Mac OpenSource & Freeware

MacHeist nanoBundle

MacHeist. It's like stealing Mac software only it's free.

:: web site :: download ::

:: website :: 1.5.5 download ::

:: web site :: download ::

Opera is a browser that deserves your consideration for full-time, every day use. There are a host of ways to customize it to your preferences and gives you easy access to configure it. A couple of interesting features:

• One unique feature I like: Opera can be used as a BitTorrent client.
• Kiosk Mode is for browsers at unattended computers in public places.
• Thumbnail preview when you hover your mouse over a tab.
• The Speed Dial feature gives you a tab where you bookmark your favorite pages and they are displayed as small screen shot icons. Very similar to the Sunrise Browser method of bookmarking.
• You can attach Notes to web pages.
• Opera can be used as your Mail and Chat client.
• Best of all you can add Widgets to add games and enhancements to your browser.
  

:: web site :: 1.1.8 download ::

:: web site :: 1.6.2 download ::

Here are some of the unique features of Sunrise ...

Sunrise Bookmarks are in the form of icons in panel on either the right or bottom of the browser window. Essentially the icons are screenshots of the web page that you have bookmarked. You can choose icon size and they can be dragged to the order you choose. You can also give each bookmark a label color. It is not obvious how to group them in folders or sets if you had hundreds of pages marked. There is no bookmark bar.

The panel the size can also be adjusted, creating multiple columns of icons as it is made larger. On my 20" iMac, when I adjust the browsing window to 1280 size and then max out the panel with the smallest icon view: about 90 icons show. The window does have a slider and in theory you can have unlimited bookmarks.

When you choose to View Source to see a page's code, Sunrise gives you the option of choosing to view it in your favorite editor. I chose to have it open up Nvu, an open source editor.

I'm going to try to use Sunrise for a whole day to see if it would pass as an every day browser. The bookmark system is unique but likely cumbersome. Sunrise is wicked fast. If speed is your game, this is it. And it is possibly the smallest browser out there for the Mac.

According to Wikipedia: "Shiira: シイラ, Japanese for the common dolphin-fish." A number of reviewers are critiquing Shirra and giving it a positive review. From their web site:

Shiira is a web browser based on Web Kit and written in Cocoa. The goal of the Shiira Project is to create a browser that is better and more useful than Safari. All source code used in this software is publicly available.

I have limited experience with it so far but have found Shiira is extremely fast and stable. One of the very interesting features of Shiira is it's private browsing feature, which makes it good for public computers. You are not leaving any traces of your browsing session: it clears both cache and cookies. This can make it a good browser for public computers. Safari has private browsing but I have to turn it on every time reopen it. Shiira stays on from one session to the next.

Shiira has tabbed browsing options like Firefox or Safari, but also has a page dock which can be located at the bottom, left or right of your window. The dock takes a chunk of your screen real estate but it doesn't seem obtrusive on my 20" iMac. I did find it taking up too much space on my MacBook screen.

Shiira can be set up to locate and use your bookmarks from Firefox and Safari without importing them. I could not easily figure out how to import them to the bookmark menu or bar. I kept trying to drag and drop bookmarks and folders and they seemed to disappear.

Shiira is unique with Tab Exposé. If you have multiple tabs open you can use Tab Exposé to show all at once and easily switch between tabs.

Shiira is a great quick browser. Try it out and you may adopt it for day to day use.

Brad Boydston was the first to point my attention to OpenSource software with his frequent references to OpenOffice. It was a difficult reality to understand at first: software that was as functional as Microsoft Office, also compatible with it, less bloated and best of all it was free.

I've been using a variety of OpenSource software packages for over a year and am constantly recommending them to friends. Nearly everyone I talk to can't wrap their head around the fact that it is free. But it is free. And there's a lot of it. And "Yes." they are stable, user friendly and they are not buggy.

This blog is dedicated to promoting OpenSource and other FREE Mac software.

Disclaimer: I am not a software developer, nor do I have any affiliation with any software or computer company, user group, etc. I just wanted to make my own page to refer friends to regarding Mac OpenSource and Freeware. My sincere hope is that this site will be useful to somebody.