There are a few application on my Mac I couldn’t live without. Apart from the pre-installed iLife suite (I am happy to let iTunes handle to organisation of my playlists), there are lots of interesting, productivity-enhancing and simply indispensable software products.

In the following, topically grouped entries I present a sketchy selection of my picks, there are some commercial products, the majority of these applications is mostly donation-ware or even freeware. Thus, this list is highly recommended for users who have recently switched from Windows or other operating systems and are not yet not familiar with the quantity and quality of free (or low-cost) Mac software. It is meant to be orientational, not encyclopedical and I added links wherever it may be helpful.

Read on...

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org (or OOo, abbreviated) is the original and leading free office package for users all over the world, it is valued for its high quality, speed and unobtrusive interface. It rivals the largest competitor, Microsoft Office, in terms of usability, stability and especially: value-for-money. OOo is a „multiplatform and multilingual office suite“ (taken from the official website) and the premiere open-source project (funded by Sun), available for Windows, Unix (Solaris), Linux and Mac. However, until now the Mac version uses the windows framework X11, which is regarded by many users (including me) as an unnecessary burden (some of these persons are using less flattering vocabulary).
Currently, there is a project, aiming at porting OOo natively to Mac OS X, adhering to the HCI-Guidelines of Apple. This would improve not just the design of the application but also the integration of essential functions of the operating system, such as printer dialogs, font menus or color selection.

Download link: Download the current version of OpenOffice.org here
Price: free
Developer: OpenOffice.org.

NeoOffice

Based on the strong foundation of OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice aims at building a native Office package for Mac OS X, including „word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs“ that can be exchanged with other popular Office software. In their wiki the developers state that „NeoOffice uses bits of Cocoa and Java to implement a more Mac-like user experience“ which seems to be true in comparison to the current OOo iteration. Still, NeoOffice lacks the finishing touches of a true Apple-style application. Nevertheless, the suite is a phenomenal product and I encourage each person who needs an office suite now and then to spare a few Dollars, donate to the project.
Eventually I prefer the interface of NeoOffice until the native Aqua-based version of OpenOffice.org is being released, both products are free – yet, they rely on donations of satisfied users to receive financial compensation for continued development. A drawback of this approach is the delayed availability of each new version, it takes some time to inject the improvements of the latest version of OOo into the version of NeoOffice.

Take a look at both, personally, I rely on NeoOffice to create Microsoft-Office-compliant .DOCs as well as Open Documents, since I am unwilling to go through the hassle of X11.

Download link: Download the current version of NeoOffice here
Price: free
Developer: Ed Peterlin, Patrick Luby and lots of volunteers.