So I recently made the move to a Mac. While I’ll follow with a first impressions post, I thought i’ll make my customary recommended list of software. [Update: Cleaned this post after using the mac for 4 full months. Only the golden stuff recommended now]

Basic Utilities (Free)

• Google Chrome I keep two browsers, Safari (comes default) and Google Chrome (which happens to be my primary browser). I remain a Google junkie.
• Dropbox Online File Syncing. Actually Dropbox is so much more. Detailed post on this later.
• AppCleaner Really good application for doing clean uninstalls.
• Utorrent For all your torrent downloading needs. I’ve heard a lot about Transmission, but sticking with familiar territory for now.
• VLC media player – One Stop solution for Playing all your videos. Recently though, i’ve discovered Perian and flip4mac which are basically plugins for Quicktime that allow it to play almost all the most famous videos. while i “love” VLC and find it indispensable in Windows, I think i’d rather have just one software (QuickTime comes installed by default and unlike in Windows, it performs flawlessly. One additional advantage, is you can get the video formats to also play in the Quick Preview mode which is something that can’t be done with the VLC alternative).
• ComicBookLover- Don’t let the shady stock photography on their website fool you, this is the best Comic Book reader for the Mac.
• NameChanger Like Renamer for windows this is a great tool for bulk file-renaming and organizing.
• Carbon Copy Cloner This is a cloning tool (little different from backup). Assuming you want to install a SSD on your Macbook, and move your OS to this drive, you would need a tool to make an exact copy or clone of your existing HDD (as against restoring data from a backup).
• Unarchiver WinZip/Winrar/7Zip equivalent for the Mac. Apparently supports more number of formats than the native BOMArchiveHelper app of the Mac.
• Flickr Uploadr If you use Flickr extensivley, this tool comes in Handy for mass uploading and tagging.
• Notational Velocity This is an awesome tool to quickly take down notes. While Textmate is awesome, NV excels at simplicity and just jotting down notes super-fast.

Conversion Software (Free)

• All2Mp3- Great tool to convert all forms of audio to MP3.
• Max If you want a more advanced audio convertor that also produces extremely high quality rips from CDs & DVDs, this is the app you’re looking for. It’s almost like EAC for windows but is better cause it handles quite a few audio conversions.
• Handbrake- Most useful video conversion tool. This is all you require for Video Conversion
• ImageOptim A free tool that quickly and intuitively shrinks your images for online web usage.

System Customization (Free)

• Monolingual This Software helps delete unused language packs on your Mac. Removing the unwanted languages apparently can save up to 2 GB. Make sure you read the README and know what you’re doing.You can mess things up if you’re not too sure.
• Coconut Battery Gives you all the information you need on your Macbook battery :- maximium capacity, original capacity, battery-loadcycles etc.
• Tinker Tool Provides additional customization for Mac.
• IceClean Like CCleaner of Windows, this is a good System Maintenance tool.

Software worth paying for

• Textmate This is hands down the best text-editor/coding tool for the Mac. I’m a coder who also likes a mean and light-weight text editor. Textmate is exactly that and so much more.
• Microsoft Office 2011 Yes iLife is great and all, but if you need to share documents with a colleague, this makes life easier and the 2011 update is fantastic.
• Apple Logic Studio This is the main reason I shifted to the Mac. For superior Sound Engineering/Recording etc. Nobody does it better than Apple. I’m moving from Adobe Audition to Logic Pro and so far LOVING the experience. I would buy this software even if they doubled the price (ok maybe not double, but you get how much i like this software).
• Adobe Lightroom I tried iPhoto, but after using Lightroom, there’s no comparison. The whole photo post-processing is so much more easier and powerful with Lightroom. Strangely, since the results are much better with Lightroom processing, I find myself taking more photos now. Definitely worth the exorbidant 299 USD.
• TextExpander Saves huge amounts of time while typing. A paid equivalent for my Autohotkey usage.

Notable ones that didn’t make the absolute essentials

• AudioMonitor If you’re into Recording and Sound Engineering, this is a handy tool for simplifying monitoring an Audio Input Source. I find this really useful.
• Growl Mac users seem to rave about this tool. Installing this to see what all the fuss is about.
• Google Notifier Half my existance depends on Google. It pays to have convenient alerts. The Google+Growl Plugin comes in handy as well, if you’re particular about maintaining consistency.
• ExifRenamer All those pesky DSCXXXX, IMGXXXXX, PIC0000 can now be sensibly renamed.
• Burn- This is the one-stop solution for all your DVD Burning needs. Nero/ImgBurn equivalent for the Mac.

Development Tools

• Sequel Pro Great client for accessing MySql Databases.
• Cyberduck FTP The mother of all FTP software.
• cd to path Fast mini application that opens a Terminal.app window cd’d to the front most finder window. This app is designed to be placed in the finder window’s toolbar.

The beauty with Apple’s OS X is that by default it comes with some really good utilities. Head on to this link to check out some of the awesome apps that come default with the Mac. Check out the incredible Time Machine in particular for Backups (not to be confused with Carbon Copy Cloner’s cloning function).

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