Having recently made the transition to an all Macintosh household, I decided to compile this list of must haves to help my buddy Matt along:
Development:
Xcode 2.3 - Free download from Apple, it provides gcc, Interface Builder, and most of the basic GNU essentials.
iTerm - Terminal.app replacement. More feature rich, supports multiple windows and tabs, etc, etc.
TextMate - Slick lightweight text editor with features supporting every language under the sun. Customizability is its killer feature. It supports user-supplied bundle commands that allow the user to add features by scripting in their preferred language.
Python 2.4.3 - A lot of cool Mac-only Python packages are out there! Be sure to install the Universal 2.4.3 package from pythonmac.org.
ipython - Slick enhanced shell for the Python interpreter. (Requires the GNU readline library.)
Appscript - Python to Applescript bridge makes Mac scripting a breeze.
matplotlib - Matlab-like plotting package. Produce real plots without dirtying your hands on MS Excel.
Multimedia:
Handbrake - Very nice DVD => MPEG4 converter
iSquint - For making iPod video friendly movies.
MPlayer OSX - Plays just about anything.
VLC - For when MPlayer flakes out inexplicably. (Yay)
Net:
Bittorrent - Can’t live without it.
NetNewsWire - Sweet RSS/Atom fat client.
Adium - nice iChat replacement.
Fun:
Netflix Freak - Netflix fat client.
tickr for Flickr - scrolling picture collage on demand.
Compatibility:
Parallels - Cheap new VMWare competitor that allows you to run Windows in a box. That’s preferable to Boot Camp, if you ask me. Plus, this one is a real hit with wives and girlfriends because your Windows box can be removed to a closet.
Keynote - Powerpoint killer. Make killer presentations just like Jobs, and export to PPT for the losers at your job.