Mac users have long languished with a neglected and out of date Skype application, while the Windows version forged ahead update after update. It seemed that Skype may have forgotten about Mac completely, when finally after a long wait, Skype released the all new Skype 5 beta for Mac.

Ok, so you've made the plunge and are committed to using a mac as your primary development machine. Congratulations, you've made a fantastic choice, and after 4 years after jumping in with both feet, i've never been happier with my decision. I'm going to save you a lot of time by getting you up to speed quickly on how to setup your machine with all the essentials that will make your development life easier and more efficient. For simplicity I'm going to assume you're a PHP developer and your source control system is Subversion.

Update: July 5th 2010 - There's been several months since I put down this original list of applications, and during that time I've changed a few of my recommendations based on new products that have been released aswell as improvements to some existing products. This list below represents my currently installed and recommended apps: