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These are some things you (I) need to install on a new Mac these days to get any work done. Mostly these used to be installed, in the installer, or available on the install disc but now you have to fetch them all yourself.
XCode
You probably want the XCode developer applications suite even if you aren't a Mac or iOS developer. You definitely need it if you use macports, fink, homebrew or the like to get your compilers.
XCode is available in the app store, no charge once you login. It now live in one big bundle /Applications/XCode.app and /Developer is entirely depreciated, wow.
To get the llvm compilers and build tools, need to update compiled software or build anything from source you need the "command line tools for XCode. You can get these in XCode Preferences on the Downloads Tab or by downloading them straight from Apple's developer site (login required) where they will be named something like "Command Line Tools (OS X Mountain Lion) for Xcode - October 2012" Once XCode preferences finishes you will have the tools you need without any ceremony. It's worth poking around in the XCode preferences Downloads tab for other things you might want such as back-version development tools, documentation, simulators.
X Window
The X Window system used by most Unix systems works great on OS X but Apple no longer ships or develops it. Get it from its home at XQuartz: [http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/]. You'll need this to run common awesome Linux apps on your Mac like GIMP, Scribus, and Inkscape as well as for most any UNIX programming.
Java
My Mac demanded A Java 6 runtime on startup to run one of my startup item programs in a little modal popup dialog. That seems to have worked and got me java and javac 1.60._35 but didn't get Java 1.7.x. which is the current version and needed for some apps ... ETA Oracle distributes Java 7 for Mac and has a information page here: [http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/webnotes/install/mac/mac-install-faq.html]
Server
Apple charges $30 for the server admin tools to activate / configure the UNIX server software that is built into the OS. They traditionally had pretty good server admin GUIs but that was when OS X Server was its own product and they sold server hardware. I paid my tax to the App Store for the privilege of re-enabling the one public file share I had on this machine before its unfortunate upgrade. My files had been moved by the OS X installer to '/Library/Server/Previous/Shared Items/Public/' and the old shortcuts no longer worked. I'll be following this guide if Server.app ever stops spinning: [http://krypted.com/mac-os-x/setting-up-file-services-in-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-server/]
Apparently it's deleting those files now, if I'm reading the log right. I'll be miffed if I have to restore them from backup again...This log named ServerSetup.log hasn't updated in 20 minutes and you can see it in Console.app:
16:06:33.711 Starting extras with arguments:
--sourceRoot /Library/Server/Previous --targetRoot / --purge 0 --language en --sourceVersion 10.7.4 --sourceType System
some ports
To get the UNIX applications you are used to having or want to hack on you will want one of the ports systems .. unless you enjoy compiling everything by hand in which case, have fun, go nuts.
I seem to mostly be using macports these days, though fink is fine and many people swear by homebrew and stranger things still.
Get MacPorts from their main site: [http://www.macports.org/install.php] or fink is over here: [http://www.finkproject.org/]
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