The Best List Of Free, Open Source For Mac.

Poor Microsoft is being squeezed at both ends. Apple’s OS X and Mac applications steal the show, while free, Open Source applications chew at Bill Gates’ company from the other side.

How about Open Source on the Mac? Here’s the best list I’ve ever found for great Mac applications from the open source community.

On Mac360 you’ll hear about our favorites from time to time. For example, what’s the best Open Source browser? Many would say, Firefox.

That’s a good choice, though Camino is more Mac-like. How about email applications? Mozilla Thunderbird probably takes the honors as it’s full featured, Mac, Windows, and LInux, and works well. And free.

Those are just the basics. What else comes from the Open Source community? How about RSS?

We talk about NewsFire, and NetNewsWire, but if you’re on a budget can you get RSS for free? Yes. Vienna and RSSOwl. The latter is cross-platform, and the former is native to the Mac.

Got DVDs? Want to rip them to your Mac?

Try Handbrake, a DVD to MPEG-4 ripper converter. Did I mention that it’s free?

Most of us have honest work to do, and Microsoft’s Office and Word and Excel are usually the tools of choice. Usually. More and more, Open Source is taking a seat at the table.

For office productivity there’s NeoOffice; a Mac version of the open source OpenOffice project. For word processing, check AbiWord. It’s quick, lean, solid, dependable, and Open Source.

The Mac is known for graphics and doesn’t disappoint with the likes of Photoshop, Fireworks, and others that cost real money. Open Source responds with the great Gimp.

The price is right but you pay a little in knowledge gained as you’re required to learn to install X-11 on your Mac.

You send files but don’t want to spend money? What’s better than CyberDuck or Fugu. CyberDuck is prettier, Fugu works, too. Both are the same price.

Many Mac applications in nearly every category are free. Open Source is usually a project from a community of developers who work to make the application as stable and feature rich as possible.

Regardless, the price is right.

Such is the case with HTML editing. Smultron integrates with CyberDuck for remote editing.

Nvu is pure HTML with point and click accuracy. Free.

Tired of forking over money to Intuit for a Quicken that still feels like 1998?

Check out Cashbox. Need more movies and MP3 tracks? Try torrents with TomatoTorrent. And don’t get me started on games.

From simple first person shootouts in Cube, killing the undead in Zombies, there’s plenty to like about the selection of Mac games with the lowest price possible.

We live in wonderful times. Apple and Mac software are the cream of the crop, built on a solid Unix frame. Both worlds are embedded with a delightful array of free, low cost, or Open Source applications which increase productivity, increase efficiency, decrease your costs.

Where can you get all these great Mac applications? Well, you can click MacUpdate until your mouse dies and your hand is treated for carpal tunnel syndrome, or, you can Click Here for a simple list of free, open source software for your Mac.

It’s one click of fun. Got a favorite free Mac application? Share it was other Mac360 readers.