Eww macintosh, That has no games huh?

For those of you that were following scriptkiddies.org on a somewhat daily bases you will remember that I had my macbook returned to apple due to a HDD fault. Well rather it was a HDD death but lets not be picky shall we.

Anyway after a 3 1/2 week delay for a replacement unit it has finally arrived. The unit is in a much better condition then the one that I first purchased and makes no wierd noises or anything of the dodgy sort.

I am currently working on loading all the data back onto the unit as well as customising the applications to suit my preferences. I have decided that for the sake of things I shall list a few of the programs that I reccomend for a new OSX install.

1. Smultron

Smultron is a very capable yet light weight text editor. Wether you want to fire up a text editor to take notes on the train or you want to code up a storm Smultron will meet your demands.

Also features syntax highlighting for a multitude of languages.

How much: Free
Where: smultron.sourceforge.net

2. Camino

Camino is a gecko powered browser for OSX that has a very distinct mac feel and fits in perfectly with the rest of OSX. Superquick, stable and of course free! I could not reccomend it more.

How much: Free
Where: www.caminobrowser.org

3. Monolingual

Now this I consider to be an essentual download for EVERY OSX user. This wonderfull program removes all the language packs for both OSX and its associated programs that are prepackaged with osx.

If you use english primarily in your life then why do you need over 2 Gb of localisation files for france and the rest of the world?

Short answer, you dont. Please be aware that removing the language files may take quite some time.

How much: Free
Where: monolingual.sourceforge.net

4. Adium

Now I will admit that when I had my first macbook and I started running OSX for the first time I went straight for microsoft messenger for mac.

MSN messenger for mac is heavily neglected and flawed in the nature of its design. It looks crap, runs like crap, user management is crap and it is lacking heavily in features.

So allow me to instead introduce you to the wonderfull world of adium! Adium is a gaim based messenging client that supports a wide range of protocols including msn, yahoo, icq and others.

The UI is heavily cocoa based and results in a uniuqe user interface that would be impossible on any other platform.

A multitude of options and features you just cant go past this one.

How much: Free
Where: www.adiumx.com

That is all that I can think of for now. I also suggest that if you dont need it you should remove the microsoft office trial and iWork.