what's your favorite freeware?

[sjcaguy]

hello all. i am ordering my new iBook soon, and in preparation for getting it I want to get a sense of what the best freeware out there is. There was an article in MacHome magazine last month that I didn't end up buying that had a list of some great freeware and shareware programs. one of them was "fire", the messaging client.

what freeware do you really like? what is indispensable?

tell me!

[howard]

adium (2) is the best chat client in my opinion...its an alpha now but you can download the latest build here

http://adium.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=download

vlc client is a great video program that plays pretty much every kind of file i can think of.

thumbnail pro, makes thumbnails for all your pictures, great little app if your into photography and organization

slides! again with photography, lets you view pictures in a nice little full screen slideshow

mac janitor is a program that well ...cleans up your computer.

these are most of the wide variety of free apps you can get, just use version tracker and i'm sure you can find anything your looking for.

[sjcaguy]

i was actually interested in recommendations.

or if someone had that issue of MacHome magazine if they could post the freeware suggestions they had.

[manitoubalck]

Do bootlegged programs count as 'Freeware'? I don't think so, but of the true freeware's Div-x, DB power music converter, and Clone CD demo.

[howard]

i was reccomending those. i pretty much listed my favorite freewares

what exactly are you looking for? just cool apps? i tried to list ones from a wide variety of types

[toughboy]

is ICQ a freeware?

or let me put it this way, does it matter for being freeware or shareware to have advertisements going on the program when it is working?

[jap4n]

i think Bit Torrent is pretty good... its donation ware or something

Poisoned - peer2peer is good also

Proteus - multi messenger is quite good also

[gairloch]

For freeware... the Mac is the place to be!

My personal #1 Favourite and the reason I switched to the MacIntosh platform = Mac Journal
#2 Moon Dock
#3 OnyX
#4 VLC
#5 iFlash
#6 Nisus Thesaurus
#7 Kunvert (PDF --> JPEG)
#8 Prefs Menu

Check out macupdate.com or versiontracker.com and you'll find everything, eh!

[sjcaguy]

see, this is good. recommendations are good and helpful. there is so much awesome freeware out there, but finding the good/especially useful stuff is great.

thanks! keep 'em coming!

[Makosuke]

Cocoa Gestures. It's all about Cocoa Gestures.

If you haven't tried it, download it right now (it's tiny) and do. It's so useful it's hard to believe gesuture programs aren't more popular.

Other freeware apps I like are VLC, as many people already mentioned, OpenShiiva for compressing XviD video, and Mozilla/Camino.

I'd also recommend BBEdit Light, except that doesn't exist any more, replaced by a similar $50 app. I use that one so much it's not even funny.

[dukemeiser]

iComic (http://homepage.mac.com/xmlguy/iComic/index.html) is one of my everyday apps.

MacJournal (http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/) is also a killer app. I'm always finding new things to use it for.

Taco HTML Edit (http://www.tacosw.com/) is pretty good if you need an HTML editor.

Of course, the freeware you get with your iBook will be some of the best: iTunes, Safari, etc.

[Dale Sorel]

I really like PrefsMenu (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macintosh/20357) and QuickImage (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macintosh/19253) and QuickPlay (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macintosh/21448).

[Giaguara]

- vlc

- openoffice

- image indexer

- firebird

[dukemeiser]

I forgot, but AppleLegal.com (http://www.applelegal.com) has some pretty good reviews everyday. I've found a lot of good software there, such as PDF Plugin.

[howard]

checked out icomic and mac journal, both neat programs

is there any way to get comic subscriptions that havn't already been made as plugins?

[dukemeiser]

Originally posted by howard
is there any way to get comic subscriptions that havn't already been made as plugins?

Well, if you know perl, you can write your own. Otherwise, you might try posting a request at the iComic forum (http://www.webcomicforums.com/phorum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=27). Some plugins can only be found in the forum (such as Real Life). You just have to do a search, since the posts for the plugins are pretty old now.

So try the forum, and you might find what you want. What specific comic are you looking for?

[howard]

i'm looking for ctrl alt delete and a modest destiny

[7on]

mmmm, iComic...

The reson I didn't use it was because it didn't have a Real Life plugin. Guess I gotta download it... AGAIN...

:)

[dukemeiser]

You can find Real Life here. (http://members.datafast.net.au/dft1432/RealLife.tgz)

I couldn't find crtl alt delete, or a modest destiny. You might try posting a request.

[cb911]

another handy one is MenuMeters. i had a look and don't think anyone has mentioned it yet...

anyway i just use it to see CPU usage, RAM usage and network throughput in the top menu bar. you can also see HD activity (reads and writes) with it as well. a very usefull app to have.

also, for any themers, there's now ShapeShifter. definitely check it out if you're into that sort of stuff. all the new themes will be in ShapeShifter format.

[cb911]

sorry, accidental double post.

this stupid NetGear wireless router has been nothing but trouble, and i've already sent one back...:rolleyes:

oh well, what can you do?

[Chappers]

I was going to say "Minimize in Place" and give you a link but I can't find it now. I love it. It exists in shareware called windowshade from unsanity.com.


Simon

[phrancpharmD]

Don't forget XShelf (http://homepage.mac.com/khsu/XShelf/XShelf.html) - a good utility I use mostly because folders in the dock are not spring loaded. I suspect it would be less useful for me if I had Panther with Expose, though.