Coda: This is the first ever paid application I got on my Macbook, which I did not regret. It served me very well, good design and rich functionality. (Free alternative(s): Text wangler)
Transmit: From the same dev team as above, it is hands down the best FTP app out there. (Free alternative(s): Cyberduck, Filezilla)
Tweetie: It is the best twitter client, some people not agree to this, but Tweetie is the most suitable twitter client for me, nice sleek design, normal update time interval. (Free alternative(s): Tweetdeck, Seesmic Desktop, Nambu)
TextMate: This is the best text editor ever, not just on Mac, it is so easy to program with TextMate, Macro, Snippets and Commands makes my life so much easier. I just love it. (Free alternative(s): Emacs, Vim, jEdit)
PostBox: It sounds crazy to some people that someone would pay for a email client, but PostBox is not just any email client. Firstly, it was built on Mozilla infrastructure, so we have rock solid security. Secondly, it is has a Mac look and design (Tabbed browsing) and there are so many more features to make PostBox the best email client on Mac. (Free alternative(s): Thunderbird, Mail, Eudora)
Microsoft Office 2008: The best office suite there is (although it’s from Microsoft), no further explanation needed. (Free alternative(s): OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice)
Other apps I have on my Macbook:
- DiffMerge(Diff tool)
- NetNewsWire(RSS reader)
- QuickSilver(Application Launcher)
- Firefox(Web browser)
- QQ for Mac(Instant messenger)
- Adium(Instant messenger)
- Transmission(Bittorrent downloader)
- Caffeine(System tool)
- TimeEdition(Time tracking app)
- VLC(Media Player)
- RealPlay(Media Player)
- VirtualBox(Virtual machine app)
- PowerWord For Mac(Chinese-English English-Chinese Dictionary)