Rubenerd

One of the most common questions I'm asked by people moving over to the Mac (or FreeBSD as the case may be) is what software I use. Truthfully I've been mulling over creating a series of blog posts that I can update with new software as I find it for a while now. For want of a better phrase, my recent wipe and reinstall of Mac OS X Leopard on my MacBook Pro and subsequent reinstalling of software gave me the kick in the arse I needed to get this series of posts rolling!

This first post lists all the graphical free and open source software I use and love on my Macs. Over time I've been slowly replacing proprietary software with these gems and, while I admit I still need to use commercial software at times, this software is what I use to get virtually all my work done. Not only that, but they're free as in beer and speech!

Part two (coming soon) consists of free and open source command line Terminal applications you can automatically install from MacPorts that I swear by and love using.

NOTE: This list is not exhaustive, it’s merely a list of free and open source software that I personally use and am endorsing! If you feel I’m missing something important though, feel free to post a comment.

I also understand there’s some overlap in functionality, i.e. Perian and VLC. This is because I’ve always believed in using the right tool for the job, not just using a particular tool because you happen be using it already.

Free and open source software for Mac

Icon	Application	Use
	Camino	Fast, lean Mac native Mozilla web browser possible replacement for Safari, Firefox
	UnifyCamino	Makes Camino look more Leopard-ish possible replacement for Tiger-ish Camino
	MacVim	Advanced Mac native Gvim text editor possible replacement for TextEdit, Gvim
	TrueCrypt	Highly secure disk image encryption, supports AES, Twofish, Serpent possible replacement for Disk Utility encryption
	The GIMP	Sophisticated photo and image editing possible replacement for Preview, Photoshop
	Inkscape	SVG vector graphics editor possible replacement for Illustrator… almost!
	Juice Receiver	More sophisticated and more flexible podcast client possible replacement for iTunes for podcast downloads
	Perian	Super duper codec pack for QuickTime possible replacement for dedicated DivX player
	VLC	I dub it my anime player ^_^ possible replacement for some QuickTime video
	Handbrake	Slick tool to rip DVDs possible replacement for… coasters
	MacPorts	Easy way to install *nix software possible replacement for… manually compiling!
	Xquartz	More current X11 for GIMP etc possible replacement for default bundled X11