“The first difficulty in creating such a list is knowing what doesn’t belong and why,” McElfresh writes. “The second difficulty in creating an all Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe list is prioritizing—which apps had or have the greatest impact. Frankly, prioritizing was the most difficult of the two tasks.”
The top 14 apps from Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe:
14 – Final Cut Pro
13 – Fireworks and Dreamweaver
12 – Filemaker Pro
11 – Terminal
10 – iPhoto
9 – Illustrator
8 – QuickTime
7 – Safari
6 – Flash
5 – PageMaker
4 – Microsoft Word
3 – Microsoft Excel
2 – Photoshop
1 – iTunes
Explanations here.
The top 14 apps not from Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe:
14 – Transmission
13 – 1Password
12 – NetNewsWire
11 – Stuffit
10 – Handbrake
9 – Transmit
8 – Skype
7 – BBEdit
6 – Firefox
5 – SuperDuper! & Carbon Copy Cloner
4 – Quicken
3 – WebKit
2 – Flip4Mac
1 – Parallels, VMware Fusion, & Boot Camp
Explanations here.
MacDailyNews Take: Eudora, Netscape Navigator, GraphicConverter… It’s tough to make a list like this, but Flip4Mac at #2? Wha?
Where’s Vuze? Hands down, it’s the best portal, converter, and streamer for Mac.
Umm, I would have to argue that these lists only mention current apps – and that there are tons of apps before OSX that need consideration. I would grant that some of these are the most important apps of the decade, or past 5 years, or of OSX since Tiger, but not of all time.
This guy is way off.
#10 – Handbrake. A wonderful app to be sure, but if you really want to get the most out of your Netflix DVD queue, you’re also going to need Ripit. Converting with Handbrake only can cause some protected DVDs to mis-order chapters.
Final Cut Pro should be much higher on the list as it played a big part in bringing the multimedia industry back to the Mac platform after Adobe blew it off.
Of all time:
FinderPop….remember that one little contextual menu app, that was free for a pint!!!!
DefaultFolder (still waiting for Apple to roll those functionalities into OS X)
ResEdit
GraphicsConverter
Interarchy
MacWrite, MacPaint
ClarisWorks (AppleWorks)
WordPerfect, in its early versions absolutely blew MS Word out of the water.
Almost forgot
AppleScript (now ScriptEditor)
BBEdit (would open just about anything)
even SimpleText.
Depends on your needs – this guy is into Torrent, burning disks, etc. Here are my favourites:
Song Sergeant (find dupes in iTunes)
SuperSync – awesome for merging libraries across multiple macs
MacThe Ripper
AquaMacs (Mac port of Emacs)
Skim – pdf reader
1Password
Safari Extensions – falling in love !
Stanza
Captain FTP
Gimp – image manipulator
Duplicate Annihilator – for iPhoto
PandoraJam !
Without Pagemaker desktop publishing would have died. Without Desktop publishing, the Mac would have died. Print Houses and Designers kept the platform alive during the dark years.
Bootcamp shouldn’t be on the list of apps not from Apple.
I concur, WTFrank!
Firefox? Seriously?
That thing crashes on me regularly. In about a third of launches it goes unresponsive just after I typed in the URL. Sure, it recovers after some time, but it’s annoying as hell. Plus, Flash with Firefox is memory leaky, and sloooowww, and crash prone. Flash is not great by itself, but with Safari or Opera it’s actually usable. If it weren’t for some extensions for which there are no usable alternatives in other browsers, I would kick Firefox out.
What about MacPaint, MacWrite and MacDraw, even if they were put on the list as 1 item?
How about Pixelmator? I have Photoshop on my machine, but for well over 90% of my image manipulation needs Pixelmator is the much better choice. Lean, mean, clean image machine.
No Acrobat?
Hell yeah Flip4Mac, banished Windows Media Player from my machine forever!!!
What about Hypercard?
“Over 25 years later Word remains one of the Mac’s most popular apps.”
Define “popular”. If he means installed and used, then yes.
If he means “wanted to use”, no. The current version 2008 is crap, the 2003 version is extremely outdated. Both are buggy and crash prone. It’s only installed and used because Word is the de-facto standard, not because Word is actually an application one loves to use.
Pixelmator should be there. Quicken should not be there, there are plenty of mac-only apps that are much better (though I haven’t tried the newest version, so maybe I’m wrong now).
Or Chooser
Hypercard for sure
Quicksilver deserves a spot too. And along with it you could have Butler, LaunchBar, etc (just group them into one).
In no particular order.
Quicktime
Photoshop
Illustrator
PageMaker
Safari
iTunes
Word
Boot Camp
iPhoto
Final Cut Pro
MacPaint
Acrobat
@ChrissyOne – little trick I learned for Handbrake to get around this problem: just play the movie in VLC (which you have to have anyway to decode with HB), then look up which title it’s playing in the menu (Playback | Title). Choose that track in HB to decode! Works great.
Postscript. If you can consider Quicktime a program, which is more of a base technology actually, then Postscript made ALL desktop printing possible and is the core of publishing, PDF, etc. Without it the Mac would never never gotten past the 128 model.
Quark Xpress and Aldus Pagemaker get my vote. Also:
FinderPop
GraphicConverter
Myst
Norton
Netscape Navigator/Communicator
retreiveit! was an amazing app , makes sherlock and spotlight look lame
i had it on my quadra in 1994
it looked inside every file , even gave results INSIDE the text , best search engine i ever had
why can’t they do that now ?
vlc does anything flip4mac does plus it’s free
ScreenFlow… I’ve made a pile of cash from that program
Hello? OpenOffice WTF?!?!
I have OpenOffice on all my Macs, Windows and Linux machines. Never a problem and always free.
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress
…then the other things.
A know nothing with a know nothing lists.
My List of Apple’s 15 Most important Applications in History.
1) iTunes
2) Apple Works
3) HyperCard
4) Xcode/QuickTime (tie)
5) Final Cut Studio
6) Logic Studio
7) Keynote
8) Apple Script
9) Pages
10) Safari
11) WebObjects
12) Apple Mail (now Mail)
13) FileMaker
14) iCal
15) Aperture
My List of 15 Non-Apple Software of all Time
1) Marathon by Bungie (pre Microsoft)
2) Photoshop
3) Quark Express
4) Netscape Navigator
5) Code Warrior
6) BBEdit
7) OmniGraffal
8) Illustrator
9) Stuff-it
10) Toast
11) Quicken
12) Eudora
13) OmniWeb
14) MS Word
15) MS Excel
There have been so many and some that I left off I’m sure are more important to others then the one I listed. Like the Great 3d applications and some newer applications that I didn’t include because they are too new but will be important and will proven themselves over time. Software like Pixelmator, Lineform, Liquid Ledger, HandBreak, and the list goes on.
stupid pointless list
ChrissyOne – Yes it may missorder chapters in handbrake for certain DVD’s but there is a work around in handbrake, as I have done it before and it works well. It just adds one little step to the process.
joewannamac – Guess you beat me to it should have kept reading
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“@ChrissyOne – little trick I learned for Handbrake to get around this problem: just play the movie in VLC (which you have to have anyway to decode with HB), then look up which title it’s playing in the menu (Playback | Title). Choose that track in HB to decode! Works great.”
I made my first million using MacDraw from ’85 to ’91. Loved that program and loved ResEditing it.
Mac 360 must be the Mac blog that took Microsoft’s money to switch to Windows 7.
I’m with Al and maczac…ResEdit belongs on the list. It was my introduction to poking behind the scenes back in the day.
Netscape made web browsing on the Mac a WAY better experience than on any PC using any web browser.
Netscape 4.11 – you were my bestest friend. Ever.
HyperCard? For f*cks sake!
What about best Apple software of all time (for old Apple series computers)?
I vote for Ultima II, Ultima III, Ultima IV and maybe King’s Quest.
#14 – Transmission…oh come on, get a life…utorrent is by far the best Mac torrent client…
Flip4wmv shouldn’t be there, the company behind it is owned by Microsoft
What about Logic?
I can’t believe they didn’t include Think Tank. Sheer genius.
I know from experience that with 512kb, a floppy drive and Opcode’s Vision, in 1986 I could sync to a 16-tack tape analog recorder via their SMTPE Timepiece and mix live tracks with drums machines, MIDI synths, and samplers for song production and film scores.
And don’t forget MacProject, Macintosh Pascal. Excel for the Fat Mac required the full 512kb!
But lest we forget, the #1 of all time Mac app:
Switcher
HyperCard, anyone? Wow, this list is compiled by goldfish.
I would have included HyperCard and Switcher.
MacWrite
MacPaint
Switcher
HyperCard
LightSpeed Pascal
These are the first Mac apps that I used the most and loved in the beginning.
How about Red Ryder and White Knight?
http://www.atpm.com/9.09/hello.shtml
What a about sendIT, TextWrangler, Adium?
A few years ago Quark but now InDesign. As for Word you’ve got to be joking.
Perian?!?!? HellOOOOOO?!?
No way! Not of all time….. Is this person a 5-10 year Mac user? How ’bout to start these 2 classic OS 9 jewels…. From Cassady & Green, Conflict Catcher and Sound Jam (Aka iTunes)?
>>>Comment from: WTFrank!
Without Pagemaker desktop publishing would have died. Without Desktop publishing, the Mac would have died. Print Houses and Designers kept the platform alive during the dark years.
You’re 100% on the money.
Flip4Mac? – NO. Much as like the most recent iteration of Microsoft’s many attempts at coming up with a decent media format, which is what Flip4Mac actually IS FOR, this doesn’t belong on this list at all. If Microsoft would stop trying to make the world proprietary, we could do with out Flip4Mac entirely.
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Concept: Dump Flip4Mac and put GraphicConverter on the list instead. It is a Mac essential at a very nice price. THANK YOU Thorsten Lemke!
Transmission – I so agree. Much as I liked the bells and whistles of Azureus and after the long hours of climbing its steep learning curve, once it got metamorphosed into Vuze, I rapidly lost interest. Transmission is an incredible and nicely working, secure and simple replacement for mere mortals. BRAVO to the Transmission project group, Stranded Design and Nilok Productions!
😀
Transmit? I never have understood the allure of this FTP app. It used to be a POS. It got better. It costs $34. Instead I joyfully and reliably use CyberDuck for free. So HUH?!
As for the idea of putting Netscape on the list: In its early days it was a godsend. And let’s face it: Netscape created and set the standard for the World Wide Web from which we still benefit today. But the browser developed a very nagging and long standing memory leak that turned it into a POS that I despised. Microsoft’s warz with Netscape also ruined its fortunes. Thankfully, Mozilla picked up the pieces and we have the far superior descendent FireFox et al., which DOES belong on the list. BRAVO Mozilla Project!
You can’t put Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel on the list without paying homage to the earlier applications that Microsoft ripped off and destroyed on the Mac platform:
Thank you WordPerfect!
Thank you VisiCalc!
Thank you Lotus 1-2-3!
Oh and PageMaker was originally by Aldus, bought by Adobe. Thank you Aldus!
‘Chris’ mentioned PostScript. Well, it’s not an app. It’s a format. But it did REVOLUTIONIZE the computer world. Big thank you to the then wonderful world of Adobe. If only they could return to that spirit and skill again! (Hint: Fire the Marketing-As-Management Morons at Adobe! Return to being entrepreneurial!)
flappo mentioned VLC. YES! Can’t live without it.
Earlier this year it looked like VLC was gonna die on the Mac platform. But a handful of brilliant and devoted developers stepped in and donated their time to revive it from near morbidity. THANK YOU to the Mac VLC project team! And THANK YOU to the Lunettes (aka ‘Glasses’) project team who are working on the son-of-VLC exclusively for Mac!
No reason for Word and Excel to be there. Pages and Numbers for me. Yes I know that the M$ versions have more functionality but for 98% of users the Apple versions are much faster and work just as well. Oh yeah, and a lot cheaper too.
Ask fifty people and you’ll get fifty different lists.
This is another one of those ME. ME! ME!!! topics.
The most important applications are the “A” apps, like alpha and omega. The “A” apps are MacPaint, MacWrite, MacDraw… More 1.1 (ThinkTank), PageMaker , ReadySetGo, Reflex (even buggy, it was the first relationnal database software), File (before FileMaker), and some other Great Apps that paved the way for today’s Apps. So nice, simple, powerfull like More 1.1 never appeared again.
The most important applications are the great “A” applications that paved the way for today’s ones, like in an alpha and omega list. The “A” apps were innovative like MacPaint, MacWrite, MacDraw, More 1.1 (ThinkTank), PageMaker , ReadySetGo, Reflex (even buggy, it was the first relationnal database software), File (before FileMaker), Multiplan for the Mac (before Excel) and some other.
So nice, simple to use, powerfull like More 1.1 never appeared again.
reading the apps listed shows how deep the Mac culture level is.
those listing Word and Excel lists copies or ameliorations. MacWrite and Multiplan for the Mac were original. Only one came from Ms.
Many other are to be considered, HyperTalk, HyperCard, RedRider/White Knight, QT, etc.
Don’t forget ClickToFlash.
No mention of iWork??? The package of applications that really began to loosen the bonds of MS???
As others have noted, Hypercard. Followed by the original two applications that came bundled with the introductory Macintosh, MacWrite and MacPaint.
So, my two cents would have:
1. Hypercard
…
daylight
…
x. MacWrite
x+1. MacPaint
and the list continues hereon…
Ron McElfresh must be a young guy or “new” Mac user of just 10 years or so. Hypercard clearly should have made the list.
I’d add ResEdit and Hypercard to that list, myself.
How did Metrowerks Codewarrior not make the list?
I would nominate HyperCard, Macromedia Director and Digidesign Sound Designer as three tools that defined the early digital multimedia era.
Adobe??? WTF???
They are not worthy to be on the same list ad Apple products, or any list for that matter.
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