What is Digg?95 Comments
- Crackshot, on 10/12/2007, -6/+51Quicksilver, Quicksilver, Quicksilver
I have found this to be one of the most overlooked and underappreciated among all of the "top free Mac apps" discussion forums. It is basically a task launcher on steroids and once you implement (particularly the abracadabra gestures) it you will not look at your os x interface the same.
someirishguy - start with this and move from there. - JoeAverage, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35Hey guys. Yeah, 5 is a bit shrimpy, but I tried to limit the list to 5 things that ANYONE can use. While it might seem basic to a lot of tech-savvy people on digg, something like OnyX, while a great program, might be intimidating to a person who doesn't know exactly what it does. Thanks anyone who did a +digg on this. :)
Here is the list I made initially, then stripped down:
iPlaylist: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14827
Transmission: http://transmission.m0k.org/
Battle for Wesnoth: http://www.wesnoth.org/
Celestia: http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
Sidenote: http://www.chatelp.org/?s=Sidenote
Smultron: http://smultron.sourceforge.net/
SubEthaEdit: http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/old.html
Xee: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29046
Uno: http://gui.interacto.net/
OnyX: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582
iScorbber: http://www.last.fm/downloads.php
VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html
Flip4Mac: http://www.flip4mac.com/
ImageWell: http://www.xtralean.com/IWOverview.html
Megaman Effect: http://mikezornek.com/cocoa/megamaneffect/
Growl: http://growl.info/
Disk Inventory X: http://www.derlien.com/
Minuteur: http://perso.orange.fr/philippe.galmel/index_mac.html
Key Bindings: http://www.cocoabits.com/KeyBindingsEditor/
Noise: http://blackholemedia.com/noise/
Handbrake: http://handbrake.m0k.org/
divx quicktime: http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
3vix quicktime: http://www.3ivx.com/download/macos.html
XinePlayer: http://xineplayer.berlios.de/
Firefight: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28175
UnrarX: http://unrarx.sourceforge.net/
Adium: http://www.adiumx.com/
iStache: http://www.notdustin.com/istache/
Typewriter Sounds: http://alphaomega.software.free.fr/typewriterkeyboard/Typewriter%20Keyboard.html
Alarm Clock 2: http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/index.html - trunkster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26From my experience VLC for Mac cannot play all types of WMV. I don't believe it supports WMV9.
- JoeAverage, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Flip4Mac adds the ability to stream media in a browser.
- danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Also by using Flip4Mac your video files are then playable through Front Row because it plays everything in Quick Time.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14"Youre Grammar teacher commited suicide."
Either you just made a grammar mistake in a reply criticizing someone's grammar, or you have an interesting sense of humor. I can't tell which.. - someirishguy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15So for a new Mac user such as myself, what would you suggest as the must have applications? So far the only thing I really miss from the WIndows world is Picasa, but iPhoto is a close enough.
- Eccent, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13I'd second Quicksilver.
- Raian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9One program he failed to recommend is Onyx-- which is a "maintenance, optimization, and personalization utility for Mac OS X"
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
check it out - ggko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Better than 114,000 free viruses.
- WiseWeasel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Everybody forgot MacTheRipper...
http://www.mactheripper.org - wayniethep00p, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I thought Trillian was pretty good but now I think Adium is one of the best chat clients I have ever used, OS X and Windows. The new beta is very good and shows a lot of potential. =)
Transmit is a neat program too. Especially when you use it with its upload widget. - alej744, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Captain FTP is shareware, and it has an ugly GUI. I'd get Transmit ($) or Cyberduck (free).
- MikeSD34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Because VLC can't play WMV3 files, Flip4Mac can. For the most part anyway.
- Scottish, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13Article doesn't claim to be either.
- mbcook, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@Someirishguy
I second Quicksilver, it makes a great launcher. Spotlight can work for that purpose, but I find it too slow to use as a launcher on my G4.
My other two killer apps are Act-On and BBEdit. BBEdit is a fantastic text editor that I use for programming and I can't remember how I survived without it.
Act-On I just found recently and it is the handiest little e-mail program I've ever found. It integrates with Mail.app (which I use) and lets you run rules on individual messages. You set up all the rules and give them each a key (a, b, B, c, 7, [, whatever). You set the rule to apply to all messages.
Now you can use the rules. Everything works like normal. Then you can do something like select 3 messages, hit the Act-On activation key (` by default) and a little box pops up (much like you see on the laptops when changing volume) with a list of options, one for each Act-On rule you set up. So you type the key (lets say s) and the rule that you set up for the key s gets run on all selected messages. It makes it so easy to move e-mails around to folders you use a lot and do other such easy repetitive tasks. It is just so handy. Free too.
By and large OS X has such great integrated stuff I don't find myself needing much more. iLife, Mail.app, Safari, Terminal, TextEdit... it's all good. Add a few commercial programs (Photoshop, Quicken, Office) and you've got a fantastic computer that does EVERYTHING. - dmoney06, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Dugg because I didn't know about Xee.
- wastern, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6VLC can only play about 5% of the Windows Media content out there. Its a good app, but not a WMP replacment
- totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Flip4Mac also handles WMVs embedded in websites, and automatically runs QT in place of WMP to play them.
- Twango, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Thanks, JoeAverage. Useful stuff. Please ignore the people who've got no life so spend it here, criticizing people who contribute something actually useful.
- davdav, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8For those interested in beginning to understand and use Quicksilver:
http://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/03/quicksilver_a_b.php
http://vjarmy.com/archives/2005/02/quicksilver_fro.php
http://vjarmy.com/archives/2006/01/quicksilver_gold_trigger.php
I found those tutorials immensely helpful
(No, it is not my blog) - regeya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The only one I haven't used is Xee, which looks interesting. Of the other four, I really like three of them, and the last, Sidenote, I loathed.
Not sure what it is about it; there's just nothing about the interface that really clicks for me. So I guess I don't like it because I found it to be completely counterintuitive. And this comes from someone who can stand to use Emacs!
Also agree that Quicksilver is sadly missing. - tomoniki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Since tiger, stickes has allowed people to change the font colours, and add pictures to the stickies. (side note is still nicer though)
- Maniaca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Thanks for introducing me to Uno -- I just installed it and it's great. No more ugly metal Finder!
One neat app no one ever mentions is anacron. It runs the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance routines if they were skipped due to the computer being off at the right time.
http://members.cox.net/18james/anacron-tiger.html - rodrigo74, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Didn't know Quicksilver, but I just downloaded and tried it and yeah it works very nice, specially for those like me who prefer to keep the hands on the keyboard and out of the mouse most of the time.
- inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4When I got out of bed today, the first thought through my head was "What I can I do to keep yichen on Digg entertained?" I have failed.
- quisxt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My favorite list of free mac applications is at http://www.opensourcemac.org I've discovered several useful applications there, like transmission and handbrake. It has a pretty good list of the "best of breed" open source apps for the mac
- Lardquake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well worth it for Xee alone.
- blindanddeaf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I simply cannot believe things like this make it to the front page. It's just five apps!
If you want a real source for free Mac apps:
http://www.macrecon.com/2006/08/14/the-ultimate-mac-list-for-free-apps-and-more/ - Doughboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Xee was just what I was looking for!
The OS X preview is pretty pathetic since it could not go forward/backword through a folder. I guess Apple wants everyone to use iphoto! - Weaselboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Launchbar is not free though.
- meatmcguffin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Whatever you're trying to find, macupdate is the best mac specific download site - http://www.macupdate.com
They even have a small menu extra which show the last twenty or so software updates- http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/8277 - KyleMistry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That application is a godsend. Not only is it just damned convenient, but before I got it, my dock was massive. Even on my 17" display it was cramped.
Now though, I've just got my essentials. Need to launch something, just Ctrl+Space and away I go. - miyamotofreak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dugg because I didn't know about Xee and was still confused about Uno. Downloading both now (though Xee is getting the Digg effect).
- cjnkjn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Great apps!
- losvedir, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"Sounds like a haiku, kinda"
lol, you're right! Just with words instead of syllables, I suppose... - cosmicrob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just would like to add http://www.freemacware.com
Very cool site with lots of good apps listed. - Twango, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I thought Quicksilver is a little on the fiddly side ... but probably very useful for some kinds of repetitive work.
- Chasin_Fat_Kids, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dugg for Xee
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Sounds like a haiku, kinda
- Lardquake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Allow me to add:
Filechute: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11632 - wastern, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Here are 5 free windows apps
Firefox
filezilla
Open Office
iTunes
AVG
are there more? yes. are there more then listed in the link for OS X? yes. What's your point - Kodo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I much prefer MPlayer to VLC. I always seem to have issues with VLC and running files.
- TomP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I keep getting error 500 Internal Server Error on any other page...
- drfranktm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sidenotes is well-done. I think I'll use it often. I used the Notepad widget before, but Sidenotes is slicker, IMO. Just to pitch in, a few of my personal favorites:
- VLC (of course!!!)
- MPlayer
- Azureus
- Democracy
(With these four, I haven't turned on my tv in months.)
- Adium
- Flock - pedrotaquelim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I have to recommend Edgies too.( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22020 )
I use it with Sidenote. ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17654 ) A great pair.
Someone mentioned that they really miss Picasa from Windows? Well, Picasa is out for OS X (test): http://picasa.google.com/web/mac_tools.html
Schoolhouse Is a great app to. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21783
All free (donate) . :-) - iamdw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i'll digg for SideNote. i really with i'd known about this app earlier. WIth SideNote in combination with MenuFela and LaunchBar, i have the GUI i've always wanted with OS X.
I too agree that a Launcher app should be included in the list. I know Spotlight is an attempt to cover the features of launcher apps like LaunchBar, Quicksilve, or Butler, but it's nowhere close in regards to features and capabilities. That said, it seems Leopard may take a stab at the launcher apps... we'll see.
Other apps i may recommend would be Adium as an alternative to iChat for multi-network IM'ing and PathFinder for a finder replacement (though it may only satisfy a 'hardcore' user). - ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Meh.
At least VLC is there.
Pretty usless otherwise.
There are tons of other free apps that every OSX owner needs - and thats useful.
VLC
OpenOffice (Neo)
cyberDuck
Transmission
Audacity
HandBrake
Chicken of the VNC
Fugu
FlipforMac
Fire (GAIM)
Skype
iAlertU
Nmap
WMV Player
CoreDuo Temp (widget)
URarX
MacSaber
EasyWMA (convert WMA to MP3)
ThumbsUP
AirTraffic Control (widget)
FreeDMG
ect., ect
Good list on the blog, just not really useful for many people. - Petrarch1603, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'll digg your topic
- jimbabb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Unlike stickies you can add in pictures, pdf files, and change the formatting and color of the text."
Stickies can do all these things. Try it. -
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