---

There’s a ton of open source software out there for the Mac, but all of these apps weren’t created equally. Moreover, there are usually multiple high-quality choices in the same category and I’ve listed a bunch of those here. For example, I prefer NeoOffice to OpenOffice and, if you’re a big Firefox fan, you should definitely have a look at Camino.

• Adium (download) – a free and open source instant messaging app for Mac OS X, written in the Cocoa API

• Chrome (download) – launches in a snap, loads pages even faster and it’s based on open source WebKit technology from Apple
— Sunrise (review, download) – A Mac-only WebKit-based browser for developers with some very nifty features

• Cyberduck (download) – The FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files, Google Docs & Amazon S3 Browser for Mac OS X.

• Firefox (download) – The premier free, open-source browser with tabs, pop-up blocking, themes, and extensions
— Camino (15.8MB) – a special, Mac-only build of Firefox (it’s better)
— See also: Firefox 4 beta: Tabs on top, WebM, phatter HTML5, more

• Handbrake (download) – an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for Mac OS X and lesser operating systems

• NeoOffice (download) – A full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs) only for Mac OS X
— Open Office (download) – The original open source office suite

See also: FlashToHTML5: Helps cure browser itch

• Picassa (download) — One heckuva lot like iPhoto, but it’s free and so is the cloud-based storage and photo publishing
— Google Earth (download) – Lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.

• Seashore (download) – an open source image editor for Mac OS X’s Cocoa framework that features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes.
— See also: Hands on with Seashore, an open source image editor
— GIMP (downloads) – The “GNU Image Manipulation Program” (originally the General Image Manipulation Program) sired by Spencer Kimball & Peter Mattis. More than just software; it’s a religion!

• Transmission (download) – A pure, high-powered open source BitTorrent client for the fairer platform.

• VLC Player (download) – It plays back anything. Well, as humanly close to anything as you can get

Look at the list again and ask yourself, “Are we getting too dependent on Google?”