Quality Freeware for Mac OS X, Free Software for Mac
Application Guide - By Bjornar Kibsgaard
There is a lot of freeware for Mac OS X out there. When the initial excitement from having a new MacBook have diminished, and the macbook software pre installed with Mac OS X doesn't quite deliver everything you need. This list will help you find what you need.
Here you will find links and information about applications commonly accepted by the Mac OS X community, you will find quality applications where most of them actually are free mac software.
This guide starts off with a freeware for Mac OS X list of applications I believe every new Mac user should have, or at least take a good look at.
Adium X
Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X. With Adium, you can connect to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services and then chat with other people using those services. One of the best instant messaging applications I have used. It supports the following protocols:
- AOL Instant Messenger (Including ICQ and .Mac)
- Jabber (Including Google Talk and LiveJournal)
- MSN Messenger
- Yahoo! Messenger (Including Yahoo! Japan)
- Bonjour (Compatible with iChat)
- MySpace IM
- Gadu-Gadu
- Novell Groupwise
- QQ
- Lotus Sametime
Cyberduck
Cyberduck is a open source FTP and SFTP (SSH Secure File Transfer) browser licensed under the GPL. With support for many Mac OS X system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, QuickLook and the Keychain. This is a popular client used by a lot of Mac OS X users. Support for multiple connections, resumable downloads amongst many other features. We have another good application called Transmit, but that one is not freeware for Mac OS X, you have to pay for it.
Quicksilver
Quicksilver has to be one of the best freeware for Mac OS X applications. Quicksilver have an extensive array of possibilities and one of them is launching applications with just a few keystrokes, this is the feature I like the most. This way you clean up clutter with icons and get the work done much faster. Quicksilver can also be configured with several plugins that let you do other things like manipulating files such as e-mailing them, compressing or uploading them somewhere. Just download and install it, I am sure you wont be disappointed.
Flip4Mac
When surfing around the Internet and you find media encoded in the Windows Media Format you need this application. Actually this is a plugin for Quicktime which will enable you to watch the media. The plugin is free to download and use. A great little plugin that solves a problem many Mac switchers had in the past.
VLC
This is the video player that can play almost anything you throw at it. At some point you may find video you cant play with Quicktime, VLC would then be a good choice for you. It doesn't require much from your computer and the video player is really light weight and easy to use. Supporting streaming and many other features. This freeware for Mac OS X application is also available for many other operating systems. Not only Mac OS X.
Firefox
While safari is a great browser i would still recommend using Firefox. With version 3 it became even faster and more stable for Mac users. Mozilla Firefox also have a huge array of quality extensions you can install with a few simple clicks.
The Unarchiver
This application is a much more capable replacement for the built-in archive unpacker program in Mac OS X. Designed to handle many more formats than the built in OS X unarchiver, and to better fit in with the design of the Finder. It can also handle filenames in foreign character sets, created with non-English versions of other operating systems. Supported file formats include Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other more or less obscure formats. UnRarX is also a good and free utility for you often unpacking RAR archives.
Office software suites
Often you need some kind of office suite with a spreadsheet application for example, word processor and maybe something you can make a presentation in. This application guide - page will show you some of the alternatives for Mac OS X, where you can buy them, and also some of the free alternatives out there.
Peer to Peer Applications (P2P)
Mac OS X also have a large array of Peer-to-Peer applications for you that would like to download files. Many of the applications are free, and some of them cost a little bit. This page show you some of the applications i consider are worth mentioning.
Virtualization Software
The software alternative to Boot Camp, with this you can install Windows directly into Mac OS X and have both systems running at the same time! Without the need to reboot your computer. This page will show you the software making all this possible.
Wrapping up Freeware for Mac OS X
There are of course a lot of other applications available than this application guide suggests. However the applications recommended in this guide are good, popular and I am sure you will like them too. And you can complete your MacBook software collection
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