Seven Open-Source Mac Apps You Need Right Now
"Free business Macintosh applications" is not a contradiction in terms. Here are several open-source enterprise Mac OS X applications that you can put right to work.
4. Though Mac OS X ships with a native PDF viewer, it doesn't do much beyond letting you view a file's contents. Skim is both a top-notch PDF reader and markup tool designed just for the Mac. Use Skim to preview the internal links of a document, add notes, highlight text and more. You can even use Skim to create presentations and control them—right inside the app—using an Apple Remote. As more corporate documents are transmitted every day as PDF documents, this is one app you can't do without.
5. The days of punch cards and time clocks are over, but the need to track employees' work hours isn't. Rachota is a small, portable application that runs anywhere and tracks multiple projects at once. Data is neatly displayed in diagram form and can be aggregated into customized reports for in-depth analysis. Rachota can review data and make suggestions on how to maximize or improve a user's time. Rachota supports 11 languages and is small enough to carry around on a thumb drive. Be forewarned, though: To discourage "creative" time tracking, this app was designed with limited manual editing capability; once you've set the parameters, they are exceptionally difficult to change.
6. Corporate life doesn't occur in a vacuum. Even if you telecommute or work in a satellite office, you need to keep in touch with your coworkers and employees. Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) Open Source Edition boasts a handy set of instant messaging, e-mail and calendaring apps to tie together your staff communications. It works with Microsoft Outlook and other PC and mobile solutions, and is also cross-platform—a handy thing if you work in an office full of Mac, Windows and Linux computers. ZCS Open Source Edition also has shared address books, document sharing and mobile support.
7. MacLibre is more than just a single useful app; it's a bundle of open-source Mac OS X applications. It includes the biggies like Audacity audio editor, The Gimp image editor, Inkscape for graphics and Adium instant messaging client, plus some lesser-known apps like Desktop Manager and Colloquy IRC client, which are often overlooked. All told, there are more than twenty applications in five categories, making MacLibre a one-stop shop for top quality open-source software.
