The Top 5 FREE Programs For Your Mac

A few months back we posted a blog with 5 really great applications for your PC. OS X users were furious! “Where’s OUR free software?” and “Why do you hate us so much!?” they asked. Okay, they didn’t really say that, but we did think it would be nice to include our Apple friends in the blog from time-to-time. Besides, what better way to bring them to the party than with free software!?

Now, funnily enough, the programs we mentioned in the last post were all actually available for Mac as well (with the exception of Ad-Aware). So this time, we’re going to get into programs that are a little bit more technical and user-specific.

        Burn – This program is amazingly simple, yet equally as powerful. It’s a fantastic disk burning application, and it’s pretty feature rich. There’s automatic converting, interactive menu creation, custom icons, and of course its free.           Notational Velocity – Notational Velocity is my favorite note-taking application. Why? Because the interface is really clean. It’s designed so that you never have to use your mouse. The search feature is amazing, and it keeps everything very organized. Not to mention the app syncs with Simplenote so all the notes I take on my phone, tablet, and computers syncs in the background without a second thought from me.         Spark – I prefer hot keys to do my dirty work. In fact, I loathe using the mouse for anything I can do with a keyboard shortcut. While Spark isn’t quite as feature rich as AutoHotKey for Windows (which can do anything, by the way), it’s certainly a powerful shortcut manager, and probably the best one I’ve found for Mac for free.           Adium – Although OS X comes with the built-in iChat, I don’t really like it, and by that I mean it’s unstable, has tons of connectivity problems, and I actually secretly hate it more than anything. Enter Adium. It’s a really clean and simple chat client that can connect to basically everything under the sun. It even allows for Address Book integration to keep all your contacts front and center. It also supports growl, which is a great notification app for Mac, so you can get those really gorgeous notifications when you receive a message.           Inkscape – In our last free software blog post, we gave PC users a great free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Luckly GIMP is available for Mac users as well, but what if you need to create scalable vector graphics? That’s where Inkscape comes in. Inkscape is a vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Just like in Illustrator, you can do some really amazing stuff in Inkscape. The best part is, the website has tutorials, and a really strong community behind it, so if you’re new to vector graphics you’ll have a lot of free help at your fingertips.