Freeware FTW (For The Win)

According to Wikipedia, freeware software is defined as:

…computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee.

This idea came to my head while I was sitting at my MacBook and peeking at the icons stealing the precious space in my dock. There were the usual suspects including Microsoft Office, iMovie, iPhoto, etc, but sitting right next to them were icons for Adium, Transmission and Skype. These applications are available free of charge and do not come with a trial period, and are also uncrippled whether you choose to pitch in a few bucks or not.

Why are there so many great applications available on OSX for free? When friends asked me how to convert movies for their iPods, I quickly suggested Handbrake for DVDs and iSquint for regular videos files. Once they said they used Windows computers, I had to stop and think for a minute. Whenever I’ve tried to run a special operation in Windows, it seemed like it required an application that cost money. On the other hand, I can often find a similar applications on OSX for free.

What is it about OSX that makes people work hard on applications, then give them away for free? In many cases, freeware is more capable and more intuitive than the regular applications. Especially with the open-source movement, there is something cool in drawing skill and creativity from the entire community. I may not have a definitive answer to why, but I do hope that the free software community never dies.


In-case you’re wondering, here’s some of the free applications I use regularly (from top left to right):

Comments

  1. #1

    Freeware FTW (For The Win) → www.windows-vista.luiscorreia.com/freeware-ftw-for-the-win

    [...] TheSpot-er wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn many cases, freeware is more capable and more intuitive than the regular applications. Especially with the open-source movement, there is something cool in drawing skill and creativity from the entire community. … [...]

  2. #2

    Chris → fluidmarkup.com

    Obviously you haven’t looked hard enough. There’s hundreds of thousands of freeware programs for Windows, way more common than OS X. Even on your list - ffmpeg and Handbrake both have Windows versions.

  3. #3

    Craig → www.craigmacproductions.com

    Haha I’d never heard of that Chicken of the VNC one before.

    You know, my PC friends still argue that the reason they use PCs is because of the applications they can download and that Macs don’t offer that.

    I’m always lost for words when they tell me that..

    Some of the free software I use:

    Adium
    Burn - burns video files to DVD
    MacTheRipper - rips dvds to video_ts folders
    MPlayer OS X - plays certain files that quicktime wont
    VLC - plays any movie file
    Noise - productivity tool
    Paparazzi - web screenshot tool
    Taco HTML Edit - HTML etc. Editor
    BitRocket - Best bittorrent tool for the Mac ever!

  4. #4

    Jordan Green → www.jordangreendesign.com

    yeah not a bad article but I think lacks a bit in content to be honest, but yea i agree.

  5. #5

    Tony

    I think it probably has lot to do with the open source ethos of Linux and the fact that it’s a lot easier to port applications written for Linux to Mac, rather than to Windows.

    Also a large number of enthusiastic developers would much rather use a Mac than Windows, and are therefore, more likely to develop applications for Macs!

  6. #6

    Elliott Cost → www.elliottcost.com

    Good article! I think that devs create apps and give them away for free, because of the marketing implications. The easiest way to get people to use your product is to make it free.

    I’ve also seen a lot of app devs giveaway their apps for free, gain a good market share, and then make a new app release that costs some money. Overall I think it’s mostly about marketing & distribution.

  7. #7

    Chris Gilbert

    I’ve found that the majority of freeware apps for Windows aren’t worth the time it takes to download them, whereas freeware for OS X makes up a large portion of the greatest apps I have ever seen. The only real application limitation that I see for OS X is games. I just wish some of the great Mac shareware apps were priced more reasonably.

  8. #8

    Henning Stedtnitz → www.firstofall.net

    So true. Whenever people ask me how to do this and that on their PCs, I wish they were using Macs, because for basically everything you could do on a computer, there’s a free piece of software for the Mac, and some crappy shareware for PC. It’s just so sad.
    Loads of people say there are more applications for PC than for Mac, but the truth is OS X and Linux have far more software available. It’s just that there’s about 5 commercial applications that only run in Windows, which can be misleading.

  9. #9

    Wes Goodhoofd → www.wesg.ca

    Thank you everyone for your comments, both positive and negative. Though I have written for my personal blog for sometime, this is the first article I’ve written for a larger audience, and I will use all of the comments for future pieces.

  10. #10

    Sam Whitehall

    The really amazing Mac software comes in the independently developed shareware. Some truly outstanding software has come out of this… notably; Panic Coda, OmniGraffle, iStopMotion, RapidWeaver, and just recently Times. I haven’t used it, but reviews suggest that Bento follows the same pattern. Even software from the big players, such as Apple’s iWork suite which follows the same type of software pattern.

    This software is amazing, not only from their beautiful aesthetics, but also their highly usable interfaces and just a sustained excitement in software that quite frankly, is usually seen as mundane and uninteresting.

    Apple’s “solid base polished to perfection” ethos certainly contributes to these products’ success (it’s very hard to develop a product of this kind in an environment that isn’t suited to this kind of polish because it wasn’t developed like this in the first place). Their Human Interface Guidelines provide a solid baseline for consistency and usability (in an accessible format that heck, even I can read).

    Linux may have a wide range of open source software with somewhat helpful communities, and Windows has the biggish players and the games; but OS X has what I want – truly great software from the ground-up. And heck, I’ll even pay for it!

  11. #11

    Steve Embleton → steveembleton.com

    Windows freeware is usually total rubbish, whereas Mac freeware make up allot of the application I use on a daily basis, and they do their job well.

  12. #12

    Sumesh from Blog Creativity → www.blogcreativity.com

    >”Whenever I’ve tried to run a special operation in Windows, it seemed like it required an application that cost money.”

    I’m no troll or anti-Mac guy (in fact, I like Mac very much), but it is obvious that you haven’t looked around for freeware on Windows. I usually hear “Mac doesn’t have free apps” cliche (which I disagree), but this must be the first time I’m hearing someone say there aren’t enough good freeware apps on Windows.

    Here is a list of windows counterparts for your Mac apps (Mac apps on the left, Windows apps on the right):
    Butler - Launchy
    Transmission - uTorrent
    iSquint - Jodix free converter
    Handbrake - Handbrake
    Adium - Pidgin or Digsby
    ffmpegX - MediaCoder

    There are also other apps I could think of, but this should get you started.

    The argument against these freeware may be that they’re not high quality. They’re not high-quality in terms of UI, but they ARE good in terms of functionality. On windows, that is all that matters.

  13. #13

    Callum Jones

    I would suggest checking out RealVNC’s new Mac OS X client: http://www.realvnc.com/products/enterprise/macosx.html

    I find it a lot much better than Chicken, because Chicken cannot handle high encrypted sessions like those given out by RealVNC or Ultr@VNC servers.

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