One of the best aspects of being a Mac user is the amount of quality software available for OS X. While many of these applications are worth their typically small costs, there are a bevy of free alternatives that can certainly hold their own alongside their shareware counterparts. Here’s a run down of some of my favorite freeware Mac applications.
Adium: While Adium doesn’t offer the video chatting features that Apple’s own iChat does (yet), it’s an extremely customizable alternative that has been a favorite among Mac users for quite a few OS X releases already. There’s a huge assortment of Adiumy add-ons available online, including buddy list/message window styles, icons, and sound sets, among others.
Caffeine: A simple application that runs in the menu bar and allows you to keep your computer from going to sleep with a mere click. The latest version of Caffeine even allows you to turn it on for a set period of time only. This prevents you from having to mess around with system preferences every time you want to keep your Mac from getting tired.
Camino: While Safari is the best Mac browser in my opinion, it’s never a bad idea to have a backup option laying around. My choice of secondary browser is Camino — built on the same Mozilla engine as Firefox, but with a native Aqua GUI that feels much more at home on OS X.
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