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Free Software for OS X
Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 10:59 AM by Jason Barker
In an earlier post I mentioned - as I've done a number of times in the past - my reliance on free and open source software (FOSS) in my work on Orthodox Christian Bible Studies. Below is a list of the FOSS applications I use on my MAC.
I should first note that, despite my dedication to FOSS, my primary tools for creating graphics and applications are not free: advanced, stable and widely used applications are a necessary expense for professional work. Thus, in OS X I currently use Director MX 2004 for creating the Shockwave applications themselves. Until my new software - Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Flash Studio 8 - arrives for my Mac, I use Creative Suite 1 and Flash MX (and Director MX for specific legacy work) in Windows. There are simply no FOSS equivalents for these applications: the closest thing to an equivalent would be replacing Photoshop with GIMP, and Photoshop is simply too powerful - and too much the standard - to replace it for professional work, although if I didn't have Photoshop GIMP would be acceptable for personal projects or small projects that do not need to be sent to outside collaborators or printers.
Nonetheless, there are a number of FOSS applications for OS X that I use heavily and recommend:
- Word Processor: I use NeoOffice, which is a Mac-specific port of OpenOffice.
- Script Editor: I use Smultron.
- Tree Information Manager: I use Jreepad for recording information - such as sprite locations, dimensions, and colors - related to each frame of the Director file. It records in plain text - rather than the more useful rich text of the Windows-only Keynote - but otherwise meets my basic needs for such records.
- FTP - I use Cyberduck.
- Clipboard Enhancement - I use iClip Lite to allow access to an array of items that I regularly need to paste (particularly Lingo scripts).
- Browser - Web browsers have been the biggest - and most surprising - disappointment for me in switching to a Mac. Opera - which is my favorite browser in Windows - is rather unstable in OS X, and has serious problems in the way it handles Flash. I debated between Camino and Firefox, and finally went with Firefox (which I used for a couple of years in Windows, from when it was called Phoenix to when I switched to Opera over a year ago): I heavily use several add-ons - particularly Copy Plain Text, MeasureIt, text/plain, and View Source Chart - for which there are not equivalent features in Camino, and I preferred to simply copy my Firefox password files from Windows instead of needing to add each password to Keychain in Camino.
- Email - As I have since it was in version 0.3, I use Thunderbird.
- Audio Recorder - I use Audacity.
- Phone - Because we cannot get a good mobile phone connection from our house, I use Skype for much of my long distance calling. The connection is sometimes problematic - a lot like a bad mobile phone signal - but it is usually usable, and free calls to friends and family who use Skype, as well as paying only $15 dollars for a year of calling landline phones in North America, was irresistable.
- Blogging - I create this blog using Thingamablog.
I use a number of other free applications for such things as media viewing and computer maintenance, but these are the FOSS applications I use in OS X that are directly related to my work for the Department of Youth Ministry.
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