[mindwaves]

View video files:

1) Mplayer-alternative video viewer plays all sort of video files including .avi, .mpg, and .wmv
2) VLC- -alternative video viewer plays all sort of video files including .avi, .mpg, and .wmv
3) Quicktime- Apple invented application which plays .mpg, and .mov files
4) Windows Media Player -Microsoft made player to play .wmv, .asx, and all WMP 9 files
5) RealPlayer- Real made player used to play .rm, .ram files, and more


Do some type of file transfers:

1) Interarchy- application which supports FTP, SFTP. HTTP
2) RBrowser- application which supports FTP, SFTP, SSH, FTP-SSl/TLS
3) Transmit- a powerful, flexible, fast FTP client
4) Fetch - easy-to-use full featured FTP application
5) Cyberduck- SFTP, FTP application
6) Fugu- supports SFTP, SCP, and SSH

Make a word processing document or spreadsheet:

1) Microsoft Office- the standard in word processing
2) Appleworks- Apple made all-in-one application which includes simple database, image editing, word processing application
3) Textedit- basic word processor which supports opening simple Microsoft Word files (bundled with Mac OS X)
4) iWork - Wordprocessing and Presentation software package
5) Mellel- advanced multilingual word processor

Create a Presentation

1) Microsoft PowerPoint - standard presentation application
2) Keynote - Presentations with style

Do some basic photo editing/organizing

1) GraphicConverter- great basic image editor and handles many formats
2) iPhoto- basic picture touch up plus catalogs your images
3) iView Media Pro 2- organizes various files such as photos, illustrations, mp3s, and fonts all in one place

Chat with someone online or video chat:

1) Adium- third-party AIM client which also supports MSN, Yahoo, and more
2) iChat- Apple made AIM client which supports video conferencing
3) AOL Instant Messenger- AOL made chat application
4) MSN Messenger- Microsoft made chat application
5) Fire- third-party AIM client which also supports MSN, Yahoo, and more
6) Proteus- third-party AIM client which also supports MSN, Yahoo, and more

Browse the web in style:

1) Safari- Apple made speedy web brower with tabs
2) OmniWeb- fast native browser with side tabs
3) Netscape 7- web browser with theme support
4) Mozilla- open source web browser with integrated mail application and composer
5) Camino- fast open source web brwser with tabs
7) Mozilla Firefox- open source web browser

Fix/repair my hard drive or data failure:

1) Diskwarrior- highly acclaimed disk repair utility
2) TechTool Pro 4- disk diagnostic and repairer

Backup files/restore files/clone a drive:

1) Retrospect- backup your data
2) Data Backup- powerful backup software
3) Data Rescue- rescues data from a drive, but does not fix drives
4) Carbon Copy Cloner- easily clone one drive to another
5) SuperDuper- another clone drive utility
6) FoldersSynchronizer X- Synchronize folders between various folders
7) Pacifist- Custom install any applications which you accidentially deleted from any .pkg file

Want to theme your Mac OS experience:

1) CandyBar- change the look of all of your icons easily
2) ShapeShifter- switch themes safely

Need to zip/unstuff/compress some files:

1) Mac OS X Finder- double click to uncompress .zip files and right click to compress .zip files
2) UnRar X- unrar your files
3) Stuffit- unstuff .sit, .sitx files, and compress them plus more (basic version included in Mac OS X Utilities folder)
4) The Unarchiver- It decompresses .sea, .dd, .bin, .hqx, Windows Self-Extracting Archives, zip, gzips, bzips, rar, tar.



Feel geeky and want to try some open-source software:

1) NeoOffice/J-office suite
2) Gimp.app- graphic manipulation
3) Fink- package manager
4) TeXShop- technical typesetting
5) Desktop Manager- virtual desktops
6) R- statistics package
7) ImageJ- image processing/analysis


Desktop Publishing:
Adobe Photoshop - the premier image-editing app on the Mac (or probably any other platform)
Adobe Illustrator - the original vector-based illustration tool
Macromedia FreeHand - another great vector-based illustration tool
QuarkXpress - the more-or-less standard for page layout, from the company that hates you
Adobe InDesign - an excellent page layout tool, but not as ubiquitous. From the company that, deep within its soul, wishes you were on Windows (but will never admit it).

Web Publishing:
Macromedia DreamWeaver - WYSIWYG web authoring environment
Adobe GoLive - DreamWeaver's main competitor
CSSEdit - an excellent standalone shareware CSS editor
Tag - probably not commonly used--since it's so new--but promising shareware HTML editor

Pro-Level Font Management:
FontAgent Pro
MasterJuggler
Suitcase and/or FontReserve

Video Editing:
Final Cut Pro - taking Hollywood by storm, they say. Steep learning curve if you're new to this kind of thing.
Final Cut Express - for mere mortals, at least in terms of price, but still a bitch to learn. Fortunately there are books for this.

Sound Editing:
Logic Pro
Logic Express


Miscellaneous
1) OmniDictionary - look up words in a breeze
2) OminGraffle- organize your ideas...
3) Pithhelmet More control over blocking ads.

Manage files differently:

1) LaunchBar - instant access utility which saves one from searching for apps and files
2) Quicksilver - same as above
3) Butler - same as above
4) Path Finder - not happy with the Finder? Try using this as an alternative/complement.
5) Default Folder - gives open/save dialogs a functionality boost.
6) FruitMenu - more features and flexibility in your contextual and apple menus.

So where do I download these Freeware, Shareware, and/or Updates:

1) MacUpdate
2) Versiontracker
3) Apple Mac OS X downloads

*note, this post is a work in progress. Please post suggestions here. Comments are welcome!