[akent35]

I'd be curious to know what applications people around here like the best. For me, there are at least 8:

1. Firefox - my browser of choice

2. 1Password - I don't know what I'd do without this gem!

3. VueScan - Easy to use, and flexible scanner software

4. Transmission - Excellent Bit Torrent client!

5. Onyx - Free utility that works great, and does so much!

6. TechTool Pro - My favorite diagnostic utility (Disk Warrior is good also, but TechTool Pro's eDrive is so, so convenient). It does so, so much.

7. SuperDuper - Easy to use back up program.

8. VLC - Hands down, the best program to view just about all types of video formats.

[Curiosity]

My favourite browser is now SeaMonkey, since Firefox has been cut to pieces by its developers.
My favourite image viewer is Xee.
I like VLC, since it can access not only video formats, but also many audio formats.
Liquid CD is great for burning CDs and DVDs.
Register by Norkross is a nice simple database app that displays data in table form.
Audacity does a great job of editing sound files such as .ogg, .mp3, or .wav.

[chris v]

I pretty much live in the Adobe suite at work, which I will say pretty much crested at CS6 for me.
Lightroom is indispensable as a hobbyist-photographer with 23,000 images
Logic Pro X is for my other hobby/avocation as a musician.

Little programs that I find indespensible:
Default Folder X makes it so much easier to navigate around Open/Save dialogs
Carbon Copy Cloner saves my bacon once or twice a year.
Dropbox is a good place to keep things I need access to from multiple computers & to share files with colleagues & friends.
Menu Meters seems handy when I want to know what's up with my system.
Transmit does good old FTP like it was meant to be.
Little Secrets has ben great for storing all my passwords, software serial numbers, bank accounts, etc. for years, now, though I suppose 1Password does the same thing -- I just have an inertia problem there.
OmniOutliner is great for organizing projects & thoughts & for simple spreadsheet things that would be more difficult to format in Excel. (I hate Excel)

[ghporter]

I use Chrome more than any other browser; it just works better for me.

I don't do a lot of creative stuff, but recently my wife asked me to help her with a short video that she captured with her point-and-shoot camera, so I explored a lot of freeware before just falling back on iMovieHD - it let me crop the stuff she didn't want (it was a single, continuous take), and then remove the sound, then output the final product for posting on a web page. Not too shabby for an app that came with my iMac for free.

I use Office 2008 because it was available from school quite affordably. I really hate the most recent iterations of Office, because they decided to crap on everyone who had already mastered their tried-and-true UI with this new....thing. So I ain't upgrading, since it all still works.

I use CyberDuck for FTP, and Adium for chatting. And I use VirtualBox to run XP or Win7 to do stuff I need to do with Windows. I'm not very adventurous with this, but there are still some things that aren't supported with OS X, such as my Brother label maker.

[Doc HM]

Transmit almost makes ftp fun

Alfred is awesome as a finder extension, it's like quicksilver reborn

Sunrise for appointments

Disk Warrior. Even if i never use it again it's saved so many hard drives and so much data it would stay in my list.

[ghporter]

Doc, from someone like you who actually gets his hands dirty with other people's machines, your Disk Warrior endorsement feels like high praise. I'm putting it on my wish list...