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The Quest For A Free Mac Software Application Suite
Can you run your Mac entirely on free software. Strictly speaking of course you can't, since the Mac OS itself is not freeware. However, you don't have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on software in order to assemble a capable and efficient suite of applications on your Mac. The main software categories that cover what most people do with personal computers are: • Office Suite
Can you find free software in all these categories that you would want to use on a day-to-day basis? I decided to find out. The office suite is the personal computer killer app., and ironically, Microsoft virtually owns this category on the Mac platform. PC users have an excellent choice in free office suite software in the form of Sun Microsystems' StarOffice, which supports both Windows and Linux as well as Sun;s own Solaris UNIX variant, but alas Sun has terminated in-house development on a Mac port of StarOffice and left it up to open source developers to finish the job, which may or may not happen. Meanwhile, the nearest thing to a free office suite for the Mac is ThinkFree Office, a Java based solution that isn't really free, but is offered for a $49.95 annual subscription fee. ThinkFree Office is written from the ground up in Java and is therefore optimized for the Internet. ThinkFree Office for Macintosh can be accessed using Macintosh OS 9 as well as platforms including Windows, UNIX and Linux. The ThinkFree Office family of applications for the Macintosh includes: ThinkFree Office Thinkfree Office includes: • Write, a WYSIWYG Microsoft Word compatible word processor/HTML editor
With ThinkFree you don't have to buy, install and maintain a shrink-wrapped office suite. You simply download ThinkFree Office from the Internet (less than 10MB). ThinkFree Office is cross-platform, supporting Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and UNIX, and claims to provide identical features for every platform, using the same document file system, so you can open files from other operating systems without having to convert them first, as well as being file compatible with the Microsoft Office suite components Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. ThinkFree Office can read from and write to files in either format. ThinkFree Office applications and data are stored on the local hard drive so they run just as fast as Microsoft Office. And you don't have to worry about slow or broken connections. When you log out, ThinkFree Office doesn't leave any temporary cache on the machine; it automatically cleans up temporary files stored on local disks. System requirements:
Twelve months of ThinkFree Office Standard Edition costs $49.95. For more information, visit:
Eudora 5.1 This one is easy, and no compromises are necessary for Mac-users looking for free email software. Eudora 5.1, arguably the most powerful and versatile Mac email client is available in a free (ad supported) full featured version and a completely free reduced features "Light" version. System requirements:
To download Eudora 5.1, visit:
Green 1.0b12 Green is a freeware email client from France that happily offers a 68k version ('040 only), and that lets you work with several mail accounts at different locations over different connections at the same time. Green lets you create hierarchical mailboxes to easily organize your mails, and allows you to import mailboxes from Outlook Express (pre 5.0 versions), Netscape, and Eudora. Green allows you to define mail rules that will automatically reply to incoming mails, print a paper copy of a mail, or forward the mail to someone else, and even start an AppleScript, all at the same time! Green allows you to share one machine with other people without each person needing a private copy of the program. Each person can define a personal mail environment, and password protect it against unwanted access from others. Green comes with a comprehensive online and integrated help system, making it easy to get any information on how to use Green or eMail in general. Green is freeware for personal use. Corporate or educational users pay a small fee. System requirements:
For more information, visit:
(Also see Netscape 6.1, Netscape Communicator 4.7.8, and Microsoft Internet Explorer (Outlook Express) in the next section) Your freeware choices here are Mozilla, iCab, Netscape, Opera, Wannabe and Microsoft Internet Explorer. iCab iCab is my favorite browser currently available on the Mac platform. It's small, fast, stable, and competent in performance. iCab is sort of the Mercedes of browsers. It's subdued rather than flashy in appearance, but the solid engineering is evident under the skin. The downside of iCab (which is still a late beta despite its polish) is that Javascript support is not yet fully implemented, and it consequently does not support some Websites, making it necessary to keep another briwser around. The iCab final version will be commercial software that will sell for $30, but a free "light" version will continue to be offered. To download the latest public beta version of iCab, visit:
Mozilla 0.9.3 With the 0.9 2 build, Mozilla became a fully usable browser. Mozilla 0.9.3, has proved another incremental improvement on that level of refinement. This is now a very nice browser, if you have the RAM and hard drive space to support its heavy demands in those areas, and a beefy enough processor to run it adequately. The minimum processor specified is a 266 MHz 604e, but I wouldn't suggest bothering with anything slower than my 233 MHz G3. Speed wise, Mozilla 0.9 3 loads most pages very quickly, but lags way behind iCab and Opera in things like initial startup and opening new browser windows. Mozilla has wonderful drag & drop support, and its Javascript implementation works well, and takes care of one of the primary reasons I need a second browser in addition to my mainstay iCab. I also prefer the appearance of pages in iCab to Mozilla's renderings in most cases, and Mozilla still has no option to save web page data as a plain text file, which limits its utility for a lot of the browser work that I do. Nevertheless, you now could use Mozilla as your only browser, something you cannot yet do with the much more refined and polished iCab or the speedy Opera. I don't have very lively hope of ever being able to use just one browser, but I much prefer Mozilla to Internet Explorer. I also like Mozilla better than its duded up sibling, Netscape 6.1. Not only is it unencumbered with all the AOL bells and whistles, but the current Mozilla build is usually a version or two ahead of Netscape's. If you haven't tried recent version a Mozilla, I encourage you to check it out. For more information or to download, visit:
Netscape Communicator 4.7.8 and Netscape 6.1 Netscape 6.1, which is based on Mozilla 0,9,2, is a vas improvement on previous Netscape 6 builds, and features improvements in Search, Bookmark Management, History, User Interface, Download, Form Manager, Email and Instant Messenger. It is now definitely usable as an everyday browser. This software contains 128 bit Strong Encryption which enables you to make secure transactions, used in online banking and trading. System requirements:
For more information, visit:
Netscape's Communicator 4.7.8 is getting a bit long in the tooth, but is still a dependable all-round browser with integrated Java support and 128 bit encryption. Like Netscape 6.1, Communicator also includes the Messenger email client module and Composer -- a basic html editor. You can download both Communicator 4.7.2 and Netscape 6 from:
Opera 5 for Macintosh Opera Software's browser for the Macintosh Operating System also supports computers running MacOS X, giving the great majority of Mac users the opportunity to try out the browser. Opera is very fast, but still a bit buggy. Opera 5 for Macintosh will run on PowerPC Macs with MacOS 7.5 or later installed or OS X for the OS X version. Systems prior to 8.0 will require installation of Appearance Manager. Opera 5 for Macintosh Beta supports the following World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards: 128-bit encryption
Learn more about Opera at:
Wanna-Be 1.0b9 Web Browser One of my favorite pieces of freeware, and one that I use every day. WannaBe is a limited text-only web browser for MacOS under development by David T. Pierson. If you're on a slow dial up connection like I am, you need WannaBe. For more information, visit:
Internet Explorer 5 Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 is arguably a pretty good browser, although you need to add Apple's Mac Runtime For Java to achieve full Java functionality. IE 5 has a busy interface with lots of bells and whistles that apparently appeal to many users, and is freeware for the downloading along with its email client companion application, Outlook Express. You can download Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 at:
The most fundamental productivity software application for the vast majority of computer users is the word processor. As noted above, ThinkFree Office includes a Microsoft Word compatible word processor module, but your choices in free, full featured, Mac word processor basically limited to Nisus Writer 4.6.1. WordPerfect 3.5e for Mac is also still "unofficially available from several Websites Nisus Writer 4.1.6 and Nisus Compact Nisus Writer 4.1.6 is the full version of this powerful word processing program that was sold in the mid-'90s for $495.00. This is not crippleware or nagware. It's a full-fledged, completely functional, no excuses, high-end word processor. Of course, Nisus hopes you'll like the program so much that you'll upgrade to their latest 5.1.3 version of Nisus Writer. However, the old 4.1.6 version is no slouch. To list just a few of Nisus 4.1.6's capabilities:
Create multimedia presentations, course materials, and live reports, presenting your message with movies, sounds, and text-to-speech. You get desktop publishing tools, online help and documentation, "smart" style sheets, auto indexing, and more. Nisus Writer 4.1.6 uses WorldScript (Language Key & Language Kit required) to put English & other Romanic languages, Japanese & other two-byte languages, and right-to-left languages like Arabic & Hebrew in one document. Note that Nisus Writer 4.1.6 is not compatible with Mac OS 9.1 and above if you are connected to an AppleTalk or TCP/IP network, or if AppleTalk is turned on by default on your Mac (AppleTalk is on by default on every Macintosh). If you are not connected to a network and AppleTalk is on, the workaround is to make AppleTalk inactive. The fewer-featured but very small Nisus Compact is also free. A streamlined (and very fast) version of Nisus Writer, Compact's download is only 1.1 MB with dictionary and thesaurus, and the application is only 680K. Nisus (all versions) saves files as text, so nearly any word processor can read them. All versions of Nisus, even those in other languages & with varying capabilities, are compatible with Compact. A simpler version of our powerful search & replace finds text patterns, even if you don't know the precise word you're seeking. A graphic layer allows seamless integration of graphics. Its File Clerk Catalog lets you categorize files and instantly find them by point-and-click. Though Compact is not WorldScript-savvy, Nisus Writer is. ΚΚΚΚΚ To download your free, registered copy of Nisus Writer 4.1.6 and/or Nisus Compact, visit:
Nisus Writer has no outliner, but a free one called MORE 3.1 is now available for download.
BBEdit Lite 6.1 Lite BBEdit Lite is a free text editor for the Macintosh based on the award-winning BBEdit. Unlike a word processor, which is designed for preparing printed pages, a text editor focuses on providing means of producing and changing content. Thus, BBEdit Lite doesn't offer fancy formatting capabilities, headers and footers, graphics tools, a thesaurus, and other staples of modern feature-laden "office" software. Instead, it focuses on helping you manipulate text in ways that word processors generally can't. Some of the powerful features you can use in BBEdit Lite include regular expression-based ("grep") search and replace, multi-file search, and sophisticated text transformations. Whether you need to find (or change!) all the occurrences of some text in a set of files, modify or reformat text files of any size or kind, or just write without any distractions, BBEdit Lite is the right tool for the job. Key Features:
System Requirements
For more information, visit:
Writer 2.0 Enhanced Text Editor The Kennett Network's Writer is designed to be a replacement for SimpleText, boasting a more user-friendly interface, and support for all the new Mac OS 8.5+ and later things like proportional scroll boxes and themes. Features:
New in this version:
System requirements:
You can find out more about Writer here:
StevePerfect Minimalist Word Processor The purpose of StevePerfect is to have a simple typing interface that is more useful then Apple's Simpletext. It also supports the latest Macintosh advances that Apple has yet to include with Simpletext such as themes, internet access, true worldscript support, a music player capable of playing mp3 or quicktime audio, movie viewer for quicktime files, MPEGs and VCDs, live internet media content and a really easy user interface. StevePerfect is intended for novice users or other users who don't mind a simple interface to type in the language they prefer. StevePerfect supports the basic typing features: Font, Style, Color, Size, Search, Save, Open, and Find. It also includes more advanced features such as streaming Quicktime Media support and web and email links (the latter only supported in MacOS 9). StevePerfect is completely balloon help compatible and also features a help system. It also uses Apple’s new Open/Save windows otherwise known as navigation services. Themes Support is included and is geared towards the user installing Kaleidoscope and the Aqua II Scheme or the Liquid Theme for MacOS 8.5 and above. Also, StevePerfect runs beautifully under Worldscript extensions. This means that StevePerfect works with Apple's language software. Many users have reported success n Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and other languages. If it does not work in your preferred language please let me know. StevePerfect can also correctly print other languages besides English. Lastly, if you have Quicktime 4.1 installed you can listen to mp3 files or quicktime audio files while you work. Get StevePerfect at;
See ThinkFree Office Calc in the Office Suite section Corel's CorelDRAW 8 LE Corel's CorelDRAW 8 LE bundle includes CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 This is not time-limited software, but "light" versions of the two applications that still feature plenty of tools for illustration, page layout, photo editing and painting, with Live Effects, and professional color management features. This is a great opportunity to get two really powerful and capable graphics applications for the Mac for free, and unless you are a graphics professional, you're not likely to miss anything that's been left out of this package. Don't let the "light" designation fool you. This is an approximately 53 to 74 megabyte download -- not for the faint of heart if you're on a dialup modem connection. Make sure you have a download application that supports resumable downloads if you decide to take the plunge. CorelDRAW 8 Limited Edition for Macintosh, available as a free download or in value-priced CD-ROM format is a comprehensive solution for Mac users who want immediate functionality and don't require all the features of the full CorelDRAW package for professionals. The files for download are available in one of two encoded formats-BinHex (.hqx) or MacBinary (.bin). The MacBinary (.bin) file is 53.6 MB in size, while the BinHex (.hqx) file is 74.0 MB. For more information, visit:
Cobweb HTML Text Editor Cobweb is a non-WYSIWYG HTML text editor. It is designed to work as a companion to Z-Write, Stone Table Software's revolutionary non-linear word processor, but may be used by anyone needing a simple HTML editor. Cobweb's key features include:
System requirements:
http://www.stonetablesoftware.com/cobweb.html CreaText 1.0 HTML Text Editor CreaText is a HTML text editor with some basic and advanced features. CreaText has got many functions which make creating websites easier, e.g. Tag Coloring, easy access to the Mac browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, iCab, Help Viewer, Opera, OmniWeb), the change of special characters into HTML characters, an Insert menu with rapid access to all usual HTML commands, a HTML color chooser, drag & drop, and the possibility to setup HTML parameters when creating a new document. The main window allows the easy access to the basic CreaText functions. You can color Tags, change special characters and view your page in a web browser. The color chooser allows you to choose a color using the RGB- or the HSV-model or even the Apple Color Picker. And when you select a HTML color in your document, the color chooser will display the RGB- and HSV-values when you open it. System requirements:
Download at:
FTP Client SoftwareVicomsoft's FTP Client 3.0.1 allows drag & drop file transfer between your Mac and FTP servers. The basic version is freeware Vicomsoft's FTP Client 3.0.1, is fast, supports file and directory synchronization, persistent downloads, and has an easy-to-use Finder-Like Interface For more information or to download, visit: http://www.vicomsoft.com/ftp_client/ftp.client.html Struck out on this one. Any suggestions? See ThinkFree Office in the Office Suite section Hey, life isn't all work! There are several good free MP3 players available. iTunes First mention of course goes to Apple's wonderful Apple iTunes iTunes features a clean powerful interface for importing music CDs to MP3 files, creating playlists, burning music CDs, moving music to your portable MP3 player and listening to hundreds of radio stations on the Internet. iTunes does all this and more. iTunes lets you create your own personal digital music library. You can manage and play your collection of MP3s with drag-and-drop simplicity. With a supported CD-RW drive, you can create your own custom audio CDs for use in your car, portable CD player, or home stereo system. For more information, visit:
SoundApp A PowerPC native freeware sound player and converter for the Macintosh by Norman Franke. For more information or to download SoundApp, visit:
Cabrio MP3 Player Cabrio was engineered to take up virtually no screen space or system resources. Melonsoft hopes that Cabrio will be the freeware MP3 player of choice on the Macintosh. Cabrio combines ease-of-use, stylish design, power and performance into one small application. Some have said that Cabrio has replaced SoundJam, MACAST and even Audion as their player of choice. If while listening to music, you grow tired of the default interface, create your own with the revolutionary Skinventor or download one from the Cabrio Skincity. System requirements:
Download at:
By selecting from the free software outlined above, you should be able to equip your Mac for pretty much any productivity task. I use Nisus Writer by preference when I want word processing horsepower. Actually, I do 95% plus of my word crunching and html markup work in AppleScript-tweaked Tex-Edit Plus these days, but TE+ is $15 shareware. I basically don't use spreadsheet or database software, so perhaps I don't know what I'm missing. I don't use presentation software either, and for the little bit of graphics work I do, my favorite tool is MicroFrontier's $49.95 Color It! 4 I run Eudora and Nisus Email ($29.95) for email and use all of the browsers mentioned above, except Internet Explorer. You can find more freeware for the mac on these Websites:
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Cool Mac Gear• iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Keyboard Skins • Garageband
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