I believe software should be free. I’m not adverse to paying for good software but if I see some software I like the look of, I always try and find a free version first.

All the links here are to freeware and I hope you enjoy them. Before you start, I highly recommend checking out Mac Update (click here) You can filter Mac Update to only show you free software and they update their pages almost daily with loads of software.

If you use free software, you should check out Mac Update because they put all the popular software updates on – even paid-for software too!

Personally, I use this page to download all my favourite software in case I ever need to format my hard disk. Most of the software is well known but I find it really helpful to have all the links in one place

Open Source Mac has lots of programs listed here and then some! It’s really good and is where I found a lot of the software I use today. Click here to visit Open Source Mac

Pure Mac is a great resource for free software and can be found here

You can find Mac OS X menu bar applications here – though some aren’t free

Apple’s download site can be found here

Mac Tracker

Gives you information on every Mac ever released – definitely worth checking out if only for the Mac start-up sounds lol!

Firefox

The must-have browser that is fast and more compatible with websites than any other Mac browser.

Yahoo! Messenger

Essential to keep in touch with my Yahoo! friends

Microsoft Messenger

I use Yahoo! for my hotmail IM contacts but I use this to quickly check into my email – saves all those pesky passwords!

Flip4Mac Windows Media for Quicktime

I’m not a fan of Microsoft except for Windows 98 so I like to use quicktime. It’s funny because I hated quicktime when I was using windows and I loved windows media player. It’s strange how we change our mind about things

Journler

Journler is a freeware diary which can integrate in iLife. It’s really cool and no busy person should be without it!

Adium

Adium is a freeware IM client that lets you use all the main IM services like Yahoo! and AOL and is very good. I use this from time to time when Yahoo! plays up!

Realplayer

Gone are the horror days of adverts here adverts there and we come to a very streamlined player. If you use anything BBC, you need real player and it’s actually very good!

Perian

If you thought quicktime couldn’t get any better your wrong and if you thought it could, your right! Perian adds oodles of extra file formats for quicktime to open and just makes it betterer!

Neo Office

If you don’t want to shell out hundreds for Microsoft Office, why not use the next best thing and don’t pay a penny for it!

Free Unsanity Software

Unsanity makes super-cool software like shapeshifter which lets you add themes to your Mac OS experience. Very cool but what is even cooler is it’s free software collection – some very useful utilities to make your Mac OS experience a great one!

That’s my list of essential Mac software. There are some other useful links below

Mac OS X Apps

Version Tracker

Interface Lift

Pawn Software