To get the ball rolling let me first say that the presentation order of any of my 50 essential apps have nothing to do with how cool they are. It just so happens that I felt like writing about them when I was thinking of apps to include in this list. This list is by no stretch of the imagination supposed to be perceived as a comprehensive review. It is meant to introduce you to some nifty apps that I feel would make working on your computers a better place. Included in this write ups are insights on how I regularly use the apps and how they have helped me work better and more efficiently.

So to get started off with this list, we have dropbox. Quite like Posterous itself, it takes away all the pain of thinking and just works. The simplicity of the app almost makes you forget how important it truly is. For the average user needing an online back up system this is it. You set it up once on each computer and you're done. It just work, it does everything on it's own and all you need to do is just drop things into it.

Setting it up is not rocket science either but still a little understanding would be appreciated to get the ball rolling. I set this up on my dad's computer so that we could easily share files, and I could work freely on my own computer without needing his to work on some of his documents, and it's never let us down yet. The auto-syncing feature is killer and takes away the pain of teaching people how to access shared stuff over and over again. After a year of being spoilt by dropbox I honestly can't go back to carrying a thumb drive with me anymore. Definitely an easy one to include in this list and a good one to start off the list with.