Whenever I get a new machine there are apps that I install for at least occasional use. I always forget some until having to become irritated and peck around at a non-pecking-friendly time. With my fresh clean Lion install I thought I’d make a list so’s I don’t have to repeat this all the time. This will be growing on an ongoing basis … as that’s really the only basis on which to grow. (n.B: “AppS” means I got it from the App Store, but probably available elsewhere, and I’m not going to even get into whether there is a MSFT version or whatever).
Apart from the obvious iApps/Office stuff, they are thus (essentials for me have an “*”): 

*1Password – keep the passwords on all systems

Adium – chat the chat

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 Editor – duh

Alfred (AppS) – updated launcher (unlike quicksilver) but giving Spotlight a go for now

CalendarBar – integrate iCal/gCal/Facebook … calendars

*DEVONthink Pro Office – keep the everything to be kept

*Dropbox – put it here … read/edit/share everywhere.

ecto – to write this

 

*Evernote – to keep random findings on all systems

*Flip4Mac – to enable the wmv in quicktime playing

FourWindsMahjong (AppS)

Frontrow – lion taketh away and hackery returneth – search this blog for how

Google Chrome – yeah, and sync the extensions to not deal with it again

Go2Shell (AppS) – opens a shell in the directory you’re in (stick it in your finder window toolbar or just invoke with your launcher of choice as the chosen would)

*GraphicConverter – browse/edit pix

*Growl - subtle notifications from most every other app

Howler (AppS) – quick basic timers, anytime

*iStat Menus – vital, vital, vital geekery and replaces clock (fuzzy), etc.

Mactracker – everything you gotta know

*Moneydance – pan-platform finance management

*Notational Velocity – most excellent, most fast … jots

Path Finder – don’t use that much, but when you need a better finder

*Perian – cannot live without codecs to make quicktime of any use whatsoever

*PhotoSync – send your phone/pod pix sans connection to computer/dropbox/facebook/etc. this is cheating a bit as the mac/win component is a free companion to the mobile app … priceless (AppS – both of them)

Plex – free multiplatform media server for paid iPhone/Pad plex 

RealPlayer – a vaguely necessary evil – someone please let me know if VLC or Quicktime can be persuaded to do this?

SiteSucker (AppS) – slurp down an entire site in one go

Skype – long distance is no distance

Sophos Anti-Virus – put it on, you never know where that’s been

*SpamSieve – baysean mail perfection

*StreamToMe (AppS) – watch video from your mac/pod/pad/pc. it even remembers where you left off which (hello VLC team??) is nice

TextExpander – only type it once

TextMate – the text and only the text … especially if it’s code

The Hit List – to-do’s and to-done’s (haven’t used much and insanely expensive)

The Unarchiver – handles all that weird smooshed stuff

TimeMachineEditor – haven’t tested in lion yet, but hate hourly machining

*Translator Free – see some language, drag it here, get the gist

*Transmission – get the distributed file sharing thing on

Twitter – only sometimes, mostly seems pointless

*VLC – you need nothing else to see all the moving pictures

Xmarks for Safari –  usually depend on Chrome and it’s sync, but this is needed to get everything into the iFramework. will have to give the new Safari a try though