Getting started (Applications)

One of the first things with a new OS is finding the really useful applications. Some of these took me months to come across but I wish I'd known about them from the beggining. Any list like this can only scratch the surface, but these are what have helped me.

Desktop manager: Mulitple desktops on your mac :)

Quicksilver: I have hardly scratched the surface with this, but within an hour or two my dock was obsolete as I can know launch every gui application with alt+space . How cool is that. There is a LOT more depth to this application, and I really must find the time to play with it some more.

MacTheRipper: Wrip DVDs (for backup purposes only of course).

Graphic Converter: Lots of image manipulation and conversion power in this tool.

X11: If you are a developer, installing the X11 tools that come on the developer DVD is a must.

VLC: Great for Video stuff

ourTunes: Really useful for copying iTunes music over your home network for backup purposes.

Fink: This is basically a mac version of the Debian RPM system. Installing other programs is as easy as
fink install

Tripwire: This should be installed as soon as possible. It takes a snapshot of your system and will warn when key files have been modified or deleted. This will help to spot any intrusion of your system.