60 Open Source and Free Mac Apps

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

60 Open Source and Free Mac Apps

Posted on 10:08 AM by -

We regularly feature commercial software on AppStorm, so decided it was time to bring a roundup of completely free (and often open source) apps to your attention. If you’re on a budget, you’ll be pleased to know that a variety of great OS X software is available free.
Applications are broken down into various categories, with each one containing a ‘featured’ app and several other free solutions. I hope you find something useful, and do let me know if your favorite freeware app isn’t on the list!

Web Browsers

Firefox

There’s a reason why Firefox has stormed ahead over the past few years to take such a large share of the browser market. It’s fast, completely free, and works on any platform available.
A variety of different extensions are available, taking the functionality of the browser far beyond the basics. Whilst lacking the scorching speed of the latest Safari beta, it offers a brilliant alternative if you’re looking for a free, open source browser.

Camino – A good looking Mac-styled browser, built on the Firefox engine.
Safari – The default browser included with OS X, with a bunch of new features in the latest release.
Opera – A powerful browser with a few new interesting features; speed dial, search shortcuts, and a tab trash can.
Omniweb – Taking a different approach, and assisting you with online research
Fluid – A site specific browser, allowing you create a separate app for various websites.

Email & Communication

Thunderbird

Developed by the same people behind Firefox, Thunderbird is a worthy alternative to Mail.app on the Mac. It has a lovely interface, with in-built junk filtering and anti-phishing support.
With additions in the new version, it’s easier to prioritize and find your important email with tags. Extensions also work well, allowing various extra features to be added.

Adium X – The ultimate instant messaging client
Skype – For free computer-to-computer calls, and great video conferencing
Eudora – A free email client. Great functionality, but a little dated.
Colloquy – IRC in Mac style.
Revolver – A free business/email package
WideMail – Extend mail with a completely different view

RSS

NetNewsWire

Previously a commercial application, NetNewsWire is now completely free. It offers a bunch of advanced features, and an easy way to keep feeds in sync across different devices.
The app interacts well with a variety of other desktop applications for extra functionality.

NewsFire – A stylish RSS reader
Vienna – Providing features comparable to commercial newsreaders for free.
Shrook – A next-generation news reader
RSSOwl – Filtering, labels and completely cross platform
Dashboard RSS Reader – Keep RSS information easily accessible via Dashboard

Twitter

Nambu

A relatively new entrant to the Twitter client market, Nambu offers a mail-like interface for Twitter messages. Easily managing several accounts, it has the makings of a solid client.
It’s completely free, and will soon support its own in-built URL shortening and picture hosting services.

TweetDeck – Multi paned browsing, and very popular
Twitteriffic – The classic Twitter client, with a great UI
Twhirl – Friendly, colorful, and great multiple account support
EventBox – For Twitter, and a bunch of other social media networks
Tweetr – Easy file sharing and webcam support

Music & Audio

Spotify

Quickly making a name for itself as a competitor to Last.fm, Spotify allows you to stream almost any song you can imagine via the internet. Access is free, though you’ll need to listen to a short advertisement every few songs.
I’m still fond of owning my own music, but Spotify compliments iTunes excellently.

Songbird – A non-proprietary, cross platform, extensible tool with a great interface
iTunes – The de-facto music player for OS X, Windows and iPod users
Audion 3 – Now discontinued, but worth checking out
Juice – A quality app for browsing and downloading podcasts
Audacity – For editing and converting audio files

Video

VLC

If you need the ability to play absolutely any video format, VLC is for you. It’s as versatile as a swiss army knife, and offers a brilliant alternative to QuickTime.

Miro – Aiming to provide easily accessible, fully intergrated internet video
Flip4Mac WMV – For enabling WMV videos in QuickTime
Handbrake – The ultimate tool for converting video between formats
Perian – An open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats
DivX Player – A simple, free player for DivX files.

Photography

Picasa

Recently featured in our photo client roundup, Picasa is designed and owned by Google. It offers a bunch of great features, and is also capable of sharing photos online.
If you’re not a fan of iPhoto, Picasa has an equally impressive interface, a solid way to organize photos, and various editing tools.

iPhoto – The in-built photo app on OS X, with face recognition and geo-tagging support.
Gimp – A free, cross platform photo editor.
Seashore – Built on GIMP, with a slightly different user interface
Flickr Uploader – A simple and free solution for uploading Flickr photos
JetPhoto – Feature-rich and easy-to-use digital photo software

File Sharing & FTP

Transmission

Transmission is a fast, easy, and free multi-platform BitTorrent client. It’s fast, incredibly simple, and offers the easiest experience I’ve ever seen for dealing with torrent files.
Not enough? How about encryption, a web-based interface, peer exchange, and UPnP and NAT-PMP port forwarding?

Cyberduck – A free alternative to commercial FTP applications
Filezilla – Great for accessing FTP servers, and completely cross-platform
Acquisition – In-built torrent searching and integration with iTunes
Tomato Torrent – A slightly dated but perfectly functional torrent manager

Office & Text Editing

Open Office

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is a worthy alternative to Microsoft Office, and comes at a far more attractive price. It supports word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and databases.
It works on all platforms, and stores files in an international open standard format.

TextWrangler – A great, free, code editor for OS X
Bean – A small, easy-to-use rich text processor
AbiWord – A full featured, open source alternative to Open Office
Smultron – Good looking, and great for web programming, script editing, making a to do list etc.
jEdit – Aimed at technical users, an editor specifically for programming

Utilities

QuickSilver

Quicksilver

A unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data. Quicksilver is a powerful shortcut tool, which allows you to manipulate files and work with applications – all without needing to open them.
Confused? I was at first! Read more about the app to find out exactly what it’s capable of.

Growl – A great system-wide notification system
Disk Inventory X – For viewing a graphical representation of what’s eating up your hard drive
AppCleaner – Allows you to remove any trace of an application
Smart Reporter – Be notified if your hard drive seems likely to fail
FuzzyClock – A fun and slightly less formal way to display the time in your menu bar

Please Share!

Whilst 60 applications may sound like a lot, we’ve only touched the surface of what’s available for OS X. If this post has missed a tool which you regularly use, please let me know via the comments. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy a new budget-conscious Mac experience!

Internet Dumper

Wednesday, October 7, 2009