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                  FREE / OPEN SOFTWARE FOR MAC  OSX      

               



This site has been made on a Mac.

There are a great many many websites where you can find free and / or open source software for the system.

Three of the best are :

Apple's own site (of course!),   MacupdateSourceforge , and  Opensourcemac.

The following list of software (with clickable links to the relevant sites) only gives a small idea of the available range.
Click on the names and / or the icons.

Remember : all this is free. but you may wish to make a donation here and there, to express your appreciation. It helps to keep the open / free spirit alive.

                                                                                                     
           
                                                                  

1) Browsers:


  
  Firefox is the best known open source browser

    Google Chrome is fast and increasingly popular
 
 
    SeaMonkey: has its own email client and html editing programme for building web pages and
   websites. I used it to  make this site.

    Opera is another browser that also has an email client



2)  Email:

    Thunderbird: my favourite email client.  Includes a newseader and RSS aggregator.
    No longer developed, but the team that created it still publishes regular updates. 

    An alternative is Postbox. This, however, is not free ( but cheap ).
          
    And remember: the browsers Seamonkey and Opera have their own email client programmes.



3)  Image editing and manipulation: 

      The GIMP (Gnu image manipulation programme) :  impressive.  Some consider it a free /  open alternative to 
     
Photoshop. 

    
Seashore has fewer features, but it's lighter and quite adequate for most basic photo/image editing tasks

      Image tricks also allows several editing  jobs, and  artistic effects. Worth checking out - after all, it's free ! 

    

4)  Word processing:


    :   free and does "Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base". Used to be Open Office.

     Try it before buying Microsoft Office for Mac !

   

      Neo Office: a lighter version of Open Office / Libre Office. For Mac only.

 
    
5)  FTP:

       Cyberduck  is excellent. Simple to use. Opens your remotely stored website  files in a 
      window. You just drag and drop.

 

       
Filezilla is free, easy to use, and robust. 


6)  Website building / html editors :


        Kompozer:  ( formerly NVU ). Very powerful and robust. I used it to build this site.  


       See also (as mentioned above):  
Sea Monkey.  Basic, but it works ! I used it to  make this site.



7)  Audio / audio editing :

       Audacity: a "free, open source software for recording and editing sounds". 


8)  Video:

        VLC : will read most video (and audio ) formats, including flash (flv). A possible alternative
     to the "pro" (and non-free) version of Apple's Quicktime    



9)  Chat:

        Adium



10)  IRC:


        Colloquy



11) Calendars / diaries:

        Sunbird: features galore. An alternative to iCal.



12)  RSS aggregators :

      
Netnewswire:   Excellent. My favourite, and (apparently) one of the most popular. I'm not surprised.

        Vienna:  open source, nice clean interface.

    
       
      
RssOwl is open source, multiplatform, clear and easy to use. 



13) System maintenance /  troubleshooting:

       OnyX :  Superb. Does all the maintenance tasks, and more (system tweaks etc). Regularly updated.

      Applejack : A "must-have".  It could save you a LOT of anguish. To find out why,  click the  link. But (  writing this in
       April 2013  )  Appleajck isn't yet compatible with Lion or Mountain Lion.

      Appcleaner : When you download and open applications, the Mac generates a lot of files, most of which
      you'll never see. When you delete an application
by dragging it to the trash ( if you're installing an update, for instance ),
      it's easy to forget this, and all these associated files can remain on your
hard disk, cluttering it up, and slowing down your Mac.
 
      Appcleaner takes care of that: when you want to delete an application, it finds the associated files and shows them as a
      list, giving you the opportunity to trash
them. This avoids any accidental deletion of files you may want to keep  - you
      stay in control.

14) Antivirus:

      ClamXav: There are no viruses for Mac, some say. Well, there are, but very few. But it's worth
     scanning your system from time to time, just to be sure, and monitoring it. ClamXav will do just that.


 

                                                          

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