MacNoob

To be honest, I’m not a cheapskate.  On the contrary, I’ve spent way too much money on software titles that didn’t fit my needs and sit unused in my Applications folder taking up valuable disk space.  I like to think I’m a careful buyer and always do my due diligence.  I read reviews, download trials and “test drive” things as best I can.  Often though, a 14 or even 30-day trial isn’t long enough to get comfortable with a software title especially if the thing is crippled in any way.  Sometimes I just don’t run into that “show stopper” inadequacy before I buy the application with the intent of using it regularly.  That’s why, when I find a piece of freeware that I really like, I try to support the author.  I’m not talking about the Googles and Yahoos of the world, but the small, independent developers who write useful utilities and other small apps and distribute them freely on download sites like VersionTracker.  Although freeware isn’t as pervasive for OS X as it is for Windows, there are a few real gems out there and I’d like to urge everyone to support these guys as I do.  These apps have all become an integral part of my Mac experience to the point I think Mr. Jobs should buy them and include them in the next OS X release.  Here’s my top 5:

5.  Caffeine : A little menu bar app to suspend screen dimming and screensaver (for watching movies and such)

4.  Twhirl:  If you Twitter, this is a great client app that does it all.

3.  OnyX:  A utility for real gearheads.  This GUI lets you tweak OS X to your heart’s content. (Careful, OnyX lets you do things you may not want to do!)

2.  Quicksilver :  The ultimate “search & launch” app for OS X.  Find apps, contacts, events, the works!

1.  iStat Menus :  This is a great menu bar utility for monitoring your system CPU, memory, temperatures, network, hard disk(s) and more.

I use every one of these regularly and I have gone to the developer’s site and donated to each.  Not much, five or ten bucks, but if everyone who used their product did the same we could assure their continued development and support.  Case in point, Quicksilver.  Although officially still in beta, Blacktree, Inc. has said development work on Quicksilver has stopped.  That’s really too bad.  This is such a great piece of work I can only imagine how it might evolve given more time.

iStat Menus by iSlayer is my top pick because I use it so much.  It may not be the pure magic that Quicksilver is, but its’ utility value is indispensable.  At a glance I can see how much memory I’m using, my CPU load, how my network is behaving and at least a dozen other pieces of information.  The hardest part is knowing when to stop.  iStat will let you put so much information on the menu bar there’s no room left for apps!  It also runs very lean in that it uses very few system resources even when you set update times to half a second.

So this is a request to all you skin flints out there (you know who you are).  Dust the cobwebs off your wallets and help these developers out.  I was a code monkey long enough to recognize what an huge effort goes into these applications and that effort shouldn’t go unrewarded.  If you folks using this software for free had the conscience of a mud-sifting bivalve you wouldn’t allow these hard-working developers to continue unappreciated.