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In a previous post, I can’t remember which, some one mentioned about a list of the must have installed apps that should come with your Mac. For example you have your default apps such as iTunes, iMovie etc, the apps listed below are designed to join that list. These are my personal preference for must have apps. I have tried to be as broad as possible, using applications which nearly everyone uses. If you want to add your app please leave a comment.

Adium

Why? Although iChat is good, it doesn’t support Hotmail accounts or other accounts to the best of my knowledge. Adium is the all in one instant messaging client. As a result it enables you to talk to anyone using pretty much any method. It doesn’t yet have Skype support, although I remember seeing a rumor somewhere that it is going to be supported.

AppFresh

Why? You have Software Updater for updating Apple applications. AppFresh is the application for updating every other application. It can check for updates for Widgets, Applications and other programs on your computer. A must have for keeping your Mac up to date.

AppZapper

Why? Installing and uninstalling applications is really easy on the Mac. But the problem is, application leave preference files, cache files and other files all over your Mac. As a result you can end up with hundreds of files doing nothing and consuming space. AppZapper is designed to take take of this for you by finding every file associated with it and deleting them for you. Although you could do this by yourself AppZapper is a lot quicker.

Bittorrent

Why? Which ever flavor you want of Bittorrent client you want, you really should have one. If you get past all of the illegal files which you are not supposed to download, you can find a whole range of interesting programs, music and other files all legally free. It is also a really good way of getting massive Apple updates. Have you every found an Apple update you have download to be missing pieces and corrupt. If you put it into a Bittorrent client and find the same file on the web, Bittorrent can fix it for you.

Cyberduck

Why? Although Cyberduck isn’t the best FTP client, it is free. In the growing age of blogs, websites and more web interactively having and FTP style client is very useful in quickly downloading files off the web. You could use Terminal and go command line, but it is more difficult. For the newbie user having a simple FTP client is a must.

Firefox

Why? Probably against Apples interests but Firefox, I find, is one of the best web browsers out there. Safari and Firefox are very similar, but Firefox is a lot more customizable and supported with more extensions and features.

Gimp

Why? On a Mac you don’t have any image manipulation or drawing techniques. You do have Preview which can be used in smaller circumstances to manipulate images and change them, but nothing is as good as Gimp. You could have Photoshop, although that is expensive software and probably wont be installed by default.

iStat

Why? With all that power under the hood you may want to get a bit more information about how you Mac is performing. iStat is designed to show you pretty much anything about your Mac. From CPU usuage to fan speeds iStat covers pretty much anything. Very useful for finding out how you Mac is performing.

KeyCue

Why? A slight personal preference of mine. I mentioned about KeyCue previously. It is the application that upon pressing the command key will show you an overlay of every available shortcut to that program. Very useful for newbies and experienced Mac users. The most shortcuts I have found for one program has to go to TextEdit.

Quicksilver

Why? Although I am not a big fan of Quicksilver, many people swear by it. Quicksilver is an application that can increase your productivity by giving you access to every application, file and folder. It is quite hard to explain, but a very good application.

Skype

Why? Skype is the best application for anyone who wants to talk long distance to anyone in the world. It offers the cheapest calls and some of the best quality calls for any Internet application. Although iChat has audio calling, Skype does it better and your can call out to anyone.

TextMate

Why? TextMate is the best application for writing text. It is just you and the text. There is no fancy formatting going on or text manipulation that you do in Word or Pages. It comes into itself with the programming side such as CSS, PHP etc. It may not be must have default install but it is very close and should be on every Mac.

VLC

Why? Quicktime can render quite a lot of movie and audio files. Every so often it can come across and file that it can render, although it is a standard video file. VLC, is the super video application. For my experiences it can render pretty much any movie, even if the is corrupt. A lot better than Quicktime.

If you think there should be any more default apps that should be installed, please leave a comment below, with your application and a reason why.