Free Mac Apps!

There are some great websites to locate the best free applications for Mac OS X.

Some are easier to navigate, while others are more comprehensive. A site with nice categories and well-vetted applications is called Free Mac Apps. Here you can find a choice crop of web browsers, PDF editing and viewing tools, graphics apps, video converters and players, alternatives to the default Mail application and even handy utilities for unarchiving RAR files, burning DVDs and audio editing.

Recommended top apps from that site include VLC, MPlayer, Burn and Open Office. Burn is especially handy and lean if you need to share files or even make video DVDs for your friends who use Windows or Linux operating systems.

App Donkey is an example of a more comprehensive freeware site. The site hosts descriptions and links to more than 1200 applications in many categories including audio, business and office, development tools, productivity and utilities. This is a great place to browse and discover something you didn’t even know you needed until you found it! It’s definitely happened to me many times.

One of the goals of this blog is to help you learn to use your Mac even better with the apps and features built-in without any additional software purchases. You might find that things you think need an extra app are already easy to do in the native operating system once you know how to use OS X better. There are some good tips for novices (and even a few for experienced Mac users) in Macs All-in-One For Dummies on Amazon for just $23.31.

We’ll get back to other free Mac websites in a future post, so until then, happy computing!