The great thing about freeware applications is, they are free. That is good because it gives people the opportunity to try the software, and if they don’t like it, they can just delete it. Here are ten applications that I feel every Mac should have, and by the way, they are all free :-)

1. Flip4Mac

Flip4mac is one application that I cannot imagine my mac without now. I tried to avoid watching windows media movies because the windows media player was so slow. Well flip4mac allows you to play all of windows media movies in quicktime. It does it all automatically too, so when you open a windows media video, it automatically opens in quicktime.

2. Firefox

Firefox is considered the most advanced web browser for the web. They have tons of plug-ins to help enhance your productivity and time on the web. This is the perfect web browser for the Mac in my opinion. Only because there are sites out there that are not compatible with safari, but they are compatible with Firefox.

3. Adium

Adium is the perfect instant messaging application for the mac. Instead of downloading MSN and Yahoo, Adium has it all on one. So you can be talking to your friends on AIM while at the same time talking to other people on MSN or Yahoo.

4. Open Office

Open office is perfect for people who do not want to spend money on iWork or Microsoft Office. Open office is the ultimate word processing application, it is the closest you will get to Microsoft Office and iWork without spending a dime.

5. Quicksilver

Quicksilver is the application that every Mac user must have. I heard a lot of hype about it, so I tried it out. Let me tell you this, my Mac experience has never been the same. It is basically like spotlight, but way better. Since using quicksilver, i have cleaned my doc, and I open all my applications by quicksilver. So download it, I promise you, you will not be disappointed.

6. AutoRate

I just did a blog post on AutoRate. AutoRate is an amazing iTunes add-on. Basically it auto rates all of your iTunes library, and it does it extremely quick. In my experience it does it extremely accurate too. So if you have a huge library, use AutoRate.

7. VLC Media Player

VLC is a high quality video player. Unless you have quicktime pro you most likely cannot play play the high quality videos. You can do that with VLC, it is a real life saver. It can play all sorts of video too.

8. CyberDuck

Cyberduck is a free FTP client. I have used tons of FTP clients that were free, and they all sucked. I was just about to buy a good one, then I came across Cyberduck. Cyberduck is as good as anything on the market. So do not spend your money on a FTP client when you can get a great one for free.

9. Instant Shot

Instant Shot is the program that I use to capture my windows. I use to use the one that Apple supplies, but that was to much of a hassle. I like instant shot because it exports into JPG, you cannot do this with Grab.

10. iSquint

iSquint is the perfect video converter, it allows you to convert a lot of video types to mp4. mp4 is the form of video that is played on an iPod. So when you want to rip a DVD for your iPod, or download a youtube video for your iPod, you can convert the video using iSquint.

Other Thoughts

I use all of these freeware applications on a regular basis, and I believe that every single Mac user should use these. Are there any freeware applications that you use? Which one of these is your favorite? If you want more of Travis Reynolds do not forget to subscribe to the RSS feed.