Lifehacker has made this “Pack for Mac”. This is their fourth annual list.
They have this categorized into the following groups:
- Productivity
- Internet/Communications
- Music, Photos, and Video
- Utilities
- The Extended Pack
Under Productivity, they list:
- Quicksilver
- Notational Velocity
- DashExpander
- Wunderlist
Under Internet/Communications is:
- Chrome
- Sparrow Lite
- Adium
- Skype
- NetNewsWire
Music, Photos, and Video:
- VLC
- Handbrake
- StreamToMe
- Picasa
- Spotify
Utilities:
- Dropbox
- uTorrent
- Skitch
- Growl
- Crashplan
- Unarchiver
The Extended Pack
- Calendar
- Found
- Cobook
- CheatSheet
- Read Later
The full article not only explains briefly what these programs do, but offers some alternatives. Out of the Productivity group, Quicksilver was the only one that I have tried and I found it simpler just to use Spotlight as my app launcher.
In the second group, (Internet/Communications), I have tried Chrome and like it. Also like Adium, Skype and NetNewsWire. I also like them but have found that I don’t use them much currently. Guess I will have to try Sparrow Lite, although I believe it is now owed by Google and being developed only for Android.
In the Music, Photos, and Video group I have tried them all but StreamToMe. I am planning a user group meeting on “Cutting the Cord” and will look at it for possible inclusion in that topic. I haven’t given HandBrake much use, but it is possible I will use it more in the future.
In Utilities, I have used Dropbox and Unarchiver pretty regularly. I used Growl for awhile, but found it more annoying than useful. I have been investigating the use of Crashplan as I am convinced we all need offsite backup.
In the Extended group, I have downloaded CoBook, but haven’t used it. The others sound like ones I would like to try out.
See what you think at this site: http://lifehacker.com/5925199/lifehacker-pack-for-mac-our-list-of-the-best-free-mac-apps#productivity
Don’t forget to read the comments where alternatives are also mentioned.
