I know a couple of people that are getting new Macs in the next couple of months and said they would appreciate a list of my favorite tools. Instead of given that to them in email, I thought the masses would enjoy my favorite apps and tools of the moments. You know who the masses are — all three of you.

I have two categories — Free and Commercial. I didn’t break Free into “Free as in Beer” or “Free as in Freedom” because, well, it’s a big mixture of both. “Free as in Beer” software seems to be very common in the OSX world. So be it — you can investigate if they are Open Source or not.

On the commercial side, of the the software has demos that you can try before you buy. No, I don’t like to buy software anymore without trying it first. I should also state that I haven’t purchased many of them, but I liked them enough that I thought about it, and probably would if I worked on OSX full-time. And a few I have purchased anyway.

I’ve blogged about most of these apps before, so if they seem familiar to you, that’s why
Free Stuff

• iTerm — The first thing to install on your new Mac, if you think you may do command line stuff.  Seriously.  Macros, bookmarks, tabs, the whole ten yards.  Great tool
• Quicksilver — Sort-of a GUI/command line launcher.  And more.  Much more.  You really have to try it out on your own for a while before you get it.  This should be the second thing you install.
• MacPorts — This is the project formerly known as DarwinPorts.  Are you missing your favorite Unix tool?  Then install MacPorts and type sudo port install app_name and you are off to the races.  Using MacPorts makes install Ruby on Rails dead simple.
• Cyberduck — Easily the best GUI FTP app I’ve ever used.  And I don’t like GUI FTP apps, so that says something.  Point and click, or drag files from Finder to Cyberduck.  Easy as it gets.
• Pac the Man X — This is Gina’s favorite game.  A great Pac Man clone.
• Firefox — As of a few days ago, I switched from Opera to Firefox 2.0. Not 100% sure why — I still recommend both.  Firefox has all the comforts of home and work.
• VLC — VLC can understand more formats that Quicktime.  If you do anything with videos, you need it.
• Aquamacs — okay, only for Emacs geeks, but still — a great version of GNU Emacs.
• Yep — This is going to be commercial soon, so get the free version while you can.  It’s a great way to keep track of documents.

Commercial Stuff

• OmniWeb — I think it’s the best browser for the Mac.  If I worked on a Mac full-time, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it.
• Textmate — The videos make it look very good, but I’m still stuck on Emacs.  If you aren’t an Emacs person, it’s surely worth a look.
• SQLGrinder — Manage any database in OSX style.  All you need is a JDBC driver — most of which come with it.
• NetNewsWire — I think it’s the best way to read your RSS feeds. Worth $30?  I’m not so sure.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it.

This list may change in a week, but there it is — the best of the best.  At the moment.