Finally I had the opportunity to use a Mac and, speaking with an expert friend, at least because I have been using Mac computers for years, I was able to select the best Mac programs, to download for free because it is open source software. In this list we see the best 30, trying to put at least one for each category of operations to be done on the computer. The programs listed are all free and free, recommended by the main sites and magazines dedicated to Apple's computer, they also correspond to the most popular and used by users all over the world and, I don't think I can say stupid things, they are absolutely indispensable apps .
1) Dropbox
I have dedicated an article to DropBox in the past describing it as a 2 GB virtual hard disk for online data backup and sharing. It allows you to keep files synchronized between multiple computers and always available on the internet. Thanks to the client to be installed, you can easily drag the files to be shared into the DropBox folder. Since DropBox is also an application for IPhone and a Windows program, it becomes a program to always have access to files both from other computers and from a mobile phone.
2) Spectacle
This free program allows you to move and move Mac windows using the keyboard and combinations of keys and keyboard shortcuts.
3) Franz
Franz is a very powerful program that allows you to combine the most used chats and messengers in a single window: Whatsapp, Facebook, Telegram, Skype and much more.
4) The Unarchiver
With this small application, supplied without a graphical interface, it is possible to unpack practically any archive type file that exists. Once installed, it replaces the default extraction utility that resides on an Apple computer, BOMArchiveHelper. With this program it is therefore possible to extract archives of RAR, ZIP, TAR, 7-Zip, Stuffit, CAB, MSI files and even EXE files. The only format it doesn't support is ACE, but I don't think such files will be easily found. In addition to being smart, The Unarchiver is also efficient. You can click on many files, both RAR and ZIP to unzip them together but unzipped them separately, without creating confusion.
5) Transmission
Those who want to download Torrent files from the Mac can only use the best client developed specifically for Apple systems.
Transmission is the Bittorrent client, similar to the famous UTorrent, with a light and easy to understand interface, fast and which also allows you to share files on the Torrent network.
6) AppCleaner
Even if on Mac the installation and uninstallation procedures of the programs are simple and immediate (just drag the Applications folder over to install while to uninstall you just have to drag the application to the Trash), there is always something, some orphaned and useless files. They never give problems but if you use Appcleaner to uninstall applications, everything is eliminated. By dragging any program you wish to uninstall in AppCleaner, all the files related to it are displayed which can thus be removed without leaving junk on the computer.
7) Skitch
Skitch is a basic photo editing program that represents a cornerstone of Mac programs. This is capable of saving images in JPG, PNG, PDF, BMP, TIF, GIF and SVG. Skitch is mainly used for simple and basic manipulations for images such as resizing, cropping, converting to other formats and other things. For its speed and lightness, it is preferred to many other programs that do much more but which are more complicated for the basic modifications of the images.
For the visualization and as a converter of image formats and basic modifications, you can also use the excellent XNVIew, a kind of Irfanview, also for Mac.
8) F. Lux
F.Lux is the program that changes the brightness and coloring of the screen according to the time of day, in order to protect the view from blue lights and less strain the eyes in the evening. It is certainly an indispensable program for Mac and for any other type of computer.
9) VLC
The best program to watch videos on Mac is VLC, full of features, which reads any video and film and which also allows you to open streams and record. VLC is the best video program on Windows, Linux and Mac.
10) Istat Menus
As I think you know well, Apple's IT philosophy is always "The less you know about this device, the better it is for you and especially for us ". That's why Activity Monitoring on the Mac is hidden inside the Utilities folder and is definitely not a handy tool. Generally, a Mac user does not care about how much free memory is available, how much CPU is used, the temperature, the network activity and other technical details because the hardware of these computers are very powerful and rarely have bottlenecks. With this addition to the menu bar, you can immediately check your computer activity.
11) OnyX
OnyX is the best maintenance program for the Mac OS operating system . It can be said that on a Mac there are no instability factors as is the case on Windows, this does not mean that there are no bugs and that no errors occur. When something doesn't seem right, Onyx should help fix it. It can also clean up log files and perform a series of automatic maintenance operations to keep the Mac always in perfect health.
12) TeamViewer
I have often talked about this program as the best way to connect remotely to other computers and use them as if you were standing in front of it. TeamViewer allows you to control other computers from your Mac with an immediate and easy to set up connection.
13) QuickSilver
This is a famous tool for launching and starting programs with greater speed and productivity.
I don't know how to describe it in a few words, let's say it does a lot of operations such as program launch menus, for transferring files, for sending emails, for manipulating files and many other things. Although, said so, it seems that it does nothing new, it is recommended by everyone, experts and non-experts alike, to use it to use the Mac much better than before.
14) Bean and TextWrangler
These two are free programs to create and edit text files. Bean also supports Word documents.
Excellent is also Smultron as a program similar to Notepad ++ to also write programming languages
15) Duplicates
This is a free program to make backups on the Mac. You can clone the disk and create a disk image to do a complete recovery and to backup a Mac connected to the network.
16) Burn
This is the best program for burning DVDs on Mac and for creating music CDs without Itunes. Burn is really a simple application that also allows you to copy AVI files to make cd divx.
17) LibreOffice is the program to have Microsoft Office on Mac and all its tools, the best thing is to use Openoffice with Word, Excel and Powerpoint, free and absolutely functional.
18) Ccleaner
Ccleaner is the famous Windows program, now also for Mac, to delete obsolete files from the computer and keep it free from junk.
19) Alfred
With this program that integrates with other apps, you can improve the usability of your Mac by creating shortcuts to perform actions and applications using quick gestures.
20) Handbrake
To convert video files, Handbrake is the program to use, free and that works with practically any format, even on Mac, especially to convert DVDs to video files.
21) Etrecheck
This is a maintenance program to correct general problems on Mac, which scans your system and provides a summary report that can be published in the support forums. EtherCheck also detects the presence of adware to other malicious software.
22) Simplenote
This is one of the best free apps for writing notes and texts on a white sheet, free from distractions and organized.
23) Itsycal : This program adds a small calendar on the menu bar, very convenient to have.
24) Skype is the most used program for making VOIP calls and chatting in the world, by Microsoft.
25) IINA Media Player IINA is probably one of the best media player apps that you can use on your Mac, regularly updated, which supports almost all existing video formats. Other features of the app include playlist support, TouchBar support, subtitles and then it can also act as a client for streaming online content from sites like YouTube.
26) Pages, Numbers and KeyNote
These three Apple programs are now free to download and use on Mac.
Pages is a word processor like Word (not at the same height)
Numbers is an Excel-like program for creating spreadsheets (but much lower)
Keynote is a Powerpoint-like program, for creating presentations (decent).
27) Simple Recorder
On Mac, to quickly record audio from the microphone, you should use this program instead of Quicktime.
28) Spark
Although the Mail program for receiving emails on Mac works well and is updated often, Spark is an alternative client with a more beautiful interface and ability to work with Gmail, Outlook.com and any other mail provider.
29) Backup Google Drive and Photos
This is the program to use to automatically synchronize the chosen files in Google Drive and to save all the photos of the Mac in Google Photos, free and without limits (and many greetings to iCloud).
30) iMovie, iWork and Garageband
These three Apple programs are free for Mac. IMovie is a video editor. iWork is the Office suite with Pages Numbers and Keynote (seen in point 26). Garageband is a program for mixing music.
31) Amphetamine is a small free application that allows you to keep your Mac awake whenever you want, with just one click, without saving energy.
32) Feedly is the best feed reader for Mac, to follow the news from all blogs and newspapers.
33) Cyberduck, the best of the FTP transfer programs.
34) Helium, an alternative video player to VLC, with floating windows.
35) iGetter, an excellent download manager.
36) Keepass X, the best program to manage passwords
37) TinkerTool, to access the hidden settings of the Mac.
All programs for the Mac can be found and downloaded, free or paid, from the Apple Mac Store .
Finally, I remember that in the past I had talked about 30 free games to download and install on Mac.
In another updated article, the list goes on with the 100 best and free applications for MacOS
