Mac Freeware: Save Up to $1,600 in Software!

Posted by Andrew Brigmond on 10/6/07 in Applications, Featured, Tips & Tricks

Tips So you have your new Macbook, iMac or Mac Pro now. The smell of an athletic shoe store has already hit you as you opened the box, and you wonder about the great adventures that await you!

You’ve already decided you want the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection, and that’s going to take up about $2,500 of your hard earned budget. Depending on how you planned it, you may not have much more left over for essential software. That’s where this list comes in. The following software is 100% free and tried and proven with excellent results. Besides, if it doesn’t work for you, it didn’t cost you anything to start with. SO without further adieu this is my list of freeware essentials for OS X.

FireFox 1. Mozilla Firefox - Web Browser:
No savings, aside from your sanity

This is a great browser, and much more powerful than the included Safari could ever be. It supports RSS live feed bookmarking, a seemingly endless amount of plug-ins, thousands of visually appealing themes, all a built around the most robust web browser ever made. It also includes pop-up blocker support that actually works.

2. Mozilla Thunderbird - Email Client:
Savings $50

Brought to you by the Mozilla crew that gave you Firefox. Thunderbird is a lightweight email client that will replace Apple’s Mail. It includes great built-in SPAM filtering, as well as integrated anti-phishing support. Like most Mozilla products it also has a Windows based version.

3. Cyberduck - FTP Client:
Savings $25

Cyberduck is a full featured FTP client that support FTP, FTP/TLS, SSL/TLS and SFTP protocols. Why spend $25 or more when you can get a better product for free? They’re also very quick with patches and updates, it seems like they’re always making their product better and better. It’s also available in over a dozen languages if you decide to pickup Slovak or Indonesian.

4. Linotype FontExplorer X - Font Management:
Savings $40

FontExplorer X is a very powerful and efficient font management program. We discovered FontExplorer while looking for a replacement for Extensis Suitcase. The deciding factor wasn’t the fact that it was free, but the fact that it far outperformed any other font management software. In our own benchmarking, we were able to load and activate over 3000 fonts in less than 2 minutes. It’s also developed by the world leader in fonts, so you know it’s got to be good. Windows version also available.

5. Open Office - Office Software:
Savings $350

While we wouldn’t recommend ruling out the purchasing the Microsoft Office suite, Open Office works quite well. Open Office includes word processor, spreadsheet, vector drawing, presentation, and database programs. It’s also compatible with the other leading office suites currently on the market. It will require X11 to be installed on your computer, however this is included on your OS X discs if it’s not already preinstalled. Windows version also available.

ClamAV 6. ClamAV - Virus Protection:
Savings $50

While Mac’s are virtually virus free, sometimes you’ll need to check files before sending them out to others if they’ve been altered previously on a PC. ClamAV does a good job of this, at the price we want to pay. Currently for a Mac, this is going to be able to offer all the protection you need aside from the built in Firewall. Windows version also available.

Adium 7. Adium - Chat Client:
No savings, just an all-in-one IM/Chat client

Adium is a great program that allows you to have all your IM accounts all in the same place. Currently it supports all the major systems such as AOL/AIM, ICQ, .MAC, Jabber, Google Talk, LiveJournal, MSN, Yahoo, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Novell Groupwise, Lotus Sametime, QQ and most recently MySpace IM. The only thing is you won’t be able to do audio or video chats. You’ll need the individual programs for that. But for basic IM services, file transfers, tabbed messaging, and searchable chat logging, Adium is your client. It also is 100% skin-able and customize able. Thousands of icons, menus, themes and more are available for easy download. Adium is actively updated so new features and protocols are added in quite often.

8. HandBrake - DVD Ripper:
Savings $40

This is without a doubt the best DVD ripping software on the market. Great for backing up movies, family DVD’s and more. It supports converting DVD’s to .avi, .mp4 and Apple TV compatible files. It supports 6 channel audio as well as DTS and Stereo. DVD conversion is a breeze and it’s very easy to use. Once you get your settings the way you want, you can save it as a preset and all future DVD rips is a simply 2-3 click operation. Windows version also available.

9. Print Window - Window Printer:
Savings Unknown

If you were a former OS 9 user one of the things lost when moving into OS X was the Print Window function in Finder. This program basically restores that functionality as well as offers various improvements and options. For those of you not familiar with OS 9, this program will allow you to print the contents of folders, etc. Sometimes when delivering a CD or DVD you may be required to provide your client with a directory of everything on there. Print Window facilitates that for you.

10. Transmission - BitTorrent Client:
Savings $10

One of the quickest and safest ways to download and transfer files these days is through P2P torrent files. Transmission is a great client that supports hot folders, manageable queues and more. My favorite feature is a hot folder that allows me to download the tracker file into the folder and Transmission automatically handles everything from there. That’s what I call service! It’s open source and often updated.

VLC 11. VLC Media Player - Media Player:
Savings $30

One thing you will notice if you’re migrating from a PC is the lack of support for certain video formats. VLC has successfully handled any video file we’ve sent to it. Now that QuickTime offers full screen viewing for free it’s not as important to have. Windows version also available.

WinRARX 12. UnRarX - RAR Archive Extractor:
Savings Unknown

My favorite archive type of choice will always be the .rar a format. UnRarX provides a very efficient Mac based extractor. I generally find it to be faster than it’s Windows WinRAR counterpart. You won’t be able to make any .rar archives with this software, but you can certainly open them. Also for those of you who use StuffIt, the built in Archive feature in OS X is a great replacement. Simply ‘ctrl+click’ or right click on the files or folders you want to zip and select “Create Archive of…”. This will create a multi-platform .zip file that can be opened on virtually any machine without the need for extracting software.

13. Chicken of the VNC - VNC Client:
Savings $500

Chicken of the VNC is a lightweight and speedy VNC client. OS X 10.3 and higher already comes with a built in VNC server, and you can also install a VNC server onto any PC. This allows you to view and control the desktop of the VNC server. While not a complete replacement for the powerful Apple Remote Desktop or Timbuktu, it will provide you with some of the same basic features.

Load them all up, give them a whirl and let us know what you think. We also have reviewed some other great software, some free, some you’ll have to pay a little bit, but you can see them all here.

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20 Comment(s)

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Thomas Davies said on

October 6th, 2007 at 9:33 am

What a great list. Handbrake is awesome!

Travis T said on

October 6th, 2007 at 10:23 am

As much a I liked UnRarX, I’ll have to say that I like The Unarchiver a little more.

Of course it does RAR files but a whole slew of other formats as well. Plus, it’s fast, just like using the built-in Archive Extractor in OS X. Double-click an archive, it’s extracted. Simple as that!

I’d include a link, but I don’t wanna seem like a spammer. Just Google it. First link.

MB-switcher said on

October 6th, 2007 at 11:04 am

like the list also…almost half of the software I use myself. I am currently trying to make a list like this also in a series of blog entries.
anyways, I must agree that I like the unarchiver a little better also especially since I am a Xee user and the integration of these two awesome apps is just great.

David Stalnaker said on

October 6th, 2007 at 11:48 am

Great list, but the two things that I’d change are NeoOffice instead of OpenOffice (neooffice is a cocoa port of openoffice, faster, more osx-like, and NO X11), and the unarchiver instead of unrarx (the unarchiver works perfectly, is almost invisible in your workflow, and supports everything i’ve ever seen).

Also, there’s a good few programs that I’ve bought to replace these apps because, quite simply, they were worth the money. Transmit is by far the best FTP program out there, bar none (I mainly use Coda now, but that has transmit built in). iWork is the best productivity suite on os x, in my not-so-humble opinion. I prefer Safari and Mail over Firefox and Thunderbird, but that’s just personal preference. But the fact that there’s better shareware software doesn’t take away from the quality of the programs on this list, as they will serve their purpose perfectly for many people.

shadownight said on

October 6th, 2007 at 12:09 pm

Honestly, there are some pretty ridiculous parts in this list.

Firefox vs Safari is largely a personal issue: I prefer Safari because it’s leaner, cleaner and faster on my machine — I couldn’t care less about a zillion plug-ins. I use Firefox occasionally for Safari-incompatible sites, and the update installer doesn’t even work.

Thunderbird vs Mail: how in the world is that a $50 savings? Last time I checked, Mail was free with OS X. Again, I find Mail leaner, cleaner and elegant. I tried Thunderbird, and while it’s not bad, I don’t see why I would switch from Mail (whose spam filtering works great for me).

Cyberduck: it’s a nice product, and I’m glad it’s free, but “a better product”? Than Transmit, you mean? Again, that’s purely a personal choice.

VLC vs QuickTime: In my opinion, VLC’s strength it not full screen playback, it’s that it reads a zillion video formats.

Etc, etc.

Daniel Greg said on

October 6th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

I like this list, a bunch comes down to personal taste of course.
Eg - I prefer camino over firefox.
My only real disagreement here is UnRARX - The Unarchiver deals with RARs and loads of other file types - all for free.
Oh and Thunderbird is debatable that it saves you $50, but I guess it depends on what e-mail your thinking of. Im a mail.app man myself.

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Andrew Brigmond said on

October 6th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

While I agree that Firefox vs Safari is a personal issue, but then again so is using TextEdit vs Microsoft Word. It all boils down to taste and what you plan to do with it, this list is merely a collection of great software that even the homeless can afford.

While Mail is a nice app, I would hardly consider it “full-feature”, not when compared to Thunderbird or Entourage. Mail is leaner most definitely, but on an enterprise level Mail is not going to be your solution.

I do strongly agree with CyberDuck being a better client, especially since Transmit weights in at $29.95 more then we want to spend. Managing an IT department and outfitting hundreds of computers, that’s an instant savings of over $2,400 with a volume license. To any employers eyes, that’s better.

As for VLC, I do believe the first point made is it’s ability to play virtually any file. Not to mention interlacing and post processing.

David, thanks for the NeoOffice tip, I’ll have to look into it as I’m not the largest fan of the OpenOffice build.

In the end whatever works best for you is best, we’re just bringing valid options to the table. I personally use Microsoft Office, CS3, Apple Remote Desktop and a huge list of other pricey software because they’re better. But if you don’t have the money to spend…

Daniel Greg said on

October 6th, 2007 at 12:39 pm

I thought Cyberduck was horrible personally. Tried it for a bit and just couldnt stand it. While its fair enough to have a free ftp client, it does its job well - there is no way, in my mind, that it beats Transmit.

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-1

visualize27 said on

October 6th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

The article claims(in regards to Firefox): “..thousands of visually appealing themes”

I would like to correct that with this: “thousands of appalling themes”

The statement above is purely my opinion. But, if you look you’ll only find that Aronnax’s themes and a few others available at Firefox’s theme repository is visually appealing. There’s Netscape’s and that 20% more-pinstripe theme(somewhere online) . I’ve looked through alot of the themes available on the official Firefox themepage and there aren’t thousands of themes that works fullt on the Mac. And those that claim to work, well.. leave them be. They have either WindowsXP foldericons in the bookmarksmenu or other things wrong with them that simply does not match the OS X experience.

The Firefox team should have left OS X alone or built Firefox from the ground up for OS X.

Your mileage may vary of course. I’m just saying. You’re better off with Camino as your regular Mozilla browser than Firefox if you can live without the Extension feature. Plus, Camino has better themes available for it, IMO.

The only thing I use VLC for these days are movies that has subtitles for them. Some doesn’t always work with QuickTime. I use Perian & Flip4Mac with QuickTime and it works beautifully.

Andrew Brigmond said on

October 6th, 2007 at 1:00 pm

I will agree that Cyberduck as of about 8 months ago or so was actually quite terrible. But here in the past few months I feel they’ve really changed a lot and made it a great product.

Firefox theme’s truly are based on personal taste, or lack there of. I prefer the base Firefox theme, however, I know far too many people who completely love some of the most hideous themes known to mankind. But to them, they’re visually appealing…appalling to the rest of us.

Chad said on

October 6th, 2007 at 7:22 pm

Wow, I can’t believe some of the things in this list.

1) Firefox is EASILY the 4th best browser. It’s behind 3 others that are free…Omniweb (’buy me’ nag window), Camino, and Safari
2) Thunderbird isn’t as good as Mail. Not even close. Where does the $50 savings come from?
3) Cyberduck has NEVER been good. I would rather pay for Transmit than get use this free client.
12) .rar? Please. Even if you use the .rar format, Unarchiver is much better than UnRarX

-3

Tim said on

October 7th, 2007 at 12:26 am

The premise of this article is very weak. It makes little sense, some of the programs are stupid and where do you get $50 of savings on a mail client from? You made it up didn’t you.

Who pays for a media player, DVD ripping software, bit torrent software or even anti-virus on a mac?

At a loss for content are we?

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DMD said on

October 7th, 2007 at 1:10 am

Transmit tends to drop connections while Cyberduck will keep them alive. I use Cyberduck whenever I need to upload files larger than a few megabytes. I use both and now that Transmit finally has “Open url/copy url”, I find myself happier with it.

This is a nice list, but if you want to find a comprehensive list of all apps for a particular category, you should go to http://www.pure-mac.com

If you’re looking for all open source and freeware apps go to http://www.freemacware.com/

And finally, if you want to read some irritating columnists, go here: http://mac360.com/

Trevor said on

October 7th, 2007 at 2:07 am

Font Book, it’s sitting in your Applications folder.

Yong Hwee said on

October 7th, 2007 at 6:22 am

I do like Firefox for it’s plugins but it has been acting strange after the 2.0 update.

As for FTP, I think Coda is great for web developers in general.

Andrew Brigmond said on

October 7th, 2007 at 8:29 am

Am I the only one who remembers when QuickTime used to charge for the ability to run video in full screen mode? I know I bought it…I also get about 20 spam emails a day trying to tell sell my DVD ripping software for my Mac. Also Norton anti-virus is still very much in business and selling their wares for $49.95 a pop to defend your mac against threats that don’t even exist…

Again, the premise of this write up is a short list to give new users switching to the mac platform from the PC world a quick list of software that will help them ease into their new digs without them having to spend a dime.

Insomnic said on

October 8th, 2007 at 10:15 am

I just wanted to kick up my support for a few of the comments here. Camino for browser (really good spot between Firefox and Safari) and Mail for email. I also agree that UnArchiver is best for handling archive extractions.

VLC always felt a little run down to me. I always liked MPlayer and recently have been sticking to using Perian Codec with either Quicktime (now that it has fullscreen for free) or Niceplayer. Perian really made a huge difference for me because it allowed all those file formats not to just be playable, but usable in iMovie and other “Quicktime based” applications.

This is a decent list and I can understand including Firefox, Open Office and Thunderbird as they will be familiar to many geek converts which will make the transition easier. I’ve found for regular computer users (ones that just want to get online and check email and write up a few docs), most of the built in apps work best for them due to the “just works” factor.

Rocket said on

October 14th, 2007 at 8:08 pm

Andrew, I can see you are dealing with the vast majority of people who feel that it is necessary to ignore the main topic of your post “Free vs BUY” software for the new mac user and always find a way to become the “expert” of software they “prefer” and wage a war of whats best.

Even though most of your commenters here think this is a software war or comparison of software features, I think I am one of two or 3 people who read this article understand it is only about “free” or insanely cheap software for the new mac user and nothing more. This is a very good list of free software programs that simply work for zero cash out of pocket.

For the rest of the apparently uneducated commenter, free does not mean “best” nor does it imply “best for everyone”, it simply means it works, and its free. I think Andrew you knew this and expected your readership to understand this as well, but alas…..

Daniel Greg said on

October 15th, 2007 at 3:03 am

@Rocket - I think youve got that a bit wrong. If you look at the list most commenters have said something like “nice list” or “great list” and then pointed out a product that they prefer.
There were some posts that dont fit into that category (of course) but I think most did.
Also, most were not pointing out products that cost money that beat the free equivalent. For example: A lot of people seem to prefer Camino (me included) over Firefox, which is also free.

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alarm clock cd player said on

January 19th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

alarm clock cd player

They come in different styles and features. Some of the best alarm

amin said on

June 25th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

i disagree with adium. I tried adding my yahoo messenger account and it kept telling me something about a japanese username?? wtf?

anyhow, you forgot mactheripper, burn, little snitch, neooffice (more for mac), caffeine, appzapper (not free but great app), cog, come on man!!!!