One of the great things about having a Mac is being able to utilize the amazing amount of good freeware available. Here are some free applications for you to try. I’ve listed my ten favorite freeware applications at the top followed by some very nice honorable mentions.
Click on any of the application titles to visit the developer’s website. Be sure to check back for additions to this list and if you know of a good mac freeware application that I have overlooked leave me a comment or delicious me the link via for:franklindavis.
The Ten Best
Quicksilver: It won’t be a surprise to many that Quicksilver is number one on this list. Quicksilver is the one mac app that I use every single day (except for maybe Firefox and Finder). Quicksilver is made by Blacktree Software and allows a few keystrokes to rapidly perform tasks such as launching applications, manipulating files and data, finding addresses or sending e-mail. The beauty of Quicksilver is that although it is a complex application, it has a very simple three-panel interface (called the “command window”) where the user issues commands to computer.
Firefox: While Apple continues to improve its built in web browser Safari, Firefox is still the clear leader in open source browsing. Firefox’s features can be even further extended via the use of user installable extensions. Some extensions that I rely on are listed in the Great Firefox Extensions and Add-ons post.
Adium: Adium is the ultimate instant messaging application for Mac OS X! With Adium, you can utilize nearly every messaging protocol out there and then chat with other people using those services. With a plethora of skins and themes a user can configure Adium’s appearance to their heart’s desire.
TextWrangler:Textwrangler is by far the leader in text editing. While TextMate, SubEthaEdit, and BBedit (TextWrangler’s big brother) might have more features, they aren’t free and thus can’t make this list.
VLC: VLC media player is the swiss army knife of video playback. It can also be used as a server to stream video on a high speed network. Want to stick with Quicktime then try out Perian.
Cyberduck:Great little FTP client — and it’s free! Supports both FTP and SFTP protocols. Stores frequent locations as bookmarks and integrates with growl for notifications. Bonjour capable and oh yeah it’s free!
Growl: A system notification application that integrates with many of the applications on this list to notify you of new mail, completed downloads and uploads, new instant messages, iTunes tracks and much much more. Install GrowlMail and have customizable notification tell you when you get a new email. GrowlTunes will show your currrent iTunes track with artwork if available.
Carbon Copy Cloner: A great and reliable application for backing up your Mac. Can also create apple software restore (ASR) images allowing for easy system recovery to a trusted point in time.
AppCleaner: AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to completely and properly uninstall unwanted apps. This program looks and behaves very much like the popular shareware program AppZapper. Lacks some AppZapper’s eye candy but, Hey, it is free!
NetNewsWire: Looking for an easy-to-use RSS and Atom reader for your Mac? The Eddy award-winning NetNewsWire has a familiar three-paned interface and can fetch and display news from thousands of different websites and weblogs. This is a great RSS application that has recently become freeware, give it a try. Be sure to add zaphu to your feeds.
NEW - Leopard Freeware
Anxiety: A super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.
StacksInDaPlace: You love the newest Leopard feature - Stacks? Well Stacks In Da Place allows you to customize your Stacks icons. Simply drag & drop an icon, push “Apply Icon”, voila! Be sure to right click and have the stack sort by name otherwise your stack icon might not appear where you want it to.
The Honorable Mentions
Seashore: An image editor based on GIMP but wrapped in Cocoa. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. However, unlike the GIMP, Seashore only aims to serve the basic image editing needs of most computer users, not to provide a replacement for professional image editing products.
Resize Em All: As easy as a drag and drop, Resize ‘Em All has been made to quickly resize one or more pictures in 5 seconds. Drag your pictures, drop them on Resize ‘Em All, batch resize them, and batch save them. Update - unfortunately this application has been sold to App4Mac but the good news is that it is still freeware.
MainMenu: Don’t have time to run all the various tools and scripts to keep your Mac running smoothly? MainMenu makes these tasks quick and easy, right from your menu bar. Rebuilding your Spotlight library for faster searching, repairing permissions, cleaning caches to improve application performance, and even more advanced settings — such as enabling and disabling the Dashboard — are no more than two clicks away. MainMenu is full of powerful maintenance tools to keep your Mac running like new, within a slick, simple interface.
WhatSize: WhatSize is a great little utility that measures the size in bytes of a given folder and all its subfolders. This tool is essential when trying to recover disk space or track down a bloated folder or log file. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the biggest sizes first. Update - a reader correctly noted that Whatsize appears to no longer be ‘freeware’ but instead exists somewhere between donationware and shareware. Those wanting to stick with true freeware should try Disk Inventory X.
NeoOffice: A fully-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database programs) for Mac OS X. Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice incorporates dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office. Unlike the Mac OS X release of OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice does not require the X11 windowing system.
Skype: An internet telephone application which allows you to call any other skype customer for free and for a small fee you can dial landlines and cellphones. Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis — the same duo who brought us Joost the revolutionary internet TV program (leave a comment if you need a joost invite)
Unarchiver: Stuffit Expander sucks! I’ve never seen a mac app that reminds me so much of those horrid days of windows. The Unarchiver is a no-frills alternative and in my experience quite often works better than Stuffit.
FreeDMG: This software allows the user to perform drag-and-drop disk imaging on the fly. Also allows for easy creation of encrypted volumes — perhaps you might want an encrypted volume on that memory stick you carry around, in case it gets lost/stolen.
Gimp: I can’t wait until the day Adobe stops ripping off its customers with the prices it charges for photoshop. Until then there is Gimp, a capable yet clunky (since it uses X11 — someone please port this to cocoa) alternative to Photoshop .
svnX: An open-source GUI for Subversion, the compelling replacement for CVS. It allows you to browse your working copies, spot changes, and operate on them, but also to browse logs and revisions of your repositories!
Tiny Alarm: a tiny alarm clock for your menubar. It will play your chosen alert at some time in the near future. All of the configuration is done using the status menu item. Clicking around should reveal all there is to know about TinyAlarm.
iStat Menus: Monitors your entire system right from your menubar, with 8 separate and highly configurable menu extras. You’ll always know exactly what’s going on inside your Mac!
Not seeing what you are looing for?
Try checking out thriftmac.com, they recommend great mac applications everyday. Another great resource is freemacware.com which seems to have every possible free mac application out there. If you are curious about other people’s favorite mac applications (not necessarily free), then iusethis.com is worth a look.