Top 20 Mac Programs...

kirklandkirkland
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
As part of my narcissistic "celebration" of the 20th Anniversary of the Mac, I've posted an opinion piece on the top 20 most important or best Mac programs ever.



Mac @ 20: The Top 20 Mac Programs Ever



The countdown:
  • Now Utilities

  • CyberDog

  • BBEdit

  • ResEdit

  • Final Cut Pro

  • Quicken 2000

  • MacWrite & MacPaint

  • NetNewsWire

  • Microsoft Office

  • Marathon

  • iMovie

  • ClarisWorks 5

  • GraphicConverter

  • Adobe Illustrator

  • HyperCard

  • iTunes

  • Safari

  • Microsoft Word 5

  • Adobe Photoshop

  • Aldus PageMaker

You can find my justifications at the web page (too long to copy here!). Thought this might spur some interesting discussion. :-)



Kirk
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    hmmm.... i immediately notice to absence of garageband....
  • Reply 2 of 24
    jaredjared Posts: 639member
    Or OmniGraffle...
  • Reply 3 of 24
    kirklandkirkland Posts: 594member
    Yes, OmniGraffle ? in fact, the entire Omni library, is great, and definitely going places.



    GarageBand, while cool, has only been out for six days. Come on, it hasn't changed the world yet. Check back for the 25th Anniversary list.



    Kirk
  • Reply 4 of 24
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    I think it's really depending on the user and the apps he/she uses.



    To me the best 20 list is very different
  • Reply 5 of 24
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    GarageBand? OmniGraffle?



    These are for the best ever programs, not the best programs today. OmniGraffle is nice, but it's not the first of its kind and doesn't always play nice (speed wise it "beachballs" a lot). GarageBand is too new to really rate as even one of the best programs of the year, let alone ever.



    Minus CyberDog and NetNewsWire, mostly because I never used either, I agree 100% with every item on that list. Those titles are/were pure gold.
  • Reply 6 of 24
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Oh why oh why does office have to be on the list... oh well, important I guess, but coal more than gold.



    And Transmit? That's just an ftp client, nothing ground breaking there. Now Fetch on the other hand...
  • Reply 7 of 24
    carson o'geniccarson o'genic Posts: 1,279member
    My current favorites for fun are StudioArtist and GarageBand.



    For work, I have to say Endnote is one program that defines how computers are supposed to help you get your work done. I can't imagine adding references in by hand. Offcourse, a word processor is required with Endnote and I have to agree Word 5 was the last big step forward its been 2 baby-stpes forward and one bug step backwords with each subsequent release (I never did Word 6-too many steps back).
  • Reply 8 of 24
    neilybneilyb Posts: 128member
    Now Utilities? I think that would top my list of top 20 buggiest programs ever. Crap crap crap... IMHO





    neilyb
  • Reply 9 of 24
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    MacJournal.
  • Reply 10 of 24
    kirklandkirkland Posts: 594member
    I use Transmit to upload my site, but I gotta go with Fetch as being more historically important.



    And I dunno, I love Office. Such a useful set of tools. And out for Mac for several years before Windows. Pretty cool, if you ask me.



    Continuing the 20th anniversary theme, I just posted my list of 20 Most Important Macs, which might be fodder for discussion in another forum. :-)



    Kirk
  • Reply 11 of 24
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    Here is my list of top programs...



    1. iMovie-It caused me to fall in love with the Mac, what can I say?



    2. iTunes-Gotta love it.



    3. iDVD-I still love the feeling of being able to make my own DVD and putting it on TV.



    4. Safari-Use it constantly.



    5. iChat/AIM-Its home life.



    6. Garageband-It's taking over life.



    7. Quicktime-Plays my movies and everyone else's.



    8. Keynote-Amazing whiz bang effects.



    9. iPhoto-This one would be higher but until I get a digicam, sorry.



    10. DVD Backup/DVD2ZoneX/Toast-hehe



    11. Cinema 4DXL-Fun to fiddle with.



    12. Word-Use it all the time.



    13. Alarm Clock Pro-Without it I would have bad school attendance.



    14. DVD Player-Watching movies on my iMac's screen is a treat.



    15. Starcraft/Warcraft/The Sims-If I'm not on PS2 and I want a game on my Mac, these suffice.
  • Reply 12 of 24
    kirklandkirkland Posts: 594member
    I love the Starcraft/Warcraft games! Best real time strategy ever!
  • Reply 13 of 24
    ryaxnbryaxnb Posts: 583member
    Very good, but two glaring omissions: Mosaic and Netscape.
  • Reply 14 of 24
    eric jeric j Posts: 43member
    Hi,



    I continue to regret the demise of DeltaGraph. Is there another app that posseses so much versatility in converting numerical data to graphs?



    Peace



    eric j
  • Reply 15 of 24
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    What about Maya? Having Maya run on our OS is really starting to establish the mac as a legitimate high end 3d platform. Hell I even had to switch to pc 5-6 years ago so I would be able to run Softimage and Maya. I made it back though
  • Reply 16 of 24
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    I'd add SubEthaEdit(hate that name) for its collaboration features.
  • Reply 17 of 24
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Microsoft Word 5 - Awesome word processor, I could still use it today really (if I could get it to install), and every version after this one was downhill.



    Adobe Illustrator 6 - Great drawing program. I played with it and drew stuff all the time. I recently tried version 10 - no good. It's an unintuitive piece of crap. Like Word 5, every version after this one was downhill.



    VLC - This is a new one, and it hasn't had all the bugs sorted out. Still, this is a much, MUCH better alternative to MPlayer, and it actually DOES play "my movies and everyone else's." Unlike QuickTime, which really only likes .mov, .mpg/.mpeg, and .swf unless you install plugins. I will say that QuickTime is one of the most influential applications that Apple has made, and without it, internet video wouldn't have been as popular, so VLC may not have come around. Still, VLC is a better app today than QuickTime is today.



    SoundJam/iTunes - Another recent one, but it's a groundbreaking music application, and now it's having a huge influence on the music industry in general. Definitely worth a spot.



    ResEdit - Great tool for h4x0rs before they were called that! It's always fun to poke around the resources of various files, and I have used it for making many plugins for Escape Velocity. That leads me to...



    Escape Velocity - Although EV:O and EV:N have promised bigger galaxies and more complex storylines, EV was the original that started it all. There are hundreds of scenarios you can play in the EV engine. It was the first shareware game I bought, and it's a huge amount of fun. It'll be a while before there are enough total conversion plugins for EV Nova to allow it to supercede EV in customizability, although after playing EV Nova, EV's graphics look pretty archaic by comparison.



    Mozilla - This is, I think, the browser that made web browsing what it is today. Where Netscape brought web browsing into people's homes, and made it popular and accessible, Mozilla has revolutionized modern web browsing. Also, Mozilla has been the only browser able to challenge Internet Explorer since Netscape flopped. Because of it, many Mozilla-based browsers have come along for the Mac, and others have been inspired by it. I'm glad we don't have to use IE for everything.



    Finally, I can't post this without giving a nod to my old pal SimpleText. That was one sweet program, just for its simplicity.
  • Reply 18 of 24
    pumpkintoshpumpkintosh Posts: 51member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Messiahtosh

    Here is my list of top programs...



    14. DVD Player-Watching movies on my iMac's screen is a treat.







    You have got to be kidding. DVD Player is one of the worst DVD players on the planet, and for anybody that is actually serious about movies, it wasn't even worth peaking at until the most recent version included in Panther.
  • Reply 19 of 24
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    Adobe Illustrator 6 - Great drawing program. I played with it and drew stuff all the time. I recently tried version 10 - no good. It's an unintuitive piece of crap. Like Word 5, every version after this one was downhill.





    I don't agree, 10 is by far superior to 6, there's so much more you can do. With out the advances done to it my job would be a lot harder. The only down side is it could be faster.
  • Reply 20 of 24
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Pumpkintosh

    You have got to be kidding. DVD Player is one of the worst DVD players on the planet, and for anybody that is actually serious about movies, it wasn't even worth peaking at until the most recent version included in Panther.



    uh it's just a dvd player... what does it need to do besides play dvd's? What do people serious about movies need from a computer dvd player?
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