Adium is a free instant messaging application for the Mac, based on the popular Gaim project, that can connect to all the major IM networks including AIM, MSN, Jabber/GTalk, Yahoo, and more. Extremely customizable with a slick set of preloaded themes, audio alerts and emoticons.

iCompta understands and imports transaction records from your bank, and can import and export Quicken files for those of you switching from Quicken on the PC. Synchronizes with iCompta's iPhone application so you can add transactions and view your financial info on the go. Impressive functionality for a free application.

The most feature rich open source video player for the Mac. VLC plays MPEG, H.264, DivX, mp3, OGG, and AAC plus DVDs, CDs and VCDs. VLC is also an inexpensive alternative to paying for Quicktime Pro for those wanting fullscreen video playback on their Mac.

Video convertor tool that supports everything. For real. Tons of encodings, subtitle formats, DVD authoring capability, split and join features, multi track audio and more. ffmpeg is the premier free video manipulation tool for power users.

Converts and transfers video files from your Mac or from the web to your iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone or Apple TV. Integrates with iTunes, seamlessy filling in the gaps by supporting video encodings that iTunes doesn't play nice with. Now has support for on-click downloads of Flash video on the web.

DivX is the indispensible codec for those of you that enjoy watching TV episodes or previewing movies downloaded from file sharing networks like Bittorrent. Do yourself a favor and download either DivX or VLC which can also play DivX files.

Handbrake is the video conversion tool that does the simple day-to-day video tasks you care about most - like simple exporting for iPod, Apple TV and other portable devices. You can think of Handbrake as a simplified version of ffmpegX for less technical users that just want to watch their videos without needing to know a codec from a bitrate.

One of the first and still the best backup utilities for the Mac. Quickly and simply creates partial or complete bootable backups of your ssytem. Bootable backups are great because they are the simplest way to do a restore if the unthinkable happens. Well supported by the developer, you can't go wrong.

The de-facto standard for uncompressing RAR files on the Mac. If you use file sharing or Bittorrent to download stuff, you need this.

Firefox for the Mac is fast, secure, and fully customizable with all the extensions you would expect if you are a switcher from Firefox on the PC. A worthy competitor to Safari on the Mac, Firefox has advanced and continues to advance by leaps and bounds.

Newsfire is the most beautiful RSS and Atom feed reader available on the Mac. Slick UI transitions make feed reading a joy. Functional, stylish free. From longtime Mac developer David Watanabe.

One of the best and most lightweight Mac Bittorent clients, Transmission is resource efficient with a minimal UI and absolutely secure. Keeps your file sharing experience secure with full encryption support and automatically updated blacklists.

uTorrent is the world's most popular BitTorrent client, now available for the Mac. Supports bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and DHT (BitComet compatible). uTorrent is a worthy alternative to Transmission for users that like to have the latest feature support over minimalist UIs.

WriteRoom elegantly pares writing down to its bare essentials. It's fullscreen writing mode is a great antidote to bloated applications that have more distraction to offer than value.

Microsoft Office for the Mac is fully compatible with documents produced by the Windows version of Office and vice-versa. Office is a reality of life and is usually a must have for anybody using their Mac in a work environment.
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Scrivener is a unique reinterpretation of the word processor in that it supports the writer's workflow rather than just the traditional WYSIWYG view. Novelists especially will find Scrivener's support for corkboard notes and story outlining compelling and unique.

Xtorrent simplifies the Bittorent experience by including a surprisingly good built-in torrent search function. If you're tired of having to trawl through the back alleys of the web searching for torrents Xtorrent is the antidote. Xtorrent is another app from the maker of NewsFire.

Pixelmator supports much of the power of Photoshop without the cost. Includes Layers and filters as well as retouching tools like clone and color correction. GPU acceleration based on Apple's Core Image technology.

Screenflow let's you do simultaneous captures of your desktop, iSight camera and audio, with editing tools that let you quickly create screencasts. Screenflow exports video as QuickTime or Windows Media files.

LittleSnapper extends the idea of screenshots to web sites, for easy capturing, editing, organizing and annotating of your collection. Simple sharing functions make it easy to upload your snapshots to services like Flickr or your self-hosted website.

Advanced but simple to use image editing supporting all the standard web 2.0 style eye candy. Reflections, curves, shadows, glow, and 3D perspective are dead easy, and can be saved as presets for quick batch processing.

Cocktail is an OS X software utility combining a collection of maintenance tools and interface tweaks for fine tuning the operation of your Mac even if you don't know your Unix shell from your firewire port.

Deeper allows you to enable and disable many hidden functions of your built-in OS X software such as the Finder, Dock, Dashboard, Expose, Safari, Login window and more...