Looking at the application dock just now it occurred to me that that was an interesting collection of apps. Maybe not. But for better or worse, here they are (show us yours too if you like):
Grab — We start right out with an oddball. This is the standard screen grab utility that comes with the Mac, and I basically NEVER use it. But it’s open now cause I couldn’t get any of my usual tools to grab the application dock. But Capture->”Timed Screen” did the trick. I quit it the moment after I took the shot, and probably won’t see it again for a long time.
Finder — Ah the Finder. At Merlin Mann’s suggestion, I tried Path Finder for awhile, but Finder is good enough for me. I’ve even gotten used to the left-hand-icon-sidebar of Tiger. Although I really wish we could get consistent about what a single- vs double-click does on an icon.
ImageWell — I only found this app since MacWorld, and now I wouldn’t want to live without it. It makes incredibly simple the process of grabbing, scaling, doing simple editing, and then uploading, of images for my blogs. I love it!
Transmit — FTP client. I’ve used more different FTP clients over the years than just about any other type of app. Interarchy, NetFinder, Fetch, Cyberduck, others I’m sure, now Transmit. Transmit is working well for me right now. I have no desire to change. And I hate to damn-with-faint-praise, but I can’t promise I won’t switch again. It’s me.
BBEdit — BBEdit is one of the 3-4 apps that are running on my Mac ALL THE TIME. Years ago I gave up doing any of my writing in MS Word. Now I write prose, code, journals, proposals, scripts, invoices, drafts of emails & blog posts, lists, reminders, just about everything, in BBEdit. It has a weird combination of simplicity and power. Hard to explain. But it’s the place where I write, and I write a lot.
OmniOutliner — I’m evaluating using this to organize my to-do list in a GettingThingsDone sort of way. The jury’s still out. OmniOutliner was included on my MacBook. I think it’s the full version, and not a demo. I’ll be bummed if it expires.
Calculator — I use this often, but don’t usually leave it running. It’s still open from a recent session of arithmetic.
Ecto — For posting to most of my blogs. I could probably set it up to post to this one too, but I haven’t yet. It’s a terrific tool for easily creating, formatting, and uploading blog entries to all the major blogging systems. One quibble: I bought a license for it a couple years ago. Then, in one of my system upgrades and/or machine migrations, it forgot that I’d paid, so now I use it in Demo mode and it periodically pesters me to pay (again). It’s easier for me to reset the demo timer (I’ll never tell how), than to try and find the registration info. My-bad.
Terminal — Every now and then you have to do the Command Line thing. Running on my Mac about half the time.
Software Update — Not usually running on my Mac, but last night I was checking to see if I have all the OS X patches installed prior to the early (and awesome!) arrival of daylight savings time. I also installed the new iTunes, more on that soon.
Quicktime Player — I’m part way through watching the latest episode of Diggnation. I could watch it in iTunes, but for some reason there are things that I prefer to watch, or listen to, in Player. Anybody else feel that way?
Mail — This is another of the apps that is always running on my Mac. For years (and years, and years) I was a Eudora user. Mail Version 1 was pretty bad, but when Mail v.2 came along it got a lot better. So I switched. I tried Thunderbird for awhile, and didn’t like it. Tried BareBones’ Mailsmith for awhile, and liked it, but not $100 worth, vs. FREE for Mail. Full disclosure, I also use Gmail for some of my mail. Both Gmail and Apple Mail have their plusses. But they’re two completely different things. Apples and Oranges, so to speak.
SpamSieve — This spam filtering program is awesome. I installed it a couple months ago when Mail’s spam filter inexplicably stopped filtering (still don’t know why). I tried the free demo of SpamSieve, paid the fee, and never looked back. Learns fast and very accurate. Highly recommended.
Firefox — Another app that’s running all the time. I run Safari as the default browser on my desktop (secondary) Mac. But on my MacBook (primary Mac) I run Firefox. I’ve tried most of the Mac browsers, and many of them are very good. But I’m comfortable with, and have all my bookmarks in, FF.
iTunes — Runs about 50% of the time. Use it mostly to listen to podcasts while I work (or pretend to be working). Just upgraded to the new version 7.1. I’ve yet to notice the difference. Although I leave iTunes running even when not listening to something, it’s one of the first apps I’ll quit when I need to recover memory or performance for some other purpose.
Awaken — This is something I’m evaluating for a possible posting. It’s a timer app that lets you program regular repeat reminders, as well as set a one-time timer. It seems to work just fine. Otherwise the jury’s still out. More later, maybe.
So those are the apps I’m running right now. I’m tempted to think of what apps I use that are not running right now, but then that would defeat the whole purpose of this posting.
What apps are YOU running right now?. Show us here