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Acqlite

Go peer-to-peer with a client that uses the power of LimeWire, Acquisition and Cabos on the Gnutella network — all with open source goodness.

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Adium

A free instant messaging app that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more. Under active development and highly recommended. Another popular choice is Mercury Messenger, which runs on Java. Or if you prefer IRC, there is Colloquy. Or you can get an open source clone of MSN called aMSN. And now Proteus is free — no registration required.

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Also try: Mercury Messenger   Colloquy   aMSN   Proteus

AllBookmarks

Have access to the bookmarks in all your web browsers from the menu bar.

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Chax

Additional functionality for iChat includes tabbed chatting, which allows you to keep all your chats in one window.

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Chicken of the VNC

Display and interact with a remote computer screen as if it were right next to you.

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Chrome

Google’s increasingly popular web browser promises lightning speed.

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CloudApp

Free service allows you to share files. Sign up for CloudApp’s service, download the software, and get an icon in your menu bar. You can then can drag files there to be uploaded to a server, where others can download them. A link is automatically placed in your Mac’s clipboard, so you can share it by pasting it into email, for example.

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Cocoalicious

del.icio.us is a great way to store and share your bookmarks on the web. And Cocoalicious is a great way to access and post them. Or if you would like to view your posts and tags from the menu bar, try Menulicious.

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Also try: Menulicious

Colloquy

An IRC chat client with a slick Mac OS X interface. Supports AppleScript, plugins, customization, buddy lists and many other features.

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Cooliris

Plug-in for Safari and Firefox lets you browse photos and videos from the web or your desktop. Scroll an infinite “3D Wall” of your content on Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Kodak Gallery, or any supported site. Or channel surf the latest news, TV episodes, movies, and music videos all from within Cooliris.

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Cruz

Split-pane web browser has Twitter built in. View your Twitter timeline and mentions while checking out websites. You can open links from the timeline in new tabs or browse multiple pages in split views.

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Cyberduck

The thriftmac FTP client of choice has a nice Mac-like interface and can take on most jobs without any trouble. For those with heavy-duty demands, check out FileZilla below. Fugu is also quite good, but it’s limited to SFTP.

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Also try: Fugu

Dropbox

Sync and share your files online. Can also be used for automatic backups with a history going back 30 days. The free version allows two gigabytes of data.

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Droplr

Free service allows you to share pictures, documents and other files — by dragging them to a menubar icon. Built-in functionality allows for screenshots and notes to be shared as well. Each items gets a URL you can send to a friend.

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Echofon

Twitter client features a clean interface, the ability to sync with your iPhone, drag-and-drop attachments, a browser drawer and multiple accounts. The free version has ads.

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FileZilla

Open source FTP program good for those who prefer access to local files in the same window as remote files.

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Firefox

The non-profit open source effort from Mozilla, often updated, with a huge collection of add-ons.

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FlashFrozen

Menu bar icon shows how much of your CPU is being used by Flash. It turns red at 30 per cent. You then have the option of closing the offending tab in your browser or clicking on the icon and choosing to kill Flash on web pages that are open in your browser.

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Fluid

Create site-specific mini-web browsers for your web apps, so that they launch like desktop programs in your dock. Great for checking Gmail, for example.

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Also try: Bazinga

Freedom

Disables networking for up to eight hours at a time to free you from the distractions of the internet. At the end of your selected offline period, Freedom re-enables your network. A reboot is the only way around the time limit, making it less likely you will cheat.

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Galerie

It’s amazing that a wonderful program like Galerie for creating web albums is free. It’s easy to use and has many great features. There is lots of support at the developer’s website, and a willingness to throw in even more improvements. And then there’s JAlbum, which unabashedly aspires to be the greatest.

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Also try: JAlbumJetPhoto

Gallery

An open source system for organizing your photos into an album on your website.

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Ghostery

Find out who is tracking you on the web — ad networks, data providers, publishers and other companies. Learn more about them and decide who you want to block.

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Glims for Safari

Add-on creates scads of new features for Safari. Among them: thumbnails for search results, full-screen browsing, keyword search in the address bar and Undo for closed tabs. Plus much more.

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Herald

Use a floating window to watch for incoming email messages in Mail even if it isn’t running. You can delete messages, mark them as junk or reply to them. Pick which accounts you want to monitor, and choose a theme for the window’s appearance.

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Inquisitor

Websites and suggestions pop up in Safari as you type your search inquiry. A number of search engines and autocompletion are supported.

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Jalbum

Create and share customized photo albums. Publish to yourname.jalbum.net or your own site. Customize with skins.

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JetPhoto

Feature-rich and easy-to-use digital photo software to creating Flash and web galleries with just a few clicks.

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LastPass

If you’re looking for a way to save all the logins and passwords you use at various websites, you can’t do much better than 1Password. However, the free version of LastPass — acting as a browser extension — covers many of the basic functions. It comes highly recommended by PCMag, and is worth a look if you need something free.

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Mailsmith

Email program, formerly owned by Bare Bones Software, now released as freeware by Stickshift Software. Can be customized for powerful editing, filtering and searching. Integrates with SpamSieve and Address Book.

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Mixtab

Slick RSS news reader offers a mix of tabs, each with its own collection of feeds covering various subjects. Choose from popular pre-made tabs — such as tech news or world news — or create your own. This app’s innovative interactive is quite attractive, but might seem overdone for hard-core news junkies. At the App Store.

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Nambu

Organize your Twitter accounts with saved searches, topic threading, filters and groups. Check out trends in real time.

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NetNewsWire

NetNewsWire grabs RSS feeds from a number of websites. Click on a headline to get a summary of the article. Double click to go to the website. But there are other good options. Vienna has made great strides, and we also have RSSOwl and Shrook.

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Also try: RSSOwl   Vienna   Shrook

NewsWatcher-X

NewsWatcher-X is little more than a carbonized version of the classic NewsWatcher that served people interested in news groups so well years ago. Go multi-thread with MT-Newswatcher, try out the newish OSXnews, or just stick with good ol’ Google Groups.

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Also try: MT-Newswatcher   Google Groups   OSXnews

Nvu

Nvu is a promising new WYSIWYG web editor with the added benefit of content management system. It seems to be primarily for Linux, so you might find the interface a bit jarring. Mozilla and Amaya seem cumbersome, but may be to your liking.

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Also try: KompoZer   Amaya

OneButton FTP

OneButton FTP was kicked off the thriftmac island recently during Mac Freeware Survivor. But it has been updated for Leopard, and still gets many downloads, so it’s back in the collection.

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OneWay

Add a command to contextual menus so you can upload files from the Finder via FTP. Supports shortcuts, and more features may be on the way.

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Opera

Making web browsers in Scandinavia since 1994, with the goal of an Internet free and available to everyone in the world.

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Pando

Send and receive files and folders up to 1GB with your existing email account. It bypasses email attachment limits and accelerates downloads of huge files and folders.

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Paparazzi

Type in the URL of a webpage and get a screenshot of it at the size of your choice.

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Also try: NetFixer

Poisoned

Open-source P2P file sharing program connects to the Gnutella, FastTrack and Ares networks.

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Postbox Express

Lightweight version of the Postbox email client features ultra-fast search, tabbed email browsing, easy message tagging, and integration with Mac OS X. They say it’s simpler and more intuitive than Thunderbird.

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Quiet Read

Menu bar item provides a place drop and drop web links you’d like to check out later. Click on it and a list of links is revealed — double-click on the one you want.

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RSS Menu

Organize your RSS or Atom feeds with a systemwide menu that automatically updates and provides notifications when new articles are available — by voice, if you prefer.

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Sea Monkey

Mozilla is dead. Long live Sea Monkey. It’s a web browser, an e-mail and newsgroup client, an IRC chat client and a web page creator all rolled into one.

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Seesmic Desktop

Gather your social networks in one window side by side. Included are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, Foursquare, and Ping.fm — but plugins for others are available. Based on Silverlight, which might be a bit choppy on your Mac.

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SiteCapture

Load a set of web pages and create images in the format you want. Handy for effortlessly filling your website portfolio page with the latest screenshots.

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SiteSucker

Download an entire website so you can view it from your hard drive.

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Skype

What’s not to like about making free phone calls with your computer? Well, it’s not quite as handy as an actual telephone. But at this price, it sure is tempting.

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Sparrow Lite

Free version now has all the same features as the paid version. The catch is that it’s ad-supported. But that may be a small price to pay for one of the best email clients around.

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TenFourFox

Firefox has moved on and abandoned support for Macs with PowerPC processors or running Tiger. But that doesn’t mean you have to get left behind. TenFourFox tweaks Firefox 4 so you can surf with almost exactly the same code on your PowerPC Mac.

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Thunderbird

From the makers a Firefox, an open source email client that features tabbed browsing, filtering and timeline tools, plenty of customization, and robust security measures.

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Tor

Remain anonymous on the Internet while web browsing, messaging or remote logins. Works with many existing clients to bounce your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world.

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Transmission

Enter the amazing world of torrents with this lightweight BitTorrent client. A simple, intuitive interface gives access to an efficient, cross-platform back-end. Also built on the BitTorrent concept is Tomato Torrent.

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Also try: Tomato Torrent

Trillian

Messenger app lets you chat with friends via Facebook, Windows Live, GTalk, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and more. The Mac version syncs contacts and connections with Trillian for iPhone.

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TweetDeck

Spread tweets into columns spanning the width of your computer screen with sections for friends, mentions, direct messages, trending topics and recommendations. In addition to Twitter, you can sign up for Facebook, Buzz, LinkedIn, Foursquare and MySpace.

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Tweetie

Keep track of Twitter from your desktop. Menubar icon turns blue to let you know when new tweets arrive. Interface allows you to switch between accounts and send tweets of your own. Update: Version 2 of this app is simply called Twitter and is available only at the Mac App Store.

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Twitterific

Post and read tweets in this app which features and a clean interface, support for multiple accounts and auto-refreshing. The free version has advertising.

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uTorrent

World’s most popular BitTorrent client features bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet). Supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification and peer exchange.

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Viber

Send free messages and make free calls to other Viber users, on any device and network, in any country. Viber syncs contacts, messages and call history with your mobile device. Start the conversation on the Viber mobile app and continue from your Mac.

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Vienna

Subscribe to Atom/RSS news feeds and podcasts. Interface is much like that of NetNewsWire — but without the ads. On the other hand, there is also no syncing.

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Vuze

Bittorrent app lets you find, download and play video files, with support for connecting to devices such as iPhone, iPod, Apple TV PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 and Tivo. Fast and convenient.

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Wyzo

Media browser promises 10-times faster downloads, BitTorrent integration and compatibility with Firefox add-ons. Plus, it features a media start page with search engines for YouTube, hulu, joost and more.

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Xyle scope

Browse the web in the left pane, check out the underlying HTML and CSS on the right. Click on various sections of the web page to see the code specific to that area. A great tool for web designers from the makers of Things.

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Yoono

Connect to your social networks and instant messaging services all in one place. Get updates and share with friends using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, AIM, Google Talk and more. Update your status across all your social networks at the same time. All your IM services in one application.

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