Journal / Essential Free Mac Apps

★Wednesday, January 7th, 2009★Filed under Apple★Tweet this

I am well known amongst my friends for trying to get them to by Macs instead of PCs when buying a new computer. The problem being that they then come to me for Mac advice.

Quite a few people have come to me lately asking for software advice for their new Macs. Some are Windows-savvy, some are not. I thought I would write a list of essential free apps for Macs, aimed at new switchers. These are apps which do not come with a new Mac, but without which I would not be able to get through the day :)

I’ll be updating the list as I find/think of more. Please, let me know what I’ve missed.

The Basics
The apps I get asked about all the time, by everyone from my mum to some hardcore geeks.
Adium – Instant messaging client, supports all the major networks, so you can be online on MSN, AIM, Yahoo and Facebook Chat accounts all at the same time.
AppTrap – Does what Add/Remove programs does on a Windows computer.
Flip 4 Mac WMV Player – Allows you to stream Windows Media files in your browser of choice.
NetNewsWire – RSS Feed reader. Can sync with an online account so you can sync feeds across multiple Macs
Handbrake – Converts video files or DVDs from one format to another, including iPod-ready formats.
Transmission – Bittorrent client
VLC – Media player that will play pretty much any media format you can throw at it. The missing OS X app.
Zattoo – Watch live TV on your Mac (OK, this app is cross platform).
The Unarchiver – Unpacks most standard types of package file including Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt

The Not So Basics
The apps for people using their computers for more specific tasks.
Audacity – Audio editor
Cyberduck – FTP Client
Paparazzi! – Takes screenshots

4 responses so far

  1. Jonathan

    7th Jan, 2009 at 11:24 pm

    Nice list – have most of them myself when I need them.

    One recommendation: AppDelete is a very Windows solution to a very Windows problem. Give AppTrap a try. It’s a pref pane that sits in the background waiting for you to drag an application to the Trash (the way nature intended). It then scans for preference cruft and offers to trash any files it finds too. You get a dialogue box with checkboxes next to each file so you can be as selective or scattergun as you like.

  2. admin

    8th Jan, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Thanks for that Jonathan. You’re right, AppTrap seems like a much more Mac-like solution. I’ll update my list.

  3. Milo

    12th Jan, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    Yes cheers Andy, useful as there’s a couple of those I didn’t know about.

  4. tom

    15th Jan, 2009 at 10:18 am

    Great, more stuff to play with. i will still always hassle you though for info!!! Thanks Andy

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