21 Essential Free Applications For Your Mac

There are many quality free applications on Mac OS X that Mac users use them on a daily basis. List here are what we considered the 21 essential free downloads for the Mac, chosen from a variety of application category. We provide the URL link to the software, making this checklist handy for your new Mac or when you are doing a clean install of Mac OS X.

1. Adium

Connect to multiple instant messaging platforms with one software. Supports AIM, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, iChat, MySpace IM etc.

2. AppCleaner

Software that removes extra preference and config files when uninstalling app. The ‘uninstaller’ for Mac OS X. Apple does not make one.

3. Audacity

A popular open source audio editor.

4. Colloquy

A highly regarded IRC chat client. Available for iPhone and iPod touch as well.

5. Cyberduck

FTP and SFTP client. One alternative to Cyberduck is FileZilla.

6. Firefox

A must-have browser for some. Apple Safari is fine for many others.

7. Flip4Mac

Plug-in for QuickTime to enable the playback of WMV/WMA files.

8. Google Earth

Explore and zoom in to view satellite pictures of beautiful planet earth.

9. Growl

System wide notification system that is used by many applications such as Adium and NetNewsWire.

10. Handbrake

Convert DVD to MPEG-4 video file. Presets available to output to iPhone, iPod, PS3 and AppleTV.

11. Max

CD ripper and audio format converter that support much more audio formats than iTunes such as Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and Monkey Audio.

12. NeoOffice

The best open source Office suite for the Mac. Based on OpenOffice.org.

13. NetNewsWire

Popular and fast RSS reader. Version available for iPhone and iPod touch.

14. Perian

Must have plug-in for QuickTime in order to play a wider range of audio/video codecs.

15) QuickSilver

A popular extensible application launcher to increase your productivity.

16. Quinn

Tetris on your Mac. Try out Klondike Forever if you miss Solitaire.

17. Skype

The best internet calling software, with the best video chat on the Mac.

18. TextWrangger

Powerful general purpose text editor. Use it in place when your need is more than TextEdit.

19. Transmission

A light-weight bit torrent client. An alternative is the program Azureus.

20. The Unarchiver

Universal unarchiver for ZIP, RAR, TAR, 7-ZIP etc. UnRarX is an alternative if you deal mainly with RAR files.

21. VLC

VLC media player that supports large number of multimedia formats including MPEG, MP4, 3GP, DIVX, WMV, MKV, FLV (Flash eg YouTube), OGG, FLAC etc. Use VLC along with QuickTime+Perian+Flip4Mac for all your multimedia playback need.