David Sudjiman

I bought my MBP just about few months ago and that’s my first Mac. It was a bit of struggling moment for me as I didn’t have any Mac experience, I have to get use to several different applications, the way Mac works, the interface, and a lot more. Mostly the applications, I had to scrab around Google to find what applications doing what. Now, at least I can point out several free main applications that new user like me should have one.

I came across this article and I thought that I should make an updated version of it, and here it is.

Firefox – a browser.
Well, this is the numero uno browser you might need to replace Safari. The only reason that I need to use this browser is that it offers you to select particular content of the page and browse the code. Also it lets you to search using “/” then continue the search by pressing FN+F3 rather than using your hand to use the mouse to click. Firefox also have tons of plugins that may increase your productivity. Check out the Recommended Add-ons on Firefox page. And it’s not stopping there, you can change Firefox appearence using Themes.
Get Firefox here!.

Thunderbird – an email client.
This is email client is loaded with good stuff. You can also install plugins like Firefox and also supporting NNTP which Mail does not. Mail is good, but for those who has been using Thunderbird for years might hesitate to switch to Mac Mail. The only reason I’m not using Thunderbird is it doesn’t sync with Mac Address Book.
Get Thunderbird here!.

Smultron – a text editor.
Tired of standard editor on Mac not allowing you to save on plain text file? You can try Smultron, the editor that I’m currently using to write this article. It is capable of syntax marking, good for those who use to code and create html page. While writing this article, I can use the preview feature which showing “nearly” Live update of what I’m writing on a separate page so you don’t have to refresh your browser to see what your writing look like. For those who have been playing with VIM, would appreciate that this editor also able to replace using regular expressions.
Get Smultron here!.

Stuffit Expander. – an archiver.
This is the all-in-on file extractor that support 25 archive formats including .zip, .tar, .rar, .tgz, .bz2.
Get Stuffit Expander here!.

Adium – an all-in-one mesengger.
Although can’t use your built-in camera, Adium supports several mesengger protocol that currently exists. The beauty of Adium is that it can use theme to beautify the look of its contact list and chatting window.
Get Adium here!.

Seashore – a basic image editor.
Seashore is a image editor that is good enough to do basic image editing. To save in other graphic formats, giving transparency effect, and gradient effects. Good enough for those who would like to edit picture to be uploaded on the web.
Get Seashore here.

Fugu – and SFTP/FTP client.
Have a website and need to upload files? Fugu is the answer. Fugu is an application that support SFTP and FTP. Good enough for you to upload files to your website.
Get Fugu here.

Poisoned – a file-sharing client
This is the ultimate download client machine that support giftd, Ares, FastTrack, Gnutella, and OpenFT network in one application.
Get Poisoned here.

Azureus – a Bittorrent client.
Love torrent? This is the torrent client with bunch great plugins.
Get Azureus here.

VLC – and all-in-one Media Player.
First time when I use MAC, I was really having trouble to play my video files from WMV to AVI. There are bunch of encoding version out there all I had was Quicktime. I even installed a plugin to play WMV on Quicktime? Anyway, who needs Quicktime when we have this all-in-one player that does full screen and free? Hands down, no competition. Want to know what encodings it support? check this page out.
Get VLC media player here.

X-Chat Aqua – a chat application client.
I’m not an online-chatting person but it’s good to have one just in case.
Get X-chat Aqua here.

XChm – a CHM reader.
I love CHM format better than PDF. The paragraph shrinks by itself according to you screen size. Anyway, as there are also ebooks available on CHM format. You need to have this to read it.
Get XChm here.

Macports
You might need this to install (and compile) non-MAC-binary file for example if you want to install Linux/BSD application which not available on MAC binary. There is a learning curve to understand how we can use it. But it is worth to try.
Get Macports here.

VIM – a terminal editor.
MAC comes with VI for its terminal editor. If you are not use to it you can use VIM for alternative.
Get VIM here.

Picturesque – a web image editor.
If you a need quick image editor for images on your website, Picturesque can do the job for you. It gives a quick editing feature just what you need to make your image looks better. You can put a shadow, reflection, change background, round corner, etc. It is just the tools you need for your web image with 6 effects ready to use.
Get Picturesque here

QuickSilver
QuickSilver really helps alot to build your speed without having to worry to use mouse. It provides shortcuts in a way you never imagine before and it really helps to reduce the need to use the mouse as you can pretty much grab any application with QuickSilver.
Get QuickSilver here

The applications above are free and yes, I’ve removed Picturesque as It’s not a free application and put the great QuickSilver in.