Essential Mac OS X Software
Some of the software that ships with Mac OS X is inadequate. For a user with limited time and interest, replacing this software with better alternatives can be a time consuming and tedious process. I have therefore compiled a list of a what I consider to be absolutely essential pieces of software for Mac OS X -- of course, the picks are based on my personal needs, which may vary from those of others. However, I generally install all this software on any new machine I set up for myself or others. All this software is free unless otherwise stated.
Xfactor
Xfactor is probably the best Mac Peer-2-Peer application. It wraps a consistent (if somewhat slow) graphical user interface around the open-source giFT daemon and connects to the FastTrack (Kazaa), OpenFT, Ares and Gnutella networks.
iTerm
iTerm is a very nice terminal client. The distinguishing characteristics which set it apart from the Apple-supplied terminal client is, amongst other things, the fact that it has a tabbed interface, allowing you to have several terminals open within the confines of single window.
QuickTime is no good. The player is crippled and seems completely unable to play any of the various bastard video formats out there. This is where VLC comes in: It's a powerful, highly efficient generic video player for several platforms, including MacOS X. It'll play DivX, 3ivX, WMV,XviD, MPEG, AVI, ASF, VOB, VCD, SVCD and a many other formats without a glitch. It also plays DVDs and ignores region settings. Absolutely indispensable. And if VideoLan doesn't play it, mplayer will.
Proteus
Excellent instant messaging client capable of connecting to almost all of the various IM networks out there - MSN, AIM, Jabber, ICQ and so forth. Proteus is crammed with all sorts of goody features and has a very pleasant Aqua interface, not to mention an option for tabbing between many conversations via an Aqua drawer. It costs $10 but you don't have to pay if you can put up with pressing "Use for free" every time it launches.
SubEthaEdit is an outstanding text editor primarily intended for development work. However, it will service quite well as a generic text editor. The interface layout is simple and convenient. What makes this text editor really outstanding are two exceptionally cool features. The first is the "live Web preview" feature, which allows you to see the rendered HTML document as you type it in. The second is the Rendezvous-based collaborative, distributed editing feature which enables many people to work on a single text document simultaneously.
Excellent all-round CD and DVD burning solution stuffed with nice features. Toast has been the best burning software on the Mac for years. Unfortunately it's not free but it should be possible to pirate it using Xfactor if you're not inclined to pay for it ,9. If your honesty prohibits you from pirating Toast and you are of a suitably nerdy disposition, you may want to look at X-CD-Roast, a UNIX X11 application for writing CDs and DVDs.
The only MacOS X GUI FTP client I've found that satisfies my requirements in terms of user interface and features. A very pleasant Cocoa application for FTP for those uncomfortable with the command line client MacOS X ships with. It is not free but a pirate serial number shouldn't be too hard to find. Unfortunately, Transmit also tends to be quite buggy.
I have often wondered how I ever got along without this little gem. Synergy is an add-on which allows you to control iTunes from a menu panel and via global keyboard shortcuts while iTunes itself is quietly tucked away, hidden. It also displays album covert art in an unintrusive bezel window during track changes.
Of course, I'm obliged to mention my own software development efforts, although they are generally of a more specialised, non-generic nature than the above-mentioned pieces of software.