If you’re in college and using a Mac (a smart thing to do), there are a few essential applications you’ll probably want to know about. So here’s a list of software you’ll need—or that’ll make it a little easier—to get through the toughest four years of your life. And because college students are poor, every piece of software shown here is available absolutely free!                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

NeoOffice^® – All your friends use Microsoft Word to write their essays, but you don’t want to risk installing Microsoft anything on your shiny new Mac. NeoOffice is a great alternative. It’s made specifically for Macs and includes spreadsheet and presentation applications (equivalents to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint), as well as a standard word processor. If your professor requires you to use Microsoft products for e‑mail assignments, there are plenty of export options that will make your work compatible.

 

GIMP – Not quite as good as ol’ Photoshop^®, but still a pretty good alternative. The GIMP will definitely come in handy when you need to put those finishing touches on your presentations. If you’re going to school for art or photography and don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars for digital imaging software, download GIMP right now.

 

Inkscape – If GIMP is the equivalent of Adobe^® Photoshop, then Inkscape is the equivalent of Adobe Illustrator^®. All you business majors probably won’t need Inkscape, but if you’re into art and design, Inkscape will help you where the GIMP can’t: vector files. In fact, Inkscape is such a good alternative to Illustrator that many people use it right alongside their Adobe products.

 

QuickSilver – The Mac equivalent of Colibri for the PC, only better. Especially useful if you still haven’t upgraded to a mighty mouse, Quicksilver is sure to speed up everything you do. Great for lazy people who don’t like to constantly switch between their mouse and keyboard too.

 

iProcrastinate – Need help remembering to do your homework? Or with keeping track of all your friends? Either way, iProcrastinate can help you out. It features a to-do list, calendar, and a homework/task manager that can help you break down major projects and assignments to at least make them seem easier. Nothing super-fancy, but by keeping you organized, it might help you improve your grades.

 

ffmpegX – Do you work on a lot of video presentations? Need to share your future Spielberg self with the PC world? ffmpegX will let you convert any audio or video file format to just about any other. Perfect for when you want to combine a YouTube video with that ripped DVD footage of you and your sidekicks re-enacting your favorite movie scene.

 

VLC Media Player – With ffmpegX you’ll be able to convert all your multimedia files, but how are you going to play back what you just converted if it isn’t in QuickTime? Download the VLC Media Player. Just in case.

 

Adium – How do you stay in contact with all your college buddies? Some of them use MSN, your professors use Google Talk, that classmate you keep staring at who sits in front of you in Poli Sci uses AIM. Adium is a messaging app that can connect to all of them and then some. It doesn’t support video yet, but text-cybering is where it’s at anyway.

CCC – Invest in an external hard drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make sure you never lose that term paper (or X-rated video collection) you’ve been working on all semester just because your Mac crashed. Do Macs even crash? Never mind, you don’t need CCC.

 

iAlertU – If you absolutely have to leave your MacBook unattended, make sure you’ve got it decked out with a theft alarm. If anyone so much as gives your Apple laptop an “I want you” look, iAlertU will lock your computer, make a bunch of loud noises and take an iSight picture so you’ll be able to ID your Macjackers—except they’ve got your computer, so now you can’t see their picture . . . . Just kidding, iAlertU e‑mails the picture to you!

 

Senuti – Frustrated that you can upload music to your iPod but you can’t copy it back to your Mac? Senuti! Everything in reverse . . . .

 

MacStumbler – Need some WiFi? MacStumbler will search for any nearby wireless connections and help you diagnose wireless network problems.

 

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