After Elena’s great article from the other day concerning the ten programs you immediately want to install on a new Windows PC, I thought I’d put together a similar list describing what I’ve installed on my brand, spanking new iMac. The funny thing is that in two weeks of messing around with my first Apple computer since my Mac Classic died twelve long years ago, I’ve actually only installed a handful of programs.
I think that this can partly be put down to the fact that I don’t yet have too many ‘essential apps’ which I already can’t live without. But at the same time, there’s no doubt in my mind that the main reason for me only being able to name 5 programs in this ‘Top 10’ is that a Mac comes with so much basic lifestyle software built-in and pre-installed. Programs like iTunes, iPhoto, Dashboard etc. cover so many bases that they negate any reason for installing alternatives. Even my first installation, Firefox is more a matter of taste than anything else: Safari’s a decent, robust browser.
Anyway, here are the first five applications I installed on my iMac:
- Mozilla Firefox – the ultimate web browser (and I could even import my profile from Linux)
- VLC Player – open-source video player with support for a huge range of codecs
- Transmission – the number 1 BitTorrent client for Mac
- CyberDuck – a quick and simple FTP client – essential for web designers
- SoulseeX – connect to the Soulseek peer-to-peer network
