Sunday, July 29, 2007

Must Have Open Source Mac OS X Applications

I started using the Mac OS X after getting my first MacBook last year (Nov2006).
Since then, I have enjoyed everything Mac. Including what I have been able to find and use from the open source world. I have been using open source software on Linux and Windows for a long time and now can say that I do the same on the Mac.

Here is a list of my must have open source applications on the Mac:

Mozilla Firefox. My cross-platform browser of choice.
NeoOffice. This is the OpenOffice.org port to Aqua that works great and does not require X11.
iTerm. This is the terminal application use for ssh into my Linux machines.
Cyberduck. FTP/SSH tool.
Nvu. Cross-platform HTML authoring tool.
Handbrake. The CD/DVD ripping tool.
Instant Handbrake. The quick DVD ripping tool with preconfigred iPod/PSP settings.
Burn. CD/DVD burning application.
Audacity. Cross platform digitial audio editing tool.
Adium. Instant Messenging application that supports just about every IM network there is.
Seashore. GIMP like graphics tool. GIMP is nice too but requires X11.
Eclipse. Enough said. The quintessential IDE for Java, PHP, Ruby, Perl etc. Check out EasyEclipse for pre-bundles.
TomatoTorrent. Bit-torrent client.
RSSOwl. Cross-platform RSS aggregator. (written in Java).
Freemind. Cross-platform idea/mind mapping tool. (written in Java).
Google. They seem to have an endless stream of revolutionary web apps I use daily.
Google Docs and Spreadsheets. This has been a revolutionary Web 2.0 application.
Google Calendar.
Google Reader. The recent Gears technology is incredible.

There is definitely more that I am finding every day. The above list represents what I have been using on a regular basis all year on my Macbook. Some decent sites I have found related to open source Mac software is OpenSourceMac, this article at MacDevCenter.