9 Best Open Source apps for Mac (2020)
As a long time Linux user I’m used to having all sorts of great open source apps available for me. When I installed Hackintosh I was initially just baffled by lack of cool open source apps. Now just some how some things that I took for granted on Linux can only be done by installing a proprietary paid app that costs like 10 or sometimes 20 euros.
So in this video, I want to present you a list of 10 great open source apps for MacOS that I personally use
A small disclaimer I’m not going to include very obvious picks in this list for example homebrew , Macports,gimp, liberal office and so on.
We all know those are great open-source applications, but I feel like I will be doing a very lazy job including those apps because pretty much everyone knows these apps and probably uses them every day.
See Also : 7 Best Photo Viewers For Windows 10
So I want to focus on lesser known applications in this Article. Also, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some people in the comments that would say if you like open source apps, Why don’t you just use Linux, right? And trust me, I love Linux as much as you but some people just can’t make the switch yet and some people need some Apps that only run a Mac or Windows for work
In general I’m not a huge fan of forcing people to do something that wants for example switch the Linux
Musique
Musque is a music player as the name suggests. It has a very clean and simple UI. It kind of resembles iTunes, but it doesn’t have as much functionality it’s very simple it only basically does one thing, play the music from a folder it also supports scrubbing.
So this app doesn’t really have a lot of features or Customization options and this is basically my only graph of this app but you can also see it as a feature It’s like a very simple very opinionated music player and this kind of app is exactly what I’m looking for as my music player in open source apps market
VimR
Vim R is basically a new vim gui with some extra features. It has a graphical file manager.It has built-in support for the markdown and HTML previews and also adapts your current VIM color scheme to the whole window which looks really awesome with solarized schemes.
So this app is great for someone who wants to use Vim but feels more comfortable with Graphical file managers or needs HTML or markdown preview I think it’s awesome in open source apps
Meld
Meld is a GTK based diff and merge tool. Mount was originally only available for Linux but a guy called Yusuf is now making Mac builds for this app.
What it does is basically it lets you compare two files or folders, it shows you the differences line per line and it lets you merge those files automatically. It’s really awesome tool. It makes your life much easier especially if you compare two similar projects with a lot of code very frequently.
This app has one little flaw. It’s the interface. Due to the fact that it wasn’t really made for Mac some elements of interface comes straight out of GTK , Gnome kind of environment which is quite not like open source apps for example there with the icons and toolbar . And there are inconsistencies with file pickers, for example, when you want to pick a file it shows you GTK file picker, but when you want to pick a folder it shows it the native Mac file picker
which is kind of weird but apart from that I can really recommend this app.
LULU
Lulu is basically a free and open source firewall written and objective C. What it does is basically what any firewall Does. It lets you block outgoing or incoming connections on per app basis. And if an app is trying to make or receive a connection movie is going to show you a notification and prompt you to either allow it or blocks.
It is one my most Favorite open source apps available out there.
if you cask me that if this app has any problems Well if I’m being really picky it’s not quite as versatile as for example little snitch which is a paid enclosed source alternative. For example, it doesn’t allow you to create per network rules or something like that, but that’s if I’m being super picky.
THOR
Thor’s a very simple app that lets you assign shortcuts to launch applications. If you’re mostly using Linux, you might take this functionality for granted as it’s basically available in any modern DE or Window Manager, but a Mac OS the shortcut functionality is kind of Limited and it doesn’t really let you assign any shortcut to launch any application which might be frustrating.
Thor basically adds to MacOS what any Linux DE environment has had for years? What I’m personally using this for is command shift enter to launch a terminal and also I made this tiny script to toggle mute unmute microphone. Mac OS doesn’t really have a hotkey to mute the microphone by default so that’s what I did.
SlowQuitApps
but first I have to explain something people that never use macOS MacOS distinguishes between application. Windows and applications themselves So basically there are two shortcuts in Mac West Command W closest the current application window or tab and command you closest the whole application.
So as you might imagine these shortcuts can be very easily confused, especially considering the fact that they’re very close in the keyboard.
So what’s SlowQuitApps does is it adds a delay to command Q shortcuts so that you don’t accidentally close your application. The way it works is basically you need to long-press the button instead of the toggle and as you’re holding the shortcut, there’s going to be like a progress bar which By the way you can disable
The delay is also configurable you can basically make it shorter or longer So all in all is an awesome tiny tool that can save you a lot of frustration.
KAWA
it’s basically an improved input source which are from MacOS. So the way built in input switcher works in Mac is kind of acceptable if you use two languages at time, but as soon as you use three or more languages, it becomes really inconvenient to switch them.
Kawa basically lets you sign shortcuts for every single input source. So let’s say you have Russian German in English and you want to have a shortcut for each of those simple sources and the Kawa lets you do it, which I think is really awesome and once again it’s a really small tool but it can save you tons of frustration and just make your life that much easier.
Mas
Mas basically provides a command-line interface to Mac app store unless you install search remove applications basically like any package manager which Considering how much of a payout app store can sometimes be, that could be really useful for some people.
KeeWeb
keypad client, which is written and electron. And I know that a lot of people might have an issue with that but personally as long as the app is not to resource hungry and just gets the job done.
I don’t really mind and QF certainly fulfills those requirements. Unlike most keep ask clients that kind of look like they come straight out of a kitty to era Q web has a really clean and very intuitive interface. It’s also very easy to navigate with a keyboard and it has all the functions that you would expect to see in a keypad client. For example folders labels and so on.
So there you have it . I hope you found some useful apps free. Itself. If you have a favorite open source app for MacOS, which I didn’t mention this video, please let me know in the comments.
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2 comments
Even two decades after its original launch date, Audacity remains one of the most widely-used open source applications. It s a free audio editor that works on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
well said