Great free software I use on my MAC

Mac OS X is great out of the box. It has almost everything you will need to do some casual surfing. But I love to install reliable free software if I can use it to enhance my productivity or just for fun of it. Since I got converted to Mac, I have tried various free utilities and software. Here are a few of them which have become a part of my daily work on my Mac.

1. Firefox - It had to be the first on my list. I cant even remember how and why I was using Internet Explorer before I started using Firefox. Even though Safari is great but Firefox scores over Safari due to its vast collection of extensions and add-ons.

2. NeoOffice - Then comes this great free alternative of MS Office on Mac. It saves me hundreds of dollars. I can't say that it is a 100% replacement of MS Office for Mac but it is good enough for me. I am not using all those complex tasks in NeoOffice anyway.

3. Quicksilver - Quicksilver is one of the most innovative software I have ever used. I would have paid for it if it was not free. You can do tons of things with Quicksilver. It can be used from a program launcher to a iTunes controller. Literally, hundreds of uses.

4. Oynx - This is a great utility for doing system maintenance. Just schedule the regular maintenance activities once and let it do the rest. I don't know much about system things so I let it take care of it.

5. VLC - Quicktime is the default media player. But it cannot play most of the format generally used therefore VLC is so popular. I haven't come across any video file which VLC has not been able to play. Too good.

6. Skype - I guess this is a common software now which is widely used for internet telephony. Free and easy to use. Great if you have to chat with someone outside your country. Saves you a ton of money.

7. Menumeters - This is a great little utility which I use to keep track of system resources. It rests on the top of my menubar and gives an overview of what is happening with the memory usage or CPU usage.

8. Adium - This is a great instant messaging software. It can be used as a single point of contact for all your IM needs like Yahoo messenger, MSN Messenger, AIM, Google talk, ICQ etc. You name it and it is supported.

9. NetNewsWire - This is one of the best RSS reader on Mac. It keeps me constantly updated on my favorite topics, blogs and news. A must have with a very neat interface.

10. Growl - I guess this is one of the most popular notification system on the mac. Its seamless integration with OS X makes it very useful.

11. Transmission - This is a very low weight bit torrent client and I prefer it over Azerus which is great but has a heavy footprint.

12. ClamXav - This is a free anti virus for Mac. I know there has been a great amount of debate and discussion since eternity about whether there should be an antivirus program required on Mac or not. But I personally think it is better safe to be sorry. With Macs getting popular day by day, you never know, right?

There are a few others like Handbrake, CyberDuck, Burn, Frostwire and Google Notifier which I used but these could not make it to my list of top 12. But doesn't mean that they are not good enough. Its just that I don't use them much.