10 Best OSX Freeware Applications of 2007
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:21 pmNot all great applications require you to pay for them. Below I list my Top 10 favorite Freeware applications of 2007. Some of them are no brainers and some you might find useful or new to you. Enjoy.
Firefox - The best web browser for OSX, Linux and Windows hands down. There are also a TON of free plugins, themes and many other addons to make it even more powerful and custom to your liking.
AppFresh- An excellent program that helps keep all of your widgets and applications up to date. This program grabs all its information from iusethis.com and also updates your user profile with what applications you use.
HandBreak - DVD Ripper to MPEG-4 / H.264 converter. Copy Backup any DVD you want. An excellent utility for Mac, Linux and windows.
iTunes - The ultimate online store and organizer for TV, Movies and Music and so much more for Mac and Windows. You can also enjoy free things such as Internet Radio, Podcast and iTunes U.
Vienna - a great RSS/Atom Reader. A great way to read the headlines of your favorite websites in one lightweight application.
AppCleaner - A software Uninstaller / Cleaner. Deleting an application still leaves crap behind in a various folders on your hard drive. This programs finds it and deletes it!
Flickr Uploadr - A must for all Flickr fans. A simple and quick way to upload your photos to Flickr.com
Microsoft Remote Desktop Client - The best way to control any windows machine via your mac.
VLC - View just about any popular video formats with this light weight Video Player / Streamer. Works with OSX, Linux and Windows
Growl - Is a great application which I thought I would never use. Its a system notifier that talks to various applications without switching from the application your in. Great for anyone who constantly has multiple windows open and needs to be notified of various notifications.
December 28th, 2007 at 8:39 am
I think you have to add Google Earth to this list. The flight simulator they added in 2007 is a great way to while away some time, and maybe osmose some geography as well. It is free, and a great program!
December 28th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Don’t forget Mac the Ripper. Love, love, LURV it!
December 28th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Great list… tried AppCleaner, but was hoping it would have included a utility to actually search for files left behind from already deleted programs. any suggestions on something with that capability?
December 28th, 2007 at 9:16 am
RDC launcher is fantastic if you need to connect to multiple Windows Boxes concurrently. You can get it at http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/default?user=jshelton&templatefn=FileSharing9.html&xmlfn=TKDocument.9.xml&sitefn=TKSite.3.xml&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en
December 28th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I don’t really understand the mass appeal of Google Earth, it is a fun toy, but I have yet to find it useful in everyday use.
Also; I have the same question as jason above. Does anyone know of a utility, program, etc. that will search for files left behind by previously deleted applications?
December 28th, 2007 at 9:56 am
For an FTP uploader I use CyberDuck, great functionality, I have looked at Transit, but it just looks a bit too complicated.
http://cyberduck.ch/
As a bit torrent client I use Transmission, super-duper simple interface, but very capable. For me it is the Mac equivalent to uTorrent on Windows.
http://transmission.m0k.org/
December 28th, 2007 at 10:24 am
For video watchers, I highly recommend you download ‘Perian’ … it contains all the video codecs needed to play virtually any movie file format on your Mac.
Also worth mentioning is Quick Silver. It is an intuitive application launcher and so much more.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I would add Opera as well. The built in bittorrent client is outstanding.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Firefox, VLC, and AppCleaner are my favorite I’ve been using so far on Mac. AppFresh and Growl are new to me. I’ll have to give them a try. I’d enjoy lists like this one in the future on this blog.
December 28th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I use Cyberduck for FTP, but not because I like it. There has to be a better free FTP client out there.
December 28th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I just got HandBrake, works like a charm…thanks
also, i couldn’t get appfresh to load
December 28th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
sorry, I meant I couldn’t get the page for appcleaner to work.
December 28th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
VLC is excellent. I guess the only things missing in my eyes are Adium for chat, and Licensed. It has been in a beta form for over a year now, but it has yet to fail on me or give me any problems. It’s a good place to store all those license keys and serial numbers for shareware and other software and keep it all in a single place. All the data is stored in a single small file, so it can easily be backed up in various ways just in case it is ever needed.
December 28th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
if you have issues with appcleaner, try appzapper. i’ve been using that for a while and it seems to do the job nicely. (I haven’t taken any real time to nose into orphaned prefs or the like to know if its missing anything major)
December 28th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Great List, but don’t forget Adium for all your chatting needs!
December 29th, 2007 at 2:52 am
I downloaded Appcleaner a while ago, and when I removed a program (can’t remember wich one), it deleted some important files from my HD and I had to install Tiger all over again. It was kind of my own fault though ^^. I now use AppDelete (link: http://osx.iusethis.com/app/appdelete)
Oh, and thanks for Handbrake, I love it!
December 30th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Vienna is definitely one of the best RSS readers out there, if not the best.