Commercially available software vendors usually supply technical support, regular updates, and committed developers, but a growing trend of open source and freeware also has its dedicated developers. Microsoft cornered the web browser space when it gave away Internet Explorer. Adobe Acrobat is the standard for high quality internet forms and documents when they gave away the Adobe Reader application. As Apple Computer moves into the software authoring and distribution space, the hybrid hardware and software publisher makes the Macintosh adoption even more compelling.

Apple has always had a software component, cleverly disguised as Claris Corporation. Apple published MacDraw, eMailer, ClarisWorks, eWorld, and HyperCard. Now Apple moves into digital audio with its Logic, digital video with Final Cut Pro, digital compositing with Shake, and DVD authoring with DVD Studio Pro. Other vendors around the web have also begun to build free applications for the Mac OS X platform, to compete with the high priced licenses for the Apple professional toolsets. Apple has a fine selection of free software as well. Take a look at these fantastic software titles, that you can try today, all for free.

Apple
iCal 1.5.5
A calendar and scheduling tool that allows publishing your information to the web

iTunes 4.9
The best music jukebox software for Mac OS X

iPhoto 2.0
A simple electronic photo shoebox and mild editor

Auto FX Software
DreamSuite Dreamy Photo plug-in
Advanced stand alone image manipulation tool

AVID
AVID Free DV
A robust DV editor. The software allows easy nonlinear editing and adds filter fun to video production

Griffin Technology
Final Vinyl 1.1.2
Audio recording and equalization application for Griffin Hardware

LaCie
SilverKeeper 1.1.3
Backup utility for offline storage to CD-R, DVD-R, or external drive

PGP
PGP 9.0.1 Freeware
E-mail encryption program using public key infrastructure

VideoLAN project
VLC Media Player
Multiformat software player that will play MPEG-2 TS and other exotic video formats

Kalleboo
PhotoSite TimeSaviour
A fantastic photo webpage generator for a folder of images (you might need to try the beta version over the last official release in OS X)

Kodak Digital Cameras
EasyShare 4.0.3
Fine image viewer and editor