Mac ReviewCast
http://www.surfbits.com and http://www.macreviewcast.com Copyright © 2006 Tim Verpoorten
My Top Ten Freeware of the Year
By Tim Verpoorten
I spend 365 days a year looking at great Mac Freeware and Shareware. When I was asked to write about the top ten freeware apps for the last year, I was certain that it would be a piece of cake. I listed the top apps that came to mind and before long I counted the list and it was in the twenties. This was going to be a lot harder then it first sounded!
I decided that some really great freeware apps would have to be left out, and for any developer that does not see their application listed here, I apologize, I could have just as easily made it the top 50 freeware apps of the year and things would have been so simple. Next, I wanted to avoid duplication of apps, in other words only one browser, one office suite, you get the idea. That helped to narrow down the field.
So without further delay, here, in no special order, is my ten favorite freeware apps of the year!
CyberDuck
This FTP client if full featured and free. Everyone needs an FTP client at one time or another and unless you use it for business or on a regular basis, CyberDuck does everything you need a FTP client to do. If you want to take a step up, then I like Transmit from Panic software, but now I'm giving you my top ten shareware apps of the year and that's for another editor.
AppleJack
http://applejack.sourceforge.net
Everyone needs a good maintenance utility in their application folder, AppleJack is the one that you'll be the happiest with when you finally need it. AppleJack works off the command-line so that when things get very screwed up on your Mac, you can always count on getting AppleJack to take a look at the situation and doing as much to help out as any utility available. If you have a Mac, you should have AppleJack installed.
AdiumX
We all love to chat. iChat has some great features, but not everyone of your friends and family use AIM or .Mac, so what about those pesky MSN or Yahoo, or other chat clients? Well with AdiumX, you've got all your chat buddies in one place. AdiumX has as many features as you need and it is skin-able and it's easily adaptable to your taste. This was a simple choice when it came to chat apps.
TextWrangler
http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/index.shtml
Everyone needs a handy, functional, fast text editor for text and programming work. BBEdit is the king of Mac Editors, so why wouldn't TextWrangler, from the same developer, Barebones Software, be just as good and free to boot? Well it's good enough for most of us and that's good enough for me! It's a top ten shoe-in.
FireFox
Browsers are everywhere we look, and Safari is not a bad browser, but Firefox with it's extensions and add-ins makes surfing fun again. Version 2.0 is a winner and more then enough of a reason to make Firefox a top ten freeware app.
NeoOffice
http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php
What's wrong with an office suite that works with Microsoft office documents and spreadsheets and is free to boot? Nothing is wrong with it, nothing at all. Add this little winner to my top ten freeware apps too.
Skype
You've never heard of Skype? Where have you been? Free online internet audio and video conferencing and cheap VoIP calls to anyone in the world. My podcast would be boring without the Skype interviews and all this is free. Isn't this a great country?
Quicksilver
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
What if I told you that there was an application that allowed you to launch any application, document, bookmark, in fact, anything on your Mac without your hands touching that mouse? What if I told you that this same app could not only launch the application, but then make it interact with other apps or documents or photos or songs or anything on your Mac? How much would you pay for this app? Well ladies and gentlemen, this application is free and it's called Quicksilver. Available for download from you favorite blacktree.com website today.
Menumeters
http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters
We all want to know how much free ram we have available, or how much bandwidth we're using or what percent of our CPU we're using right? Well this little menu application or suite of applications is the perfect tool for doing all this and more. Check it out and I promise that your menubar will never look the same again.
VLC
If you surf the Internet, you'll notice that everytime you download a video or audio file it seems to be in a different format with another odd codex. Fear not, with VLC your just an app away from watching or listening to about any format you can find online. Keep this little freeware program in your application folder and I'm certain you'll be using it before you realize.
Well it wasn't pretty, but it's my top ten Mac freeware apps of the year. Mac software developers are amazing folks and the software they create are amazing applications! Thank you for all the great software development. We salute you!!
