This page details shareware and freeware items I have found. (This is necessarily
a non-comprehensive list, as I cannot compete with a site such as VersionTracker.
This is one person's survey of the landscape.)
| Applications |
| Audio & Sound |
| Audion
| An excellent (now free, was shareware) alternative to the free Apple iTunes. For
audiophiles, known for its sound quality (playback as well as encoding)
|
| Sound Studio
| Shareware program for CD-quality audio recording (from mic input or from
sound-in).
|
| Toast Titanium (Toast 7)
| Faster and more flexible than Apple's built-in disk
burning capability.
|
| Graphics |
| GraphicConverter
| The standard. Reads about 190 formats, writes out in about 75 (including
unusual ones, such as FireViewer for Palm). Has many image editing functions as
well. Also has image browser ("Open Folder") function.
|
| iView Media Pro
| An image browser and organizer.
|
| Text Processing |
| Acrobat Reader
| Included with OS X. Also, be aware that OS X supports native creation of
PDF files in all applications. (Select Print, then go to the
Output Options pop-up menu (click and hold "Copies & Pages")
|
| TextWrangler
| A very good (and free) text editor (far better than what Apple provides,
especially for programming), but with fewer features than its commercial
stable-mate (the full BBEdit). This is a replacement for BBEdit
Lite (from the same company).
|
| Alpha X
| Shareware text editor.
A very nice syntax-highlighting text editor with many, many more capabilities
(built around Tcl extensibility). After a very long alpha (small-"A") test
period, this was released in beta in April 2003. See
Alpha 8 (of which Alpha
X is a part) for more information.
|
| Excalibur
| LaTeX-aware spell checker, and a good all-around spell checker as well.
|
| TeXShop
| A very nice LaTeX development environment, with a
color-syntax highlighting editor and a Typeset button that brings
up a PDF of one's rendered document.
|
| Gerben Wieda's TeX
for OS X
| While one can certainly build with Fink, it is often more
convenient (and faster) to take the packaging that Gerben Wieda
has put together (especially since it locates it where TeXShop
expects it). On this linked page, look for the TeX-fat.dmg disk
image link.
|
| Open Office
| This
is a free X11-based office suite designed to be interoperable
with MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint).
|
| NeoOffice/J"
| This is a Java version of OpenOffice that runs natively in the OS
X "Aqua" environment, not in X11.
| This
|
| iWork (Keynote,
Pages)
| Keynote is Apple's Powerpoint competitor (which has a
gorgeous look to it, both the application and its resulting
files) while Pages is Apple's new word processor. (These are
higher-end products than AppleWorks, which is bundled with
consumer Macs (iBooks, iMacs, Mini).)
|
| MacGhostView
| A PostScript previewer. (Note, too, that "gs" is available through Fink.)
|
xemacs and/or
VIM (Vi IMproved)
| With X11 installed (an optional install from Apple), you can run either
xemacs or gvim (the X11 version of vim). These are strong
contenders with TextWrangler
or Alpha for text editing, depending on what you're used to and what you're doing.
Plain emacs and vim are included with OS X; the X11 GUI versions can be built through Fink.
|
| Internet |
| Eudora
| Old standby POP and IMAP email client, highly
configurable.
|
| Thunderbird
| Mozille Project POP and IMAP email client. Very highly
regarded.
|
| Brickhouse
| This is an Aqua (Carbon) GUI front-end to "ipfw", the UNIX firewall
software included with OS X. This makes it much easier to configure, yet the
"expert mode" allows you to edit the config files, as you gain experience.
Since OS X includes the ipfw firewall and allows its
configuration from System Preferences, most users won't need this
application.
|
| SFTP & FTP clients |
| Fugu
| A free and simple graphical SFTP client, from the Univ.
of Michigan.
|
| osXigen
| A shareware FTP client written in Cocoa (new Apple framework, as opposed
to Carbon). Displays size and date simultaneously. Drag-and-drop does not fully
work because author says Cocoa has not implemented certain things yet. Nicely
done, however.
|
| Transmit
| A very nice shareware SFTP/FTP client from the folks who also make the Audion CD/MP3
player. Has a two-pane "Your stuff -- their stuff" window arrangement.
Option-click on Date column header to toggle to Size (and vice versa).
|
| Fetch 5
| The old standby. No longer covered by GSFC site license, and in fact is
now a shareware product which expires if not registered. Bi-directional
drag-and-drop, progress graph, and more. (If you have trouble with this, check
this link (at left) for advice about passive mode.) Version 5
finally supports SFTP.
|
| CyberDuck
| Another nice FTP/SFTP free client.
|
| ncftp
| This is an outstanding compiled shell around FTP that can be run from
Terminal.app. It has bookmarks, progress meters, displayed path, and much more.
It can be built with Fink (no longer included with OS X, as it
was with earlier OS X versions.)
Also, there are several tools you can use to download a file or URL in one command
from the shell, without needing a browser. Try ncftpget,
ncftpput, or the similar programs curl or wget.
|
|
|
| Web Browsers |
| Firefox
| A really good browser from the Mozilla Project, and a
direct descendent of Mosaic -> Netscape -> Mozilla ->
Firefox. Gives you essentially the identical browsing experience
on Mac, Windows, and UNIX (Linux, Solaris, etc).
|
| Camino
| This, too, is part of the Mozilla family, sharing the same
Gecko "rendering engine" (the part that draws the web page on
your screen). It is much more Mac-like, however, with Keychain
integration, Cocoa-style icon bar customization, and more.
|
| Mozilla
| Open source version of Netscape; updated much more
promptly. Has web, email, calendar functions and more.
|
| Netscape
| A venerated name, but not much reason to use this anymore
as there are faster and better browsers available (including its
Mozilla, Firefox, and Camino stablemates).
|
| Opera
| Another browser with its devotees.
|
| OmniWeb
| Another browser with its devotees, from the maker of
OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner (both of which are bundled with new
Macs).
|
| iCab
| Yet another browser you can try (with an excellent reputation for helping
supress banner ads).
|
| Dillo
| An X11-based browser, designed to be small and fast. Available through fink.
|
| Internet Explorer
| Officially discontinued (Dec 2005) by Microsoft (not interested in
competing with Safari), but occasionally one still needs this
browser for sites that will accept nothing else.
|
| USENET Newsreaders |
Newswatcher X
MT Newswatcher (multi-threaded)
| Two versions of the venerable Newswatcher USENET newsreader (originally
written by John Norstad of Northwestern Univ, who also wrote Disinfectant). These
are good (especially MT, which is multi-threaded (allows you to do multiple
network actions at once in the same application)) and serve my needs when I need a
Mac-based newsreader. Oftentimes, however, it is more useful to search
Google Groups, the USENET archive acquired
by Google from DejaNews. It has been enhanced so that it now covers back to 1981
(!!) and has better search capabilities.
|
| System Preferences (PrefPanes) |
| DefaultFolder X
| A long-time favorite of mine (I registered in 1994!), this system
preference allows you to more easily navigate the standard Open and Save dialog
boxes. It keeps track of the last ten folders you used, rebounds to the last file
you accessed, allows you to specify preferred folders (even on a per-application
basis), and much more.
|
| Window Shade
| The original Window Shade was a freeware extension to MacOS, and later
Apple included it in the operating system. Now, Unsanity software has brought it
back (as a $10 shareware item). Highly configurable but simple to use, too.
|
| FruitMenu
| This system preference (also from Unsanity) brings back the pre-OS X Apple
menu functionality, when one could put aliases of anything there for easy access.
|
| TinkerTool
| This system preference gives you control over a number of parameters of
the Dock and the Finder. There are shell commands to do some or all of these
things (some of which are documented at
Mac OS X Hints, mentioned above).
|
| Desktop
Manager
| A free (open source) virtual desktop. Works very well,
with great 'eye candy' for screen transitions.
|
| Code Tek Virtual
Desktop
| A $40 shareware program that offers virtual desktops.
Capable of some operations (direct dragging of windows in mini
"pager") closely akin to Linux virtual desktop managers.
|
| Other Utilities |
| MenuMeters
| Uses the menu bar to display CPU, RAM, and other system
usage. Free, unobtrusive, but really useful.
|
| Memory Monitor
| A "dockling" that graphs memory usage.
|
| DMG Tool
| Freeware Applescript GUI to create DMG files for software
distribution or archiving.
|
| USB Overdrive
| This is a third-part shareware driver for USB input devices (trackballs,
mice (including multi-button and scroll-wheel models), gamepads, and more. It
gives more control over how the device operates. Can be quite handy if you are
not pleased with the choices the mouse (or other device) vendor provided.
|
| FaxCenter (was
Cocoa eFax)
| Looking for software for your fax-modem? The commercial FaxSTF
has (to put it mildly) a very mixed reputation, due to a history of
instability. (It is also complicated, with numerous helper applications
and more.) FaxCenter is a simple Cocoa GUI front-end to the UNIX
efax
program. It can fax text, PS,
or PDF documents. The required parts of efax are included with
FaxCenter, but you can download and compile the source code
if interested (or if you need to change some low-level setting.)
The source code will also give you the manual page for efax itself.
|
|
Page Sender
| A nice alternative to Apple's limited fax software.
|
| VueScan
| Many scanner manufacturers have been slow to release OS X versions of
their TWAIN drivers or plug-ins, forcing their users to scan from Classic or OS 9.
VueScan is a $50 shareware driver which works with a large number of scanners. It
was originally designed for dedicated film scanners, not flatbeds. It's main
claim to fame is high color fidelity and retention of shadow and highlight detail.
While it has always been good "under the hood", the interface has undergone major
improvements during the past few years. The developer is very
responsive, sometimes fixing bugs and adding features multiple times per week.
You can try it out before you buy, although the images will have a diamond screen
overlaid on them. (If the interface looks non-Mac-like, that is because this is a
cross-platform product for Windows, Mac OS 8/9, Mac OS X, and
Linux, written using
wxWidgets.)
VueScan can now do OCR (optical character recognition), too! (This allows
you to scan a text document and turn it into editable text, not just an
image of text.)
|
| Launching Applications |
| You should endeavor to find a way to conveniently
launch applications, without having to paw through an overall
Applications folder which has extra folders, README files, etc. Here
are some ideas for achieving that, representing very different
approaches.
|
| Dock icons
| If you only use a small number of applications, you can consider
leaving them permanently in the Dock. (The little triangle underneath
them will tell you whether they are running or not.) To set this up,
click and hold on the Dock icon of a running application and select
"Keep in Dock".
|
| Folder in Dock
| You can create a folder and populate it with aliases of your
applications. Then you can drag that folder to the Dock (to the right of
the vertical dividing line) and it will be available to you in the
future. Click on that Dock folder icon, and the folder will open in the
Finder. Alternately you can click and hold, and select the desired item.
(You can have sub-folders, too, if you like).
|
| FruitMenu
| (entry repeated from above) This shareware system
preference (from Unsanity)
brings back the pre-OS X Apple menu functionality, when one could put
aliases of anything there for easy access. It is highly configurable,
and lets you get easy access to specific System Preferences, too.
|
| DragThing
| This is a file and application launcher, also highly configurable.
One major advantage over the other methods here is that it supports
drag-and-drop, meaning that you can easily take a file created with one
application and open it in another (something other than the file's
defined default app). (E.g., take a Photoshop image and open it in
GraphicConverter)
|
| LaunchItems
| This is a contextual menu set of plug-ins. That is, first you
define applications in the LaunchItems editor. Then, you can
control-click on any document and select the application with which to
start it. (I don't think you can start an application without an
existing document with this tool.)
|
| Snard
| This is an enhanced version of the method I called "Folder in
Dock," above. It offers access to specific System Preferences and is
configurable with your set of applications.
|
| In my opinion, FruitMenu ($7) is worthwhile, and
I admire DragThing ($25 shareware), even though I don't currently use it.
The "Folder in Dock" technique may also do all you want. The latter two
look less useful to my eye, but I included them here to show other
techniques.
|
