7 essential open source Mac applications

Your company - or the user - decides that the computing needs of a business are optimized with glittery Mac computers. Or perhaps you see the financial benefits of using Apple products. So, which application will you use on these machines? There are many options available for businesses, but there are 7 open-source solutions that are considered 'must-have' for Mac users at work.

Do you need advice on choosing open source solutions for businesses? Our experts are willing to share advice in evaluating commercial open source applications.

1. Even the most well-prepared business can get bogged down or die if not paying attention to small details. However, managing all aspects of a project is a hard work. OpenProj is a powerful project management program; It can prepare graphs, charts and all kinds of reports to help your business boat operate smoothly. OpenProj can handle budget data, time tables, Gantt graphs, resource management, and it can perform many different types of measurements. Although OpenProj is still new in the market, it has been dominated by Microsoft, but according to the company's website, there have been 500,000 software downloads since its release less than a year ago.

2. Moodle has long been known as the preeminent open source course management system for educators, but it also has a certain position in the general environment. As it is designed for the online learning community, Moddle is the perfect solution for managing your company's training classes or professional development programs.

Moodle can be used on an incredible scale. It can handle 10,000-person classroom systems as easily as a 10-person classroom. Since it is open source software, Moodle can be completely modified according to the needs of the company. Dozens of modules and plugins can add features to the program, such as podcasting or video conferencing. You may not be able to convince your employees that training is an interesting job, but at least Moodle helps you reduce the boredom of those classes.

3. AbiWord is the often overlooked word processing application, but it can be a solution that a business wants. AbiWord costs less than iWork for Macs (it's free), it's easier to modify than other text editors (it's open source), and it's not as powerful as OpenOffice.org (AbiWord has 9MB capacity compared to 158MB of OpenOffice.org). Although the software lacks a presentation and spreadsheet of a complete software suite, AbiWord is a fast, powerful and full-featured word processor that includes spelling corrections and layout options. for text.

4. Mac OS X comes with a PDF viewer, but the program does nothing but allow you to view the file contents. Skim is an excellent PDF reader, and is a tool designed specifically for Mac. You can use Skim to view a link in a document, add notes, highlight paragraphs, and more. You can even use Skim to create presentations and control them - right inside the software - with an Apple control. As more and more documents are transmitted daily as PDF files, this is an application not to be missed.

5. The period of using punch cards or working hours is over, but the need to control staff time is not. Rachota is a small and portable application that can be used anywhere and track multiple projects at once. The data is neatly presented in chart form and can be combined into customized reports for in-depth analysis. Rachota can review data and make suggestions on how to maximize or improve user time. Rachota supports 11 languages ​​and is small enough to carry on a small USB drive. Warning that: to prevent indiscriminate time tracking, this application is designed with limited editing capabilities. Once you've specified the parameters, it's difficult to change them.

6. Life does not appear in space. Even if you work from home or work in a satellite office, you still need to contact a colleague or employee. Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) open source version provides a convenient set of products including instant messaging, email and calendar to support communication between your employees. It works with Microsoft Outlook and other computer and mobile solutions. It can also be used on different application platforms, a handy software if you work in an office confusing Mac, Windows and Linux computers. ZCS open source version also address book, document sharing as well as mobile support.

7. MacLibre is not just a useful application, it is a set of open source applications Mac OS X. It includes great programs like Audacitym audio editor, The Gimp image editor, graphics. Inkscape and Adium instant messaging. It also contains some lesser known applications like Desktop Manager and Colloquy IRC, which are often overlooked. In total, there are more than 20 applications in five categories, making MacLibre a stopover for quality open source software.