One Year Later: Which Mac Apps Do I Still Use?

I've been writing weekly (sometimes more often) about Mac applications for a full year on this site. So, I thought this would be a good time to look back at my 50+ items here and let you know which of the apps I wrote about that I still use.

Before launching into my lists, I want to point out a very important point: If I wrote about an app here it is because I thought it was interesting and good. I did not write about products that didn't interest me or didn't work well (for the most part :-). So, everything listed below is "good" regardless of whether I use it frequently or not today. I should also point out that I changed jobs last summer (2008). So, my personal workflow and app needs changed a bit too. For example, I used to frequently make PowerPoint presentations in my old job. I also used to work with a lot of Linux servers and frequently used virtualization hypervisors like VMware, Parallels, and VirtualBox for testing installations and updates. Neither is the case these days. The same holds true for the awesome R-Project open source statistics platform. It is simply something I don't need much of in my current work. Some apps aren't used much or at all because they are just too much fun and would kill all productivity. You can probably guess which ones those are. Then, there are apps that aren't needed frequently, but like a spare tire are a must have when they are needed. NTFS-3G andn uTorrent Mac come to mind as examples for this category.

FREQUENTLY USED APPS
- Adobe AIR & twhirl: Must have Twitter client for my Mac
- Evernote
- (The) GIMP
- Pixelmator
- Rogue Amoeba Audio Hijack Pro
- Smultron text editor
- TrueCrypt

INFREQUENTLY USED BUT USEFUL APPS
- Flip video software
- Griffen iTalkSync
- Mariner Software MacJournal: I actually like this app a lot and wish I had time to actually use it
- Microsoft Silverlight: Some sites' videos require it
- NTFS-3G
- Parallels Desktop
- uTorrent Mac
- VirtualBox
- VMware Fusion

APPS I ALMOST NEVER USE
- Filemaker Bento
- iSquint (discontinued)
- iStopMotion 2 Home Edition
- Komodo Edit
- Lego Mindstorms NXT
- LightZone Basic Edition
- Microsoft Messenger for Mac
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2008
- Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC)
- OpenOffice.org 3.0
- R-Project
- TaskPaper
- VectorDesigner

You may have read about the various changes taking place at O'Reilly Media. I am not an O'Reilly employee. But, the changes in their website structure means that this will be the last of my long-form blog items about Mac OS X applications. I will, however, drop a note from time to time in O'Reilly's current blog infrastructure. I hope you've found some of the items I wrote here interesting and, maybe, even useful. I've had a great time writing a weekly item about software for the Mac. You can find my non-Mac writing at MobileAppsToday.com (I do talk about iPhones there a lot though). And, I'll probably revive my dormant MacsAndStuff.com personal website. And, stay tuned for a possible Mac-ish podcast too!

You can find me on Twitter at: toddogasawara