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

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.

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.