by , 7:30 AM EDT, May 2nd, 2007

There is a lot of great software for Mac OS X. Some is commercial, some is shareware and some is open source and completely free. For those who may want to explore the best of breed open source software for Web browsing, e-mail, RSS, IM, Podcasting, video playback, graphics, and so on, there is a terrific site, Open Source Mac, that provides a handy list.

That's not to say that there isn't freeware, shareware or commercial software that isn't better than the items listed. Rather, these items are merely the best that the site manager has found in the open source category for Macs. Your mileage may vary, but I've found the listing to be very compelling.

Partial screen shot, first page only

Neither is the list of categories exhaustive. "We aren't trying to be a comprehensive listing of every open-source Mac app; instead we want to showcase the best, most important, and easiest to use. This page should be a handy reference and a useful tool for getting more people to start using free and open-source software," a note on the Website states.

Sometimes, less choice is better. You've probably heard of of some of the software, like Thunderbird. But there are also some sleeper surprises like Xee, Inkscape, Fugu and Smultron.

Each software entry has a link to the download page.

This Website was off the air recently, and I found myself digging for the Google cache. But it's back now, hopefully for good. I've printed the two pages to PDF just in case because I find myself constantly referring to it. You will too.