Software List (-- please add more)

Hiya John. Sure, there are loads of plain text editors. "Rich text" editors are word processors like MS Word and what's included with NeoOffice. Everything else, including aforementioned programmer's tools, is basically a glorified text editor. There's the one that comes built into the OS for one, TextEdit. Do you need something more flexible than that? Try Smultron. There're the ones you can use from the command line, like vi. The best ones I've found I've already mentioned above: skEdit and TextMate.

Hope that helps.

How about TextEdit. It's not really plain, but very close to notepad.
UnRarX for rar archives.
I also frequently use DVD Studio Pro, which is expensive and way much better than iDVD.
Basicaly all Pro applications are very cool, and most importantly work with each other very easily.

Forgot to mention about Automator. It's built into OS and can do sequences of commands of whatever software (not all the software though) you're using. I'm using it to resize pictures for web with one click of a button.

Good mac apps, so many its hard to count:

Systems Administration:

Carbon Copy Cloner - Free - makes exact copy of hard drives, works perfectly, good for cloning out mass numbers of images. In fact any mac sysadmin should check out Mike's site at http://www.bombich.com/ he is one of the best resources for administrating (is it administrating or administering, I've never quite been able to figure that out) the platform.

radmin - $30 - Like apple remote desktop but works well with the command line. Haven't used it since it was free though...

Airport Management Utility/Airport Utility - Free - Manage all your base stations from one central app. Dont know why apple doesn't advertise this more...

Network Home Redirector - Free - Just a script actually but it make symbolic links from the network home directory to the local drive on login. Very useful for stopping people clogging up your network transferring massive amount of data in the form of caches and preferences to a remote profile and for stopping the microsoft word hour long startup problem. A must for anyone running a networked users environment over wireless with microsoft office.

KisMac - Free - How secure is your wireless network really? Find out by loading up this cute little piece of software and seeing how long it takes to hack yourself. Show your boss to try and get some money for the upgrade you've been asking for. Also check out ethereal using...

Mac Ports - Free - Like fink but has access to a larger database of ports. Use to be called Darwin ports

Xcode - Free - How cool is it that apple actually gives out their whole programing IDE free. Very useful.

As for fun apps, I'll have to let you know once i get the hard drive on my laptop fixed (dang thing burned out and I bought it less than a year ago, well thank god for warranty). I've got a memory like a rusty sieve for things like fun programs.

Simplify Media is a free OS X and Windows application that lets you share your iTunes library over the 'net. It differs from other apps that provide the same functionality in the following ways:

- It's not a server app with a web interface. Although it's a separate application (like iScrobbler and the like), its functionality is a part of iTunes. Others' libraries just appear in your source list under the "Shared" entry.

- It's not a pain in the a*se to install and configure. Those of you who use just one computer on your home network probably have shared libraries in iTunes turned off. You install this app, enable shared libraries in iTunes, create your account and invite your friends, and you're set.

Seriously? This is the most painless, easy-to-use, music-sharing application I've ever encountered. And the kicker, for me, is that you cannot download what you hear, which will hopefully keep the RIAA off their back. Instead, it has the opposite effect (or does on me, anyway): I hear something, love it!, user goes offline, can no longer hear it, oh no!, must have, so what do I do? I buy the music for myself instead of relying on a library that may not always be available to me.

K, I've babbled on long enough. Suffice it to say that I think this app is wicked cool, totally brilliant, and so do my completely computer-illiterate friends, who finally managed to get one of my recommended applications working without any help from me.

- Ayem - A 3D/2D image development for Macintosh or other OS.

Komodo Edit - although it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Komodo IDE or the Activestate Perl PDK pro studio, this one is free which means it is nice

great list guys, I concur across the board. There's sooo many good apps and useful tools on mac. Kudos to this list.

K, I lied. I chose Journler, one of the best apps on the Mac. Donationware for personal use, a $25 license for non-personal use (which includes commercial, non-profit, edu). Worth so much more than that, I'd advise buying a license before the price goes up. =)

I've officially had my Mac for a year now (+2 days), so here are some more:

GarageSale. If you sell on ebay, your choices are manual listing, GarageSale, or iSale. Based on price, support, fantastic upgrade policy, and free additional downloads (templates), GarageSale is my pick. ($)

Hallon. This free, open source application hasn't been updates in years, but it works on 10.4.10 and is brilliant. Basically it lets you create bookmarks where bookmarks don't belong. So let's say I'm reading an e-mail message and I have to follow-up on it. I can create a Hallon "bookmark" that will link directly to that message. I can associate an alarm with the bookmark, as well. So instead of creating a separate to-do list and collecting/attaching individual resources, I can create system-wide "bookmarks" throughout the day. So very handy.

Jing and Skitch. The latter is much cooler but the former does video. Both are indispensable to me now and I'm not sure how i got on without them. They're both still in preview stage, so pricing isn't available yet (read: for now, they're *free*).

MarsEdit. Blogging client. Afaik, there are basically two options for native (in other words Cocoa, not Java) blogging clients: ecto and MarsEdit. I bought MarsEdit without evaluating ecto because I know and respect the developer, so you might like to give both a go.

VMWare Fusion. Has replaced Parallels Desktop from my initial list of recommended software. There was a huge kerfuffle when Parallels Desktop 3.0 was released, and at the end of it, I really didn't feel like supporting the developers anymore. Plus Fusion was just better when I tried it: faster, more stable, and more integrated into my OS X environment. Funky fresh. (20 bucks off 'til the end of the year, in case anyone's interested.)

VisualHub ($). Quality and ease of use definitely worth paying for. I've been ripping films and TV series to my iPhone, and this has really made it a cinch.

Twitterrific (free). Still the best Twitter client on the Mac (imo).

cssedit,coda = web developer should use this

awesome thread, I vote sticky

Handbrake(free) and iMedia converter($): Convert DVD or video to other format