Top 5 free apps that should come pre-installed on your Mac
1. VLC media player | Screenshot
The Swiss army knife of media players.
The default media player which comes with OSX is Quicktime Player and it plays, well, just Quicktime. For your vast media collection including Mpeg, DivX, DV, WMV, MKV etc. VLC is the answer. You can control VLC with the Apple remote so if you are one of the lucky ones to have one (They stopped shipping it the with new Macbooks/Pros), make full use of it!
To see a complete list of codecs which VLC supports click here.
VLC is also popular for its ability to play the video content of incomplete, unfinished, or damaged video downloads before the files have been fully downloaded.
Some say it can even defend you when Ninjas attack but I would keep the Katana – just in case.
2. iStat Menu | Screenshot
iStat Menu is an app which monitors all your system stats and displays them in the menu bar. This includes CPU usage, disk activity, network monitors, time & calendar with iCal event listings etc.. It has a total of 8 separate and highly configurable menu extras.
Tip: Once you have the iStat calendar and time going in the menu bar, remove the OSX time from System Preferences>Date & Time>Clock
3. RCDefaultApp | Screenshot
If you are an iPhone user and hate it when iPhoto pops up every time you plug in your device, RCDefaultApp can fix that problem. Install RCDefaultApp and from preference, change the default app for ‘camera’ to <ignore> and the genie stays in the bottle.
Oh yeah, did I mention it allows a user to set the default application for file extensions, file types, MIME types, various URL schemes and Uniform Type Identifiers also?
4. Growl | Screenshot
Growl is a global notification system for the Mac.
Notice the word “global”? What that means is that Growl can receive notification from any application running on the Mac. For example, say you have started download of the latest build of iTunes on Firefox and it is going to take 30 minutes to download (yeah, I have a very slow internet connection). You switch to Photoshop and start adding that eye-patch to your cousin’s picture. As soon as the iTunes is downloaded, Firefox sends a notification to Growl. Growl in turn pops up a small balloon on the top right corner of the screen informing you that Firefox just finished downloading iTunes. Now it is up to you to start installing iTunes or place the parrot on your cousin’s shoulder. Arrr.
5. Quicksilver | Screenshot
As an application launcher, the new Spotlight (which ships with Leopard) is really really good. If you want a good application launcher, stick to Spotlight. Where Quicksilver shines is the advance features and scripting.
Let me give you a few examples of what you can do with Quicksilver:
– Set up a global key command to skip tracks in iTunes.
– Compose new mail with a shortcut
– Move a file
– Upload to FTP
Here is a detailed guide of what you can do with Quicksilver.
I am sure there are tons of other software/features you would want install on OSX. Do let us know in the comments. Please do not include the kitchen sink.