Useful (mostly free) Mac Stuff
July 9, 2009
I’ve been using a MacBook for almost a year now – 10 months, but who’s counting – and I’ve come to appreciate the small section of Mac apps that are easy on my wallet. More so as I’m a poor student, any useful programs that I can use and not cost me money?
Perfect.
So without further delay, here is my giant list of (mostly) free mac apps.
Communication
Adium
Adium is basically the chat client on the Mac. Since Microsoft’s version of Mac MSN looks and acts like the original Microsoft messenger did, people have tried to find different chat clients that can pick up the slack. I’m sure there are others, but Adium is my clear choice for this.
Out of the box, Adium supports 20 services including (but not limited to): MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, and Google Talk. Hell it even has support (albeit a little shaky) for Facebook and Twitter. Beyond this there is a large collection of plug-ins that extend the functionality of this already robust program.
It’s also got a slew of options to customize the look and feel of the program, Growl support, and a whole boatload of customization options.
There are only two major limitations to Adium, and I’m not entirely sure one is their fault. The first is that Adium supports the viewing of custom smileys, but to date I have no figured out how to add my own. The second is that there is no sharing box. This was a big blow to me, as I was using my sharing folder a lot with the windows version of MSN.
Beak
Raise your hand if you use Twitter. Yeah, you and a gazillion other people. With the recent super-adoption of Twitter, applications to sift through the mass of 140 character messages are becoming more plentiful, more powerful, and way prettier. I know a lot of people will advocate for TweetDeck, and I wouldn’t disagree; TweetDeck is a fantastic program if you’re really into Twitter and/or have large screen real estate.
For those of us who have small screens, TweetDeck is just too big to be practical. It literally takes up 90% of the screen, and that’s not something I want when I’m doing quick alt-tabs. Beak fills in this role quite nicely.
Thankfully there is a huge list of Mac-Twitter applications in the Twitter wiki, but the big ones are generally TweetDeck, Twhirl, Twidget, and Tweetie. Beak isn’t as big as some of the others and it’s still in Beta, but since it’s most recent release it’s been amazingly stable and does everything I need. Tweetie is pretty solid, and similar to Beak (with some differences), but I don’t really want to pay 20 dollars American just to use Twitter (yes I’m aware there is a free, ad-supported version. That’s not much better.)
You get everything you’d expect from a solid twitter app – posting tweets/DMs, ReTweet, Favoriting, mentions, search, and link statuses – but with none of the cost. Now you can’t have multi-user support, something I personally don’t need to worry about, nor do you get TweetDeck’s Multi-column viewing. Everything that is featured is offered in a tabular view, meaning that you can easily switch between views. It also has a neat feature to display a users twitter information inline.
Everyday
Firefox
Let’s be honest here. I don’t need to advocate for a browser that advocates for itself. I’ll say that I’m not a fan of Safari, as I’ve always found the interface to be a little wonky. I know there are other options out there: Camino, Chrome, Flock, Opera, SeaMonkey, Shiira, and I’m sure there are many, many more. I’ve been with Firefox for a while, and it’s done me well. I’m not a zealot, but even I must admit that Firefox does it’s job, and it does it well.
Hell I’ve been using Firefox since it was called Phoenix. That’s how old school I am. Kick it.
Thunderbird + Lightning
I’m aware the Mac comes with Mail and iCal, but neither of them are all that impressive. They’re light-weight, and do their jobs with minimal imagination. I tried mail out for all of 5 minutes before I was sick of it and downloading Thunderbird. Ditto for iCal.
Thunderbird is Mozilla’s local mail system. It has all the bells and whistles that you would expect from a mailing system, but it’s free. Sadly it’s not as polished as say, Microsoft Outlook – lets just pretend they’re not going to use Word to render emails for a minute – but it does it’s job and does it well. It has rule support, multiple account management, and a crap-tonne of other features making it a very appealing option to those who don’t want to log into a website to check their mail.
But what is an email client without a calendar system? Light-weight, yes, but not nearly as useful.
That is where Lightning comes in to play. Now on it’s own, Lightning is very much like iCal, if iCal tried a little harder. Lightning can hook into services like Google Calendar (so can iCal, I know) and allow you to actually create events, tasks, and everything else with amazing ease (something iCal does not do).
Now they’ve gone and developed a plug-in that gives you all of the abilities of lightning, integrated into Thunderbird. This effectively removes the need for an additional program running. One less thing running is always a boon to me.
Jomic
Back when Watchmen was coming out, I had no idea of the story specifics. This resulted in my having to read the entire story in one sitting. Now I didn’t mean for this to happen, but as it worked out Watchmen was a fantastic graphic novel, and Jomic was a fantastic comic reader.
Jomic is a sourceforge project, and though their website was obviously developed by a programmer, their program has a solid finish to it. Now I’ve tried a couple comic viewers for the Mac but I can assure you that Jomic was both the smoothest functioning and simplest to use.
It features nifty abilities such as being able to go straight into the next comic in the series (I assume this works off the concept that every comic is within the same folder), two page spreads, zooming, and keyboard navigation. If you want to read comics on your computer (those not in the ‘web’ format), Jomic is totally the way to go.
NeoOffice
There is absolutely no shortage of Mac text processors out there. Given that the list is as long as I am tall, it’s hard to pick out a sure-winner. NeoOffice is not by any means a sure winner, but it does it’s job.
Now I cannot explain all of the many things that NeoOffice apparently does, as I’ve only ever used the Text and Spreadsheet portions of it. What I can say is that from what I’ve used, everything worked as expected (minor visual hiccups aside).
I can’t gush over NeoOffice, because to be honest I haven’t had to use it that much. I’ve recently found myself gravitating more towards Google Docs, which is filling the need for a text editor pretty well.
Smultron
Everyone that develops on the Mac needs some sort of editor. Many swear by Coda, which I admit is a good program. The issue with Coda is that it isn’t free, and that doesn’t swing it with me. I ended up coming across Smultron and I haven’t looked since.
Smultron offers me everything I need from a code editor: Snippets, extensible colour coding, multi-file editing, project support, and automation commands. Now I’ll admit that it doesn’t have built-in FTP support, something Coda brags about, but it does work well with Cyberduck in allowing you to edit files you open and save them right to the server. This works just fine for me, though I totally understand the appeal.
Maintenance
ClamXav
I’ll admit that I’ve never really had to use ClamXav. That doesn’t make it a bad product, in fact it’s very simple to use. See the issue is that I have yet to run into a virus that would affect me. Having said that, it’s always good to be prepared, and that’s where ClamXav comes in.
Though its interface is far from sexy (nothing like having a giant frame with your disclaimer in it on the main panel) it does have a feature set that makes me happy. You can target specific folders for instant scanning, set up scheduled scans, and have a watch dog-style setup so that anytime a file is added to specified folders, they’re scanned instantly. Very handy.
OmniDiskSweeper
This is a very straight-forward program that has one goal: Tell you where all your Harddrive space has gone. I tend to run this every once in a while when I notice my hard drive space tanking out, and I cannot figure out where all of the space is being used.
Now OmniDiskSweeper isn’t a big program, nor is it all that impressive, graphically. It does, however do it’s job perfectly. It scans through your computer and lists off the main folders and the total size that they take up. From there you can drill down into the folders and find out what, specifically, is eating up all of your hard drive space.
OnyX
I love OnyX. It is pretty much your one stop shop for every day MacBook maintenance, tweaking, and general upkeep. Hell it even allows you to access functionality that would require you to operate a couple of programs.
It verifies your startup disk and file structure, it can run general system maintenance scripts, it can configure hidden parameters for things like Finder, Doc, Dashboard, Exposé, Safari, the Login window, and more. It can delete caches, it can clean out logs and files. It also cuts Julianne fries (no it doesn’t).
Basically, if there’s something you want to adjust to your MacBook’s settings, run maintenance scripts (I didn’t even know the MacBook had maintenance scripts), and generally do some spring cleaning, OnyX is your best choice.
XSlimmer*
This is the only program I’ve paid for in this entire list – hence the “mostly” in the title. To that end, Xslimmer is so worth it’s money that not buying it is just silly.
Xslimmer basically saves your computer from having to store binaries of code that aren’t required. Universal installers are compiled to run on either the new chipset or the old one. This requires you to have twice the amount of code stored in your app in order for it to work across the board. This is a fantastic idea for developers, but for those of us who only install and use the product, it takes up twice as much room as it needs to.
This is where Xslimmer comes in.
Xslimmer is quite literally a program slimming utility. You can either select programs for it to attempt to slim, or run the Genie, and have it list all of the products that you have installed to see what can be slimmed. It has a built in blacklist you can update to help it know what programs don’t operate properly when slimmed. You are also given the option to install programs “pre-slimmed” meaning that you drop the app into XSlimmer, and it will slim it down before installing it to your system.
It has backup and restore functionality as well, so if you slim a program and everything borks, you can restore the previous version of the code without any terrible aftermath. XSlimmer also allows you to report any programs that should be blacklisted, allowing you to contribute to the community!
I am pretty sure I saved roughly 6 gigs of memory from running XSlimmer the first time, but I can’t remember. I do recall that it was some obtusely large number though, and that makes Corey happy… and talk in the third-person.
Utilities
Burn
I recently had to make a couple copies of CDs for the place I am working at over the summer. Now as far as I can tell, the MacBook only comes with the “Burn Folder” which is all well and good if you’re doing a data cd. But what If I have to make a copy of an instructional video for a class, and I can’t keep the original?
Burn comes to the rescue!
Burn is a painfully simple burning program that allows users to backup, burn, or make copies of CDs and DVDs. What I really liked is that when you back them up, it allows you to make a backup as a mountable hard drive. This means that you can actually emulate the CD/DVD from your desktop should the need arise.
Amazingly simple, yet surprisingly powerful. Now I don’t know how it would handle copy-written material, but that’s not something I generally use my Mac for anyways.
smcFanControl
smcFanControl is one of those programs that you kind of wonder why it had to be made in the first place. I mean really, I shouldn’t have to download a program in order to tell my computers fan(s) “ohgodtoohotburninglapcoolthisthingdownmoreitburns” but sadly, that does seem to be the case.
smcFanControl is a tiny app that sits in your menu bar, and allows you to change the current RPM of your fans on a whim. You can create your own settings for quick swapping (I have Default, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, MAX) and even has MacBook Pro support so that you can control your fans separately. It’s free, it’s tiny, and it’s saved my computer from melting while running intense Photoshop sessions. A total must-have.
Cyberduck
I used to use OneButton FTP, which I still think is a fantastic program. But when I moved servers, I had to change FTP clients because OneButton does not support SFTP or some other advanced connection options. So I went hunting around and eventually got my hands on Cyberduck.
Cyberduck does everything you expect it to do, and that’s pretty much it. It’s simple to use, easy to navigate, and can even detect local servers to connect to (a la Bonjour devices). It supports opening documents directly from FTP and saving back to, which is always nice. I’m not sure how common that is in FTP programs, but there it is.
It does everything the big, costly FTP apps do, but it’s free.
Oh, and there’s a widget that you can get with it to quick-upload things from your dashboard. So that’s handy.
FontExplorer X
Made by Linotype, FontExplorer X is a great way to quickly access, activate, deactivate, and test your fonts out. You can tell it where to install fonts (like the normal spot, or wherever you want them to go), you can organize them according to labels, and even have sets and smart sets.
Basically FontExplorer X has all of the features that Finder has for normal files, but for your fonts. Conveniently, FontExplorer X has the ability to buy fonts and download them direct from LinoType (much like iTunes).
All in all, it’s actually a very smooth process, and for those in the graphic design business, or for those new to it, FontExplorer X is a God-send.
UPDATE: Apparently this one is still downloadable, but no longer supported. I still recommend getting it while you can. You can always pay for the pro version, but once again: money.
DropBox
I really don’t know how much more I can really talk about DropBox. I have boasted it’s pure sex functional experience before.
I don’t think I need to get on my soapbox again, but let me say this: It’s a backup system that is simple to use, easy to install, and works. What more do I have to say that I haven’t said before?
Senuti
I’ve only had to use this once, and that was only because I had to migrate all of my music that I had on my iPod. Now I know you can pull off the music from your iPod by making it act like a drive – blah blah blah – but when you do that, the file names are still encoded by the madness that the iPod runs off of. So what do you do if you need to get your music off of your iPod? iTunes won’t do it, so you have to go somewhere else.
Senuti is one of those solutions.
It’s fairly straight-forward, and does what it says it does. Plug in your iPod, select what you want to transfer, and you click the Transfer button. You’re asked where you want to save said files, and then it goes. Simple, to the point, no annoying setup times.
UPDATE: Apparently it’s not exactly free anymore, which is a damned shame. Still, if you only need to use it once (like I did) the trial will do you just fine.
Transmission
Not much to say about Transmission: it’s probably the easiest and best torrent program you can use for the Mac. Granted I don’t really download things often, especially on my Mac, but when I do have to Transmission makes it as simple as possible.
It’s got a clean interface (the most recent upgrade has improved it even more-so). If you’re in the habit of downloading legitimate, non-illegal files using torrents, Transmission is the way to go.
See what I did there?
VirtualBox
I heart VirtualBox. I don’t even need to run it all that often, but I still love it. As I use a Mac, it is generally thought that I cannot run any Windows applications because Microsoft and Mac don’t play well together. Well with the new Mac software, you can do a dual-boot into Windows. This is all well and good, but most people don’t want to have to reboot their computer in order to run Windows.
This has lead to programs such as Parallels, Coherence, and Fusion. The issue with all of these solutions is that they cost money. I’ll admit that they all work well and are probably worth every penny. I, however, prefer not spending money when possible. This of course has lead me to VirtualBox.
VirtualBox works by creating a sandbox environment for your new operating system. It’s sort of like picture in picture, with your Windows (or Ubuntu, or whatever) build running in a window. What really makes VirtualBox shine is that a) you can full-screen the environment making you “feel” like your in windows, b) you can make network drives to folders in your Mac (allowing you to share files between builds), and c) you can customize the beejeezus out of your box. How much RAM you want, what ports are enabled, localization, everything.
If you’re looking for a way to run your install of Windows on a Mac, and don’t have any more money because you spent it all on your install of Windows, then make sure to check out VirtualBox.
Conclusion
So there you have it, a collection of programs I use on my Mac, and I’ve only paid for one of them. I think that’s a pretty good track record if I do say so myself. I hope that my quest to not spend money for programs will assist you, the reader, in doing much the same.
If you have anything to add to my list, feel free to comment them in this post.
Categories: Mac Reviews Technology
Tagged under: free, Mac, MacBook, Reviews, Technology