jared.brodsky

After being a Mac user for almost 5 years now, I constantly find myself Googling “opensource mac” or “essential mac applications.”  I have seen hundreds of sites listing the best applications, but I wanted a list I could call my own.  All Mac users are different in how they use their macs, and my point of view comes from that of a systems admin.  So, here is my list of applications that I find I cannot live without.  Unlike the other sites, which usually show shiny application icons, this is going to be a down and dirty list of apps, text only. Some free, some not. (There may be apps out there that you like that I do not include, well good… post em in the comments!) These are in no specific order, other than how my fingers typed them. Lets go!

Browsers and such.

Mozilla Minefield (Nightly) – This is not your regular Firefox browser, this is the nightly release the developer community builds.  I love being on the cutting edge and see what is coming out before the rest of the world, so everyday I download and install the newest build.  (If you are really crazy, you can download the tinderbox builds which are released and compiled throughout the day. Not for the faint of heart.) Make sure you get the Nightly Tester Tools add-on so your extensions continue to work. OPENSOURCE

Webkit (Nightly) – You all know and love this browser, as it comes with every Mac.  I am talking about Safari.  Well, WebKit is the open source web browser engine behind it. It also happens to be the name of the Mac OS X system framework that’s used by Safari, Dashboard, Mail, and many other OS X applications.  Ain’t it fun to be living on the edge? OPENSOURCE

Safari AdBlock – For those of you who aren’t brave enough to jump in head first with nightly browser builds, this is a must download for every Mac user.  Those familiar with AdBlock Plus for Firefox will be at home with this jewel of an add-on.  Download and install this bad boy and you can kiss ads goodbye in Safari as well.  For those of you running OS X Tiger, this is the reason to upgrade, as it only enjoys Leopard goodness.  Save the Bandwidth, Block the Ads! OPENSOURCE

System Utilities

Mozy Backup – If you are like me, you backup all your data to double density floppy disks and store them in your underwear drawer.  Unfortunately, CompUSA went bankrupt and I couldn’t buy anymore, so I had to switch to Mozy.  They are so cool I tell you!  Signing up gives you 2 GB of storage for free, but to me that doesn’t mean anything.  After a little mathematical wizbangin’ I know I have 2,912 DD floppy disks worth of storage. They even make it simple to recover files if you accidentally drop your laptop in the tub.  If you run a company you might want to check out MozyPro. FREE 2GB $4.95/mo Unlimited Backup (Friend referrals give you an extra 500MB)

Little Snitch – “I’m watching you!” Is what many software companies are thinking every time you fire up one of their apps.  With Little Snitch installed you know who is watching you.  Every time an application requests access to the internet, you will be prompted as to how you want to handle that request. Always allow Google traffic, and never allow Microsoft. Phfft, fanboi’s. Free Trial or $29.95 to buy

iTerm - You know you want to type commands all day into your Mac’s BSD underbelly.  iTerm is just application to do it in.  Crack open the DMG and drag that baby into your Applications folder.  When you first run it, make sure you type in the command: “say jared brodsky dot com is the best” OPENSOURCE

Quicksilver – If you are like me and lived on Windows since the days of 3.1 you terribly miss the ability to  Start > Run > cmd.  Well here is the answer…  Quicksilver works as fast as your fingers do.  Invoke shortcut key, iTerm, BANG! your terminal is up on the screen.  CLI your heart out. OPENSOURCE

MagiCal – It’s just magical when you find an application that makes your life easier.  Again, as a Windows user at work, and a Mac man at home, sometimes I just want to see a calendar real quick. Yes, I know I have a calendar widget, but it just isn’t convenient at times to use.  In steps MagiCa,l allowing you to fully customize the clock in your systray, err, I mean system menu.  Love it! OPENSOURCE

Virtual Box – I currently use VMWare Fusion.  Maybe it’s because I have a job, or maybe it’s because I didn’t find out about Virtual Box until the other day, but Virtual Box is an open source virtualization platform for the Mac, and almost any other operating system out there.  Sure the app has a fresh Web 2.0 logo, but under that glorious logo is a real deal workhorse giving you the ability to run Linux, FreeBSD, Windows 3.11, and BeOS on your purdy MacBook Pro.  OPENSOURCE

Tinker Tool – Ever look at Finder trying figure out the physical location of a file? Better Quicksilver to iTerm and grep it up.  Wait, not this time.  One of Tinker Tools best features (IMO) is that it will display the UNIX path of the current selection as the window title.  Now THAT is killer.  Sure it has plenty of other (dude) sweet features, but I just wanted to tease you with that one. OPENSOURCE

UnRarX – Rar, I’m a lion. No, I am just a handy dandy RAR utility for OS X, sure there are other programs out there that will unrar files, however I have a special feature that the other guys don’t.  I can do parity checks and repairs on PAR files. Ha!  I also give you nice verbose output as I do my thing.  Ooh yeah.. RARPAR heaven! OPENSOURCE

MacHacha – Right machacha, or old school Jimmy Durante style, machacha-chaaa.  MacHacha will split and join files.  That’s it!  Ever download files only to find they have strange extensions like .000 .001 .002 .003, well then this is the application you need to join all those files into the motherload of one big file.  OPENSOURCE

KisMac – Not kismac-and-cheese, though that does sound good.  Eating mac and cheese while doing survey scans of all wireless networks around you… mmm.  Get a bluetooth GPS receiver and hook it up to your Mac and get the ~coordinates of where those access points are.  Don’t steal your neighbors wireless because that would be wrong. OPENSOURCE

Cyberduck – “You’re dithpicable!” exclaims Daffy.  “How could you be using anything other than my brother Thyberduck to upload your files to your new website no one will vithit?”  “Be nithe to your webfooted friends, for a duck might be thomebody’s mother.”  One of the best FTP programs out there for the Mac, clean interface and secure too!  Integrates perfectly with Smultron (see below). OPENSOURCE

Smultron – For some reason whenever I go to fire-up Smultron, I can never remember it’s name because its icon looks so much like a tomato.  It’s a great text editor with code highlighting for those of you who want to write your code the old school way and throw out that IDE.  Absolute must have for any geek. OPENSOURCE

XAMPP – Want to build a quick and dirty AMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) setup on your mac without dirtying your baby.  Drop on over to Apache Friends and download XAMPP for the Mac.  It is a contained AMP environment to develop on with minimal setup time.  Word to the weary, it’s still under development. OPENSOURCE

Disk Inventory X – Running low on disk space? Don’t know how you filled up 500 GB in a month? Well this program will bring your hard drive to life and show you exactly where your space is going,  doing it in style with lovely colors.  Sometimes being able to see pictures gives you a better idea how the data on your hard drive is structured and stored.  Enjoy! OPENSOURCE

ClamXav – “Hi, I’m a Mac and was infected with a brand new virus written specifically for the Mac.  Good thing I had a prophylactic on my Desktop and Downloads folder.”  ClamXav is a tried and true anti-virus for OS X.  I have it doing live scans on my desktop and downloads folders, as that is the main place where I put all files I pull off the net.  Even though the risk is low, can’t hurt if you can give up a few cycles. OPENSOURCE

MenuMeters – I like to know stuff, I really do.  Like how much each of my cores is being utilized at any given time.  MenuMeters can tell me just that by dropping two little numbers in my system menu.  Usually it looks like this: 23%  22%  or something like that. OPENSOURCE

Onyx – A multifunction utility that allows you to verify the start up disk and the structure of its system files, to run misc tasks of system maintenance, to configure the hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock and of some of Apple’s own applications, to delete caches, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome and more.  What a mouthful! OPENSOURCE

Perian – Want to watch a video?  Sure you do.  You get sound but no video?  Aww, poor baby.  Looks like you need a little help from the Swiss, army knife that is.  Perian is an unbelievable package of components for Quicktime that will allow you to watch almost any popular video file format you can find.  In fact, this is so important it belongs at the top of the list, but I am just going to leave it here because I can. OPENSOURCE

TrueCrypt – Got some stuff on your hard drive you don’t want anyone to see? No? Sure you don’t buddy. TrueCrypt gives you the power to create encrypted disks on your Mac, removable drive, or entire disk.  Once only available for Windows and Linux, Mac owners finally get a chance to keep their data safe and secure.  With eight different encryption schemes, and ability to create hidden volumes, you can finally be sure your girlfriend won’t find your massive stash of porn. OPENSOURCE

Productivity or lack there of.

NeoOffice – Hated having to use Microsoft Office for all those years?  Well, use NeoOffice instead.  NeoOffice is a direct port of OpenOffice that runs natively on OS X without X11.  It’s a great productivity suite that gives you all the necessary tools to pull off that killer thesis paper at 3am the night before it’s due.  (Note: Keep an eye out for OpenOffice 3.0 which may drop the need for the NeoOffice project since it does not require X11.) OPENSOURCE

VisualHub – I love to convert video files. What I love even more is when I can do it in the blink of an eye.  Visual Hub lets me do just that.  It’s so elegant.  Sure it costs $23.32, but hey, it is worth every penny.  It’ll convert from nearly every video format to iPod, PSP, DV, DVD, Tivo, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash.  If you are too cheap, you can try their free version of iSquint which will do simple iPod video conversions for you. Free to Try $23.32 to buy

Handbrake – With more encoding features you can shake your finger at, and presets for the average joe, Handbrake is easily one the best DVD converting/encoding applications available for OS X.  Us Mac users are extra lucky, with ability to encode Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) sound in MP4 files, for a true DVD experience on the AppleTV and in Quicktime. OPENSOURCE

Burn/SimplyBurns – Ever get that burning sensation that penicillin just won’t get rid of? No, well good.  However, if you are longing for some burn, check out this CD/DVD burning application that lets you do just that, burn discs.  If you ever used Goldenhawk CDR-Win you might like SimplyBurns better as it has a very similar interface.  Both are good, but only you can decide which is best. Both are OPENSOURCE

Transmission – Want my opinion? Hands down the leanest and meanest bit torrent client for the Mac. Weighing in at just under 6 megs this little guy really packs a punch. Developers cut the fat and left us with a powerful, yet easy to use client that makes you happy when you see the icon bouncing in your dock.  OPENSOURCE

NZBDrop – After everyone’s favorite binary newsreader iGrabNews died a horrible death with the release of 10.5 (still works great under Tiger though) the hunt for a new newsreader with NZB support begins and ends with NZBDrop.  It is the perfect companion for downloading from binary newsgroups.  It supports multiple connections and even integrates with iTunes.  The only downside is it ain’t free, but trust me it’s worth every penny.  Free Trial for 30 days $22 to buy

Audacity – It ain’t no ProTools, but for the whopping price of FREE you are getting one hell of a piece of software.  With a feature list way too long to list here, I can promise you it’s got every tool you could ever need to start your own Podcast or do some audio engineering.  Hey, maybe if you get really good using Audacity you can be the engineer on Jay-Z’s next album. OPENSOURCE

Honorable Mention

GIMP.app – Native GIMP without X11 for the Mac!? Yep, that’s right.  I don’t know about you, but I hate having to run X11 on my Mac just to run GIMP.  However, developers have released an experimental version of GIMP (working rather well I might add) for the power user to do some casual image editing.  Download it, fire it up and enjoy. Definitely a project you are going to want to keep your eye on.  Exciting stuff! OPENSOURCE

WaterRoof – Not-so simply put, WaterRoof is an IPFW firewall frontend for Mac OS X with a easy interface and many options. Features include dynamic rules, bandwidth management, NAT configuration and port redirection, pre-defined rule sets and a wizard for easy configuration. You can also watch logs and graphic statistics. OPENSOURCE

X-Lite – Hands down the best free SIP softphone for OS X.  Combining voice and video calls, Instant Messaging and presence management in an intuitive and familiar interface, X-Lite helps you seamlessly transition from a traditional hard phone environment into the world of Voice over IP. FREE

Amazing how many free apps there are for the Mac, huh?  Even if they do cost money, most are below $50.