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Adium is an instant messaging client for MacOS X. It was first written in 2001 by Adam Iser, a college student at the time, and has progressed through incremental improvements and complete rewrites (to make use of more capable libraries) to the point where it is now a very popular tool.

Its particular strength vs. iChat (the IM client that's built into MacOS X) is the number of protocols that it supports, and therefore the number of IM services that it can communicate with. These include AOL, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Jabber, and Google Talk. Technically, the fact that it relies greatly on plugins rather than its own hard code makes it easy to extend and expand. As well, "xtras" defined by users can be applied to change the emoticons the program uses, Dock icons, contact list styles, message styles, and sound sets; AppleScripts can be used to alter the program's response to certain trigger events.

There are literally dozens of free IM clients out in cyberspace and a review such as this can't possibly compare them all. There is an article in the Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messengers which goes into a very comprehensive comparison. Adium makes the grade as one finds evidence of great user and developer activity.

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One of the fastest-growing properties on the Internet is Wikipedia, a testament to the power of the user-generated (and maintained) web sites. Since the introduction of the original Wiki Wiki Web, a lot of open source Wiki implementations have been developed. One such program — one that's particularly easy to setup and pleasant to use — is Instiki.

Since Instiki is Ruby-based, it runs on all platforms that Ruby does, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It is extremely easy to set up, especially on Mac OS X. Installation involves just two steps (install Ruby, run instiki.rb) by using WEBrick, a web server, and Madeleine, a persistence layer. These apps ship with the standard distribution of the programming language. Aside from its user-friendliness, this powerful Wiki engine loaded with features: pluggable markup syntax, RSS feeds, keyboard shortcuts, and lots more. Simply put, Instiki is a webmaster's delight.

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We’ve said it before and we hope to say it again: it’s a Good Thing with great commercial software morphs into great free software. And the Opera web browser has done just that. We “sung” Opera’s praises once before when it was free for a day – now the lovely, feature-filled ad-free version is free for good. Used to be $39.

Opera's features include a pop-up blocker, RSS newsreader, e-mail client with spam filter, a notes feature, and much more. And it’s available for just about any operating system you would want to use.

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Azureus is a Java BitTorrent client that works well for both newbies and advanced users. You may find it superior to other BitTorrent clients because of its powerful enhancements and features, including multiple torrent downloads; customizable interface; advanced seeding rules; adjustable disk cache; distributed hash table for decentralized torrent; all-in-one port connectivity; automated scanning, sharing and downloading; priority settings for saving and XML support. Lastly, a wizard lets you install a variety of useful plug-ins, including upload and download scheduling and speed adjustment, automatic downloading with RSS Feed Scanner, status mailer for completed downloads, optional torrent information and remote control.

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Let the news come to you with NetNewsWire Lite, a powerful RSS and Atom newsreader for MacOS X. It gathers and displays news from your favorite web sites and blogs, delivering the latest updates quickly and displaying them in an easy-to-read, three-pane interface. The version of Safari that ships with MacOS 10.4 supports RSS, but NetNewsWire Lite trumps Safari with more options for sorting and displaying newsfeeds. New in version 2 is the ability to synchronize feed subscriptions with other Macs on your network, and support for style sheets.

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It takes a chunk of your time every day to search for your legitimate email amidst all the junk mail. Spammers seem to get smarter by the day, finding innovative ways to reach your inbox and grab your attention. Thunderbird is an e-mail client that filters spam, prevents viruses and simply lets you enjoy e-mail again. This open-source program has numerous unique features and a highly customizable interface that makes emailing a more secure and faster process. The program also includes an RSS reader for keeping up-to-date on your favorite blogs. But wait, there's more: you can extend its functionality further with your choice of extensions.

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If you're still using Internet Explorer, run, do not walk, to download Firefox.

The bookmark features of Firefox alone — such as tabbed browsing and RSS feed viewing — give Internet Explorer a run for its money. Firefox comes built-in Google searching, or you can drag and drop icons to create your own toolbars. The built-in pop-up blocker works great, and the browser itself consumes fewer computer resources than IE.

For ordinary folks, the browser's interface looks more streamlined and intuitive than IE's — but the advanced settings allow hardcore geeks to build XML, CSS, JavaScript, or C++ modules and run a JavaScript debugger or a DOM viewer.

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