Mac users are very different from PC users, they want an application with a good looking interface, there's nothing wrong with that except that many of these pretty apps are not really useful or practical. From my observation, many Mac developers have very pretty websites with great marketing but what it comes down to in the end is a piece of software that looks good and promises so much yet disappoints just as much.
Many of the applications were sold on their looks with basically the same functions as their competitors, only in a different variation when it comes to workflow. The so-called "Getting Things Done" softwares are flooding the Mac platform, there are just as many utilities trying to improve the basic OSX functionality. PathFinder is a good software, it is a super-finder loaded with many useful functions but when you started using it you find yourself wondering if it really does speed up your productivity. The latest version took more than 5 seconds to load, I can open the Finder instantly, why bother?
There are many document managers that capitalizes on tagging, made popular by iTune, but seriously who would tag every files on the Mac? In the end, I find myself going back to good old Finder and Spotlight. Utilities that strive to improve OSX must be efficient, if it is overladen with functions and slows down then it is not worth using.
Another concern is memory footprint, some utilities consumes a fair bit of memory while performing simple computing chores. Bumptop, a PC desktop utilities which was just launched for the Mac uses over 80mb of ram and keeps increasing when you add more stuff to the desktop. It is a fun desktop toy that is marketed as a productivity tool. I wouldn't want to waste my memory to play with icons on my desktop.
QuickSilver used to be a 'must-have' utility for many Mac users, LaunchBar had taken it's place, it works the same way but is more up to date. I was using it for a day and started liking it then I realized I can do the same thing in Spotlight. LaunchBar is more responsive because it only indexes filenames, Spotlight looks inside the content of pdf, rtf, html, doc, etc. You need to name your files properly to use LaunchBar. Using it to launch apps is pointless as you have the dock, If you need short-cut keys to launch files/apps, there is a free utility: Spark. Also, it can't index emails, and if you indexes a few thousands items it starts slowing down.
Visual word processors are some of the best apps on Mac. Curio being the most capable of them, but there are incentive in simpler ones like Circus Ponies Notebook and NoteTaker. Notebook and NoteTaker were derived from the same source code but over the years they had taken different paths. Both have the same casual look of a notepad but their workflows are very different. Notebook is more casual and allows more freedom in the layout of content, NoteTaker has more features but is restrictive on the layout. After testing both, I found NoteTaker to be more stable compared to NoteBook. What a shame, Notebook's simplicity is a joy for this kind of app, but it is just not stable enough for productive use. NoteTaker is more complex and is loaded with too many features. It comes with many Java plugins for extending it's capability and some of them are actually very good. It can competes with MacJournal, another worthy writing app. For formal writing style, stick to MacJournal or NoteTaker. For Casual notes and brainstorming use Curio or NoteBook.
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