Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual

Chapter 10. The Free Programs

Right out of the box, Mac OS X comes with a healthy assortment of about 50 freebies: programs for sending email, writing documents, doing math, even playing games. Some are dressed-up versions of Mac programs that have been around for years. Others, though, are new programs that not only show off some of Mac OS X’s most dramatic new technologies, but also let you get real work done without having to invest in additional software.

Your Free Mac OS X Programs

You’ve got a broad assortment of programs in the Applications folder in the main hard drive window. The Applications → Utilities folder holds another couple of dozen miniprograms that handle such workaday jobs as setting up printers and network connections, fixing problems on your hard disk, and monitoring the behind-the-scenes processing performed by your Mac whenever you launch and run programs.

This chapter guides you through every item in your new software library, one program at a time. (Depending on your Mac model, you may find other programs in your Applications folder. Apple occasionally includes software of its own, or from other companies, to spice up the collection for, say, iMacs or MacBooks.)

Tip

A reminder: You can jump straight to the Applications folder in the Finder by pressing Shift-⌘-A (the shortcut for Go → Applications), or by clicking the Applications folder icon in the Sidebar. You might consider adding the Application folder’s icon to the Dock, too, so you can access it no matter ...