Essential applications (Linux, Android, Windows)

A list of all the applications that I use, on various platforms.

Mac OS X Applications

Packaging Systems

• SoftwareUpdate

  Built-in (from Apple), will only update the OS and Apple applications. Very easy.

• Fink

  Large repository of UNIX open-source software.

• DarwinPorts

  Other package manager. The repository has a lot of server software. Easy to use.

Internet

• Mail

  Free as in beer (from Apple), good client except for the Spotlight search feature taking hours (and not returning anything useful, generally).

• Thunderbird

  Good open-source email client from Mozilla.

• Firefox

  The standard open-source browser that you can trust.

• Safari

  Probably the best browser available for OS X (very fast). Based on Konqueror so should be open.

• Cyberduck

  FTP client, open-source. I don't like it that much but it seems one of the best for the Mac.

• X-Chat Aqua

  Open-source IRC client. Not awesome, but ok.

• Fire

  Open-source multi-protocol IM client.

Development

• GCC

  Included in the system from Apple.

• X-Code

  Good IDE for C++/Objective-C/Java, unfortunately only available on the Mac. It manages its own build system, but this is not portable.

Multimedia

Adobe Acrobat Reader

• Essential to read PDF files.

iTunes

• Excellent audio player.

MPlayer

• Best video player available on the Mac, but should be compiled from source. The binaries versions are not maintained it seems. Also, the GUI sucks.

VLC

• It will play less files than MPlayer, but the Mac port is official and better.

Adobe Photoshop

• Best image editing program.

Roxio Toast

• Good CD/DVD-burning software, but not free.

Utilities

Built-in Unarchiver

• It will decompress .tar, .zip, and other formats. Nice integration into the Finder.

CDFinder

• Organizes a CD/DVD collection. Good but not multiplatform nor Open-Source.

CDCat

• Organizes a CD/DVD collection. Free as in speech, multiplatform, uses Qt3. But you must compile it yourself.

smartmontools

• Tool to monitor the SMART status of your hard drive. If you install using the Apple installer, the daemon will be automatically launched at startup (remove the StartupItem to prevent that).

Linux Applications

Packaging Systems (on Gentoo)

• emerge

  THE only one tool that you will ever need.

Internet

• Thunderbird

  Good open-source email client from Mozilla.

• Firefox

  The standard open-source browser that you can trust.

• gFTP

  FTP client, open-source. Although it seems old and not maintained it is fast and efficient.

• X-Chat

  Open-source IRC client. Not awesome, but ok.

• Gaim

  Open-source multi-protocol IM client. I don't like it that much, but it works - I hope version 2 will be better

Development

• GCC

  The whole GNU tool chain will be of course included in the system.

• Eclipse

  Excellent, complex IDE for Java and other languages as well with plugins.

• KDevelop

  Very good IDE for C/C++ development.

Multimedia

• Adobe Acrobat Reader

  Essential to read PDF files.

• K3b

  Nice GUI to burn CDs/DVDs.

• Amarok

  Best audio player available.

• MPlayer

  This is the player that will play almost all your media files. On Linux the built-in GUI is OK.

• VLC

  It will play less files than MPlayer, but is still good.

• Picasa

  Excellent image viewer / photo organizer from Google.

Utilities

• Ark

  With the Konqueror plugin, it has a nice integration into your system.

• CDCat

  Organizes a CD/DVD collection. Free as in speech, multiplatform, uses Qt3. But you must compile it yourself (not in Portage).

• smartmontools

  Tool to monitor the SMART status of your hard drive.