Essential progams for my new MBP tomorrow?!

[Race Johnson]

My new MBP is here tomorrow! Ive never owned a mac and dont really know where to start. My question is: what are the essential programs everyone uses? What programs can you not live without?

 

[Sdao]

I like Adium for instant messaing (MSN, AIM, Yahoo, etc) it can manage all your IM contacts in one huge list.

I like transmission for torrents, i just started using it for downloading and its nice and quick, easy to use, simple interface.

The iStat Pro widget is also very helpful, it shows your batteries health, cpu usage, fan usage, etc...

 

[creator2456]

If you are on facebook, here is a great thread (although long) for "necessary" mac apps.
http://uic.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2204894392&topic=10783


I personally always have the following downloaded immediately on a new mac:

Adium (IM app that allows most IM clients)
smcFanControl (allows user to set fan speed...notebooks only)
Onyx (system optimization app)
WhatSize and/or Disk Inventory X (lets you find what is taking up HD space)
Dock Dividers (a 'do nothing' app that sits in your dock to act as dividers)
MacTheRipper (strips region codes and copies DVDs to HD)
HandBrake (converts/compresses from DVD or from MacTheRipper files)
Flip4Mac (allows playback of WMA files in Quicktime)
Perian (adds most other formats for Quicktime playback)
VLC (secondary media player)
ClearDock (allows user to remove/change color of dock)

 

[deadpixels]

must get QuickSilver best free app launcher utility there is (better than payed ones actually)

 

[Nermal]

Search is a good one

 

[deadpixels]

Search is a good one

he he, nice

 

[creator2456]

Search is a good one

This made me laugh.

I forgot one on my list.

Inquisitor - it turns the google search field (in safari) into a google search field ON STEROIDS...aka it adds spotlight functionality for the internet

 

[iBookG4user]

Some I like are:
Coconutbattery (shows you a lot of information about your battery)
LabTick (Gives you control of the backlit keyboard)
MacSaber (it's fun.)
uApp (application uninstaller)

 

[Race Johnson]

thanks for all ur inputs!

 

[ToastMaster]

Candybar (change icons if that's your thing)
Audacity (basically SoundForge for Mac)
Pacifist (lets you extract individual files from dmg's and CDs)
Switch (converts audio to/from just about any format)
Toast (best burning software ever)

 

[icafe]

take a look at this site:

http://www.coolmacapps.com/

 

[semaja2]

You might want to look at InsomniaX, but besides that be sure to check out the list i compiled of applications to use the SMS/LMU

http://semaja2.net/cool-mac-apps/

 

[ToXicWaSTe]

AppZapper (application uninstaller)

And I second Quicksilver

 

[jackiecanev2]

a few that havent been mentioned already that i love:

cabos - p2p
firefox/camino - browsing
neo-office - office suite
gimp - photo editing (needs x11)
inkscape - vector editing (needs x11)

have fun! and congrats on the new MBP!

 

[Masher500]

Camino
Final Cut Studio
VLC Media Player
Fetch
Toast Titanium

thats all i can think of now.

 

[jdavtz]

At the risk of being repetitive:

Adium for chat AIM/MSN/Yahoo/GTalk/etc...
Camino for browsing
Cabos for v. occasional p2p stuff
Flip4Mac so I can see .wmv files in Quicktime
Google Earth
Skype for video chat
Smultron (text editor) for sitting in the dock for dragging random files to when I want to see their content
Perian for viewing most codecs through Quicktime
VLC Player (probably obsolete for me now that Quicktime has fullscreen and I've discovered Perian)
Transmission for torrents
The Unarchiver for unarchiving everything
UnRarX for the few .rar files that The Unarchiver can't handle