This article at “Mac-Essentials” has a pretty nice list of Mac apps. I don’t know that Apple would agree with all of them. After all one listed is Flash, which Apple is not allowing on the iPhone, the iPod Touch or the iPad.
The author says:
How did I prepare this list? Well, I have convinced many of my friends and family to purchase a Mac. And they have come to the conclusion they should send their computer to my house for a few hours before they start to use it, just to get those apps that are essential on their computer. Most of them are new to Mac and they don’t want to spend months trying to discover what they really need. Well, I have compiled a list of all the free apps that I install automatically on their computer. Now if you are new to the Mac and you don’t have a geeky Mac friend to do this work for you, I am sure this site will be very handy for you. By installing those applications, you should really enhance your Mac experience. I tried to choose only free apps. That is why the first 25 applications on this list are free. There are a few paid apps that I also consider very useful and they are # 26 to 30 on this list. These paid app all come with a free trial, so feel free to give them a try and see if you like them.
App #1 : Neo Office or Open Office
App #2 : Google Earth
App #3 : Adobe Media Player
App #4 : Flash Player plugin
App #5 : Growl
App #6 : Firefox
App #7 : Camino
App #8 : Google Sketchup
App #9 : Skype
App #10 : DivX Codec
App #11 : Inquisitor (Plug-in for Safari or Firefox.)
App #12 : Onyx (System utility)
App #13 : Name Mangler
App #14 : Handbrake
App #15 : iStat Nano (Widget)
App #19 : Flip4Mac
App #20 : Perian
App #21 : VLC
I definitely agree with those last three. See the complete list complete with comments and a list of some apps that didn’t make the top 30 at: http://www.mac-essentials.info/
