty much any IM service you can think of, and is very customizable. If a better IM client exists, I can’t find it.
4) TextMate
TextMate truly is the missing text editor for the mac. Competitors offer a lot of great features, but when it really comes down to coding and getting your work done, nothing else has got the power of TextMate. It’s not free, but it’s worth paying for.
5) Transmit
You could try free FTP clients, sure, but you’re still not going to have Transmit. I know paying for an app can be a hurdle for many, but if you have to use FTP often, just the two panel layout takes Transmit leaps and bounds ahead of Cyberduck.
6) VLC
Best feature: Fullscreen. For free. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but Quicktime can’t do it. Even quicktime pro can’t touch the number of formats VLC can handle. I haven’t found a video file VLC can’t play.
7) Azureus
It’s not so Mac-like, but it is the best for what it does. XTorrent does a great job of being beautiful, but who wants to pay for a torrent client? I think the whole reason we’re on there is for free content…. Azureus has all the power anyone could ever need. And it’s free.
8) Twitterrific
Yes, I’m a twitter addict. I’m sorry, I know, but I can’t help myself. Twitterrific is open all the time! But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Who wants to have twitter.com open all day?
9) Sidenote
I found it early, and I’m so glad I did. Sidenote will sit on the side of your screen, waiting for your notes on a mouse over or keyboard shortcut. It autosaves, so you’ll never have to worry about losing notes again.
10) Quicksilver
How could it not be Quicksilver? It does everything! It launches my apps, moves my files, resizes my images, controls my iTunes. I’m surprised it doesn’t tie my shoes for me everyday! It is my favorite app ever.