The best free Mac Apps
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I wrote a little earlier on how I have been switching over to my Mac mini, now a few weeks later I have jumped on the band wagon and decided to share my must-have mac apps.
UPDATE: This article has been Dugg, digg it here.
Top Ten Favorite Mac Apps
- Adium X – You will never get tired of hearing the the duck when someone signs on and off, Adium is a great solution for running multiple instant message clients into one. I use Trillian for the PC and Adium is my Mac solution for AIM, MSN and GTalk.
- NetNewsWire – RSS is all the rave and getting a good reader is a must, if you are using a Mac there is no better solution than NetNewsWire to get your news.
- Firefox – Safari is pretty weak when it comes to web browsing, and I tested Camino for a while, but found that Firefox still reigns supreme no matter what the OS.
- OpenOffice - I’ve been using mostly all free software for my Mac and decided to not support Microsoft and use an open source text editing software bundle. OpenOffice runs on the X11 software, and is the perfect bundle for an office suite.
- GimpShop – Continuing with the Open Source style I decided to get a free image editing program for my Mac. GimpShop gives me all the features I need for editing images and is a great app that runs well with OS X.
- CyberDuck – Paul Stamatiou recommended CyberDuck in his article on Mac Apps that it is the best free FTP solution. He was right…CyberDuck gives you everything you need for an FTP solution.
- Flickr Uploadr – A pretty basic program provided this is essential for all Flickr users, I like the Mac set up more than the windows solution, either way it works perfectly with Flickr.
- Gmail Notifier – Since I am not a big fan of any mail clients, I simply use GMail’s notifier to get me my webmail.
- Handbrake – The perfect free app for DVD back up ripping, Handbrake will rip any DVD and save it in a nice compressed .MP4 file, which is ready to go for your iPod. A great app for any video content seeker and for those seeking “back ups.”
- Azureus – Everyone needs a Bittorrent client and why not use, what I consider to be, the best. Azureus is very easy to use and I highly recommend it for the Mac.
Alright, switching to my Mac has been easy, I have really enjoyed doing it and now feel that everything is in place. I hope you enjoy my favorite Mac Apps and use them to their fullest.
39 Comments
SHadoW
May 14th, 2006
at 10:06am
It’d be nice to see the amazing Camino in the top 10…..
Zach
May 14th, 2006
at 12:24pm
Yea, I used to use Camino, but I am addicted to Firefox. Its still a great browser though.
Gomi
May 14th, 2006
at 7:15pm
Don’t care much about Gmail Notifier and Azureus… it should be Disctop and Transmission instead.
Garrett
May 14th, 2006
at 8:07pm
Quicksilver is pretty indispensable for those that use it – you know, the “in” crowd!
Paul
May 14th, 2006
at 8:09pm
This is a very personal list. Disappointed to have found this list from a link on Digg.com, cause it just mentions a few small apps that someone likes. Not really a complete or even interesting indication of what a Mac offers.
Might be better to surf through Versiontracker.com for a few weeks instead.
As for the list….
Admium X and Fire .. Used to use them, but heh, you are on a Mac that can do iChat, the best Videoconferencing app out their by a mile. So why run anything else. Just setup ichat with an AIM address, then setup iChat to run a Jabber windows to connect to everything else. (All the above mentioned services, even GoogleTalk is possible.) And you also have Bonjour for local transfers.
Firefox… Ya, a great browser because it is powerful. I use it in many instances, usually in my web work. But Safari is still the quickest, fastest starter and the least buggy for regular browsing. If you are switching to a Mac world, the integration is appreciated.
OpenOfficeX… Ah, you still need Office 2004 in the real world. Buy it or borrow it, you will need it. But its always nice to have alternatives. I use NeoOffice instead of OpenOffice (in the very rare cases that I need to use it instead of MS Office) cause it is easier to install.
The other apps… A few good ones here, but not the only good free apps for sure. Best ones are still Apple’s own apps I figure. iLife is an amazing package. And the best thing after that is probably the cheap free and shareware plugins that add wonderful functionality to all that you get when you get a Mac.
Jason
May 14th, 2006
at 8:16pm
Instead of using OpenOffice through the X11 emulator try NeoOffice. It runs on Java and interacts much more like a native OSX app and it’s developer is very active in releasing new updates. You won’t be disappointed: neooffice.org
Otherwise it’s a good list. Maybe you should try Inkscape as a good open source vector drawing application, though you will need to run it via X11 emulation. Aside from missing a ‘keyline’ view it’s very good.
Tom
May 14th, 2006
at 8:20pm
I have to disagree with Azureus and CyberDuck. Azureus is painfully slow and a memory hogger on a Mac. I prefer Transmission. As for CyberDuck, I think Transmit is a lot better FTP/SFTP client.
GeneralFailure
May 14th, 2006
at 8:32pm
I only agree with you on Adium and Handbrake. My top applications are:
1. SubEthaEdit, I use it for everything.
2. Adium
3. X-Chat Aqua
4. Quicksilver
5. Inquisitor
6. Transmission
7. Handbrake
8. Chicken of the VNC
9. Transmit
10. Synergy (the iTunes controller, not the screen switcher)
Lane
May 14th, 2006
at 8:43pm
If anyone here does website publishing or just likes to write out things freehand then they need smultron for textual computation.
http://smultron.sourceforge.net/
An excellent open source application.
Jordan
May 14th, 2006
at 9:01pm
Transmit is far far better than Cyberduck. Cyberduck is unbearably slow and requires a Finder window open, while Transmit is quick, beautiful and uses a side-by-side approach.
Christian Saborio
May 14th, 2006
at 9:10pm
Ahem….Azureus runs super fast on an Intel Mac. Also, someone suggested Transmit…as much as I love it, it is NOT free which is the main point of this article
My favorite free apps:
Namely – Launch apps by typing their names (NO, it is not the same as spotlight!)
ImageWell – amazing utility for screenshots
iSquint – for my video iPod movies
Vienna – the best RSS reader IMHO
Nick
May 14th, 2006
at 9:11pm
But Chopper will always be the best free game for Mac OS X! http://www.majicjungle.co.nz/chopper.html
Zach
May 15th, 2006
at 1:23am
Cyberduck is a free app though, I’ve used transmit, but this is a free list
Gratis program till Mac | smidigt.se
May 15th, 2006
at 3:27am
[...] På zamwi.com har man listat en topp 10 gratis program för Mac. ‘Bland dessa hittar man bland annat: [...]
Lomovogt
May 15th, 2006
at 4:32am
In most parts I agree with you. But one of my top10-applictations is still missing: Textwrangler by Barebones Software is a free full-featured editor, which should by on every mac.
Mr. S.
May 15th, 2006
at 5:32am
A good list…but the comment submissions provide some great insight as to what works well and what doesn’t. Too bad the server failure cut short the comments.
Paul’s comment about needing a few weeks to surf through VersionTracker is right on the money.
Aaron Brethorst
May 15th, 2006
at 10:04am
Bear in mind that I am totally biased on this (being the following program’s author), but I couldn’t live without iRooster on my Mac laptop. It’s been my alarm clock for the past three years now, and there’s no way I’d be able to make it into work on time without it. It wakes your Mac up from sleep, plays back iTunes playlists, and does a variety of other cool things.
I’m actually offering 20% off iRooster during the month of May. All of the details for that are available off my website.
iRooster
Cheers,
Aaron
Aaron Brethorst
May 15th, 2006
at 10:05am
OK, I seem to have missed the “free” part of this list. Sorry about the noise…
Aaron
Zach
May 15th, 2006
at 10:11am
@ Aaron: No problem, it is always good to hear the voices of others through blogs. I have been able to find a lot of good software through the comments posted here and on digg.
@Lomovogt: TextWrangler would’ve made the top 15 apps, I use it and its noteable for sure.
Spudart: Links
May 15th, 2006
at 10:21am
[...] The 10 best free Mac Apps Adium X, NetNewsWire, Firefox, OpenOffice, GimpShop, CyberDuck, Flickr Uploadr, Gmail Notifier, Handbrake, and Azureus 0 comments [...]
Gary
May 15th, 2006
at 1:52pm
One note about Cyberduck vs. Transmit: It is much easier & more intuitive to set up public key authentication in Cyberduck.
Bob
May 15th, 2006
at 3:07pm
Mass RenameIt!
geoff
May 15th, 2006
at 3:40pm
I’ll echo Chopper (a great game) and SubEthaEdit (I use it all the time). As others have said, Transmit is excellent, but not free, and I’m cheap. I’ve been using firefox’s FireFTP tool, but I’ll try out Cyberduck–thanks for the tip on that. Flickr Uploadr is excellent.
Bruce
May 15th, 2006
at 3:49pm
Is there a free version of NetNewsWire?
Bruce
May 15th, 2006
at 3:51pm
For FTP I prefer OneButton FTP.
Zach
May 15th, 2006
at 10:06pm
@Bruce: I use NetNewsWire Lite, which is the free version. It was a little tricky to find on the site as they don’t jump out and say they offer it, but it is there.
I have also been using Neo Office now and think it has more functionality on the Mac the Open Office, great comments everyone. Thank you for your input.
Scott
May 15th, 2006
at 11:14pm
Don’t forget Desktop Manager and Fink Commander!
Ping Planning
May 16th, 2006
at 7:00am
Best Free Mac Apps
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Laundro
May 23rd, 2006
at 6:52am
Great list. Cyberduck IS the best!
Zach
May 23rd, 2006
at 1:44pm
Yep. Cyber Duck is a pretty crafty app.
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June 21st, 2006
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MacRoxr
November 2nd, 2006
at 1:31am
I really like PTHPasteboard http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard