Geek Chic – Smart Design for the Style Conscious

Free and open-source software is good for you and good for the world. I have scoured the inter-web and of all the amazing stuff out there, this is the cream of the crop. Everything from Browsers, Video Players, IM, Email, RSS, P2P, Podcasting, Graphics, Computer Support… Wow the list is long. Very long.

Enjoy. This is the best Mac software out there. Big thanks to opensourcemac.org for the research.

Web Browsing

Mozilla Firefox
The premier free, open-source browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, themes, and extensions. Considered by many to be the world’s best browser.
Download Page

Camino
Based on the same Mozilla foundation as Firefox, Camino is a more native OS X app. Fast and simple.
Download Page

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Video Player / Video Podcasting

Miro
Beautiful interface. Plays any video type (much more than quicktime). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
Download Page

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IM – Instant Messaging

Adium
Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, MSN, and Jabber. Beautiful, themable interface.
Download Page

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Email

Mozilla Thunderbird
Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.
Download Page

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RSS

Vienna
Very nice, native RSS client.
Download Page

RSSOwl
Solid cross-platform RSS client.
Download Page

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Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

Cabos
A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.
Download Page

Transmission
Very nice torrent downloader.
Download Page

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Running Windows Software on Macs

Q Emulator
Run Windows programs on your Intel Mac at near native speed. Works on G4 / G5 Macs too, but much slower.
Download Page

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Podcasting

Juice
Solid podcasting client.
Download Page

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Video Playback

VLC
Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
Download Page

MPlayer
The interface and buttons are not as nice or as Mac-like in feel, but it may play even more video files than VLC.
Download Page

Perian
A plugin that allows quicktime to play additional video formats. (Included in Democracy Player.)
Download Page

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iPod Ripping

Senuti
Get music off of your iPod onto any computer.
Download Page

iPodDisk
Copy music off your iPod in the finder, like a regular disk drive.
Download Page

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DVD Ripping

Handbrake
DVD ripper and MPEG-4 / H.264 encoding. Very simple to use.
Download Page

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CD / DVD Burning

Burn
CD and DVD Burner.
Download Page

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Privacy

Vidalia
This TOR frontend keeps you anonymous on the web using military-grade techniques. For use with Firefox see: TorButton.
Download Page

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Word Processing / Office Suites

Bean
Very fast and easy to use word processor. Live word count, autosaving, more.
Download Page

NeoOffice
Built on OpenOffice.org. Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.
Download Page

AbiWord
A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.
Download Page

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Wifi Scanning

KisMac
The best wireless scanner for Mac. Find wireless access when you’re on the go.
Download Page

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Sound Recording

Audacity
Simple sound recording tool.
Download Page

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Graphics, Photo, Publishing

Seashore
Based on Gimp, but doesn’t require X11.
Download Page

Xee
Fast image viewer and image browser.
Download Page

Gimp.app
Photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features (requires X11).
Download Page

Inkscape
Vector graphics application (requires X11).
Download Page

Scribus
Desktop publishing. Complicated install, but a nice app.
Download Page

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FTP / SFTP

Cyberduck
Very good all-around ftp program.
Download Page

OneButton FTP
Simple, fast FTP, with a focus on "advanced queuing".
Download Page

Fugu
Not as polished as Cyberduck, but has a side by side interface showing your files and the remote files.
Download Page

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HTML / Text Editing

Smultron
Text / html editor. Integrates with Cyberduck for editing websites.
Download Page

Nvu
Visual tool for making websites (WYSIWYG html editor), comparable to Dreamweaver.
Download Page

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IRC

Colloquy
Great IRC client.
Download Page Some more specialized free and open-source Mac apps. If you want too see proprietary apps too, check out BestMacSoftware.org

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Media Center

Centerstage
Full-screen interface for playing audio, video, and photos. Connect it to your TV.
Download Page

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Note Taking

Freemind
An innovative application for note taking and outlining. Takes time to get used to, but some people swear by it.
Download Page

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Personal Finance

Cashbox
Simple, easy to use application for managing personal finances.
Download Page

Buddi
A personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background.
Download Page

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MSN Chat

AMSN Messenger

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More Web Browsing

Shiira
Fast, nice web browser.
Download Page

SunriseBrowser
Good webkit-based browser created with special tools for web designers.
Download Page

Seamonkey
Full-featured Mozilla browser, used to be called ‘Mozilla Suite’.
Download Page

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PDF Viewer

Skim
PDF viewer.
Download Page

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Screensaver

Electric Sheep
Immersive, trippy screensaver.
Download Page

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More Filesharing

Tomato Torrent
Download torrents. Nice and simple.
Download Page Also see: Poisoned – Azureus

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3D Graphics and Modeling

Blender
Powerful 3D Modeling software.
Download Page Also see: Persistence of Vision Raytracer – Art of Illusion – Wings 3D – Quesa – Open Media Toolkit

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MP3 Management

iEatBrainz
Fills in the correct metadata (title, artist, etc) for MP3s in your collection.
Download Page

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Planetariums and Outer Space

Celestia
Open-source 3D planetarium software. Akin to traveling through space (outer space).
Download Page

Stellarium
"Renders realistic skys in realtime." See what you would see if your city wasn’t so light-polluted. Used in real planetariums.
Download Page Also see: macORSA – Orbit Reconstruction, Simulation, and Analysis

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Comic Viewer

Jomic
Read digital comics.
Download Page

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Dance Dance Revolution

Stepmania
Dance Dance Revolution clone. Can connect to external dance pads.
Download Page

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Games

Cube
Nice first-person shooter.
Download Page

Marathon: Aleph One
Engine for Bungie’s free FPS series Marathon. Play online, solo play with rich original story, many total conversions and thousands of maps.
Download Page

Zombies
3D zombie strategy game.
Download Page

Armagetron Advanced
3D Tron game.
Download Page

BZFlag
First-person tank game.
Download Page

Battle for Wesnoth
Fantasy / Strategy Game
Download Page Also see: Snes9X (SNES emulator), Frozen Bubble, PySol for Mac (card games), PLANESHIFT (3D Fantasy MMORPG), VDrift (drift racing simulation).

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del.icio.us Client

Cocoalicious
Let’s you easily post to del.icio.us.
Download Page

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Free File Hosting

CC Publisher
Host Creative Commons video or audio files for free on archive.org with this easy uploader.
Download Page

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Quick Links

 Viewers Comic viewer: Comical
Comic viewer: FFView
OpenDocument viewing application: ODF Viewer

RSS and Usenet
RSS Reader: Feed
Cross-platform RSS reader: BlogBridge
RSS video podcast player: I/ON
Usenet Reader: OSXnews

IM, IRC, Chat
Multi-IM: Fire
Powerful IRC client: X-Chat Aqua
Videoconferencing client: XMeeting
PBX / Voip system: Asterisk

Graphics and Art
Draw on a moving canvas: Cosmic Painter
Image editor: Seashore
An artwork scaling calculator: Scaletron!
A Paint-like program designed for pixel-pushers: Pixen
A VRML/X3D Browser: FreeWRL
Video
Realtime Editing and Effects System: Jahshaka
Video transcoder: ffmpegX
MPEG convertor: MPEG Streamclip

Music and Audio
OGG Vorbis encoder (ogg is an open source audio codec): Ogg Drop
Music notation: LilyPond
Play and compose live music: Miraton
Max/MSP style realtime music and multimedia environment: Pd
Manage chords, lyrics, and projection: OpenSong

Wifi / Networking
Discover open wifi networks: iStumbler
A Prism/Prism2 driver 802.11: WirelessDriver
Fast, lightweight VNC client: Chicken of the VNC
VNC server providing remote access to the GUI, keyboard and mouse: OSXvnc

Utilities
Book management: Books
CD / DVD Burning: SimplyBurns
Disable sleep on a Mac: InsomniaX
Protect your laptop with a car-alarm style alarm: Multialarm
Remove extra languages from OSX to save disk space: Monolingual
System event notifications: Growl
System performance monitors: MenuMeters
Virtual desktop tool: Desktop Manager
Virus checker: ClamXav
Share mouse and keyboard between 2 or more computers: SynergyKM and Quick Synergy
Check available RAM: Memtest
Monitor CPU, RAM, battery, CPU temp, network, I/O, and more: X Resource Graph
Control your Mac via Bluetooth: Romeo

Writing and Typesetting
Screenplay writing and pre-production support: Celtx
Bibliography manager, BibTeX .bib format: BibDesk
Typesetting – TeX previewer for Mac OS X: TeXShop
Typesetting: iTexMac

Education
Education course management system: Moodle
Student information system: Focus / SIS
Another student information system: Centre

Programming
Development platform: Eclipse
SQL Editor: YourSQL

Math and Engineering
General purpose computer algebra system: Yacas
GNU S language: R
MATLAB style rapid engineering and scientific prototyping / data processing: FreeMat