I just gave a talk about FOSS and music and gave out copies of the Fossbox free software CD for mac. Here is the readme file that came with it, with download links. You can also find a bunch of cool free mac software from the website http://www.opensourcemac.org/

Welcome to the Fossbox Free CD

The free CD gives you a taster of the free
software options available for the Mac. In this document, you’ll find
a brief description of the software and links to instructions for
installing it. You can find free
tutorials and books to help you get the best from the software on
the Fossbox website.

Office and project software

Open
Office is a free alternative to MS Office. It’s very similar and
most people are able to get started and carry on as usual without any
special training to use it. It has a word processor, a spreadsheet,
presentation and data-base with wizards. Download it here.To get you started
using
Open Office you’ll find tutorials here and some
flash tutorials here.

If you find Open
Office to be too slow, Neo
Office is a mac-specific version of it that has fewer features
but quite a bit more speed. You can download
it here.

Skim
is a PDF viewer that allows you to modify and annotate PDF files, for
example, by filling in forms. Download it here.

Scribus
is a free Desktop Publisher. Download it here. You’ll
find free
Scribus video tutorials here

Internet

Thunderbird
is a free email programme. Download it here. and
follow the on-screen instructions. To get started using Thunderbird
you will find illustrated
tutorials here.

If you would like a
calendar, this can be added to Thunderbird. Follow
these illustrated instructions to add a calendar.

Browsing the internet

Although the Safari browser is included with OS X,
there’s an alternative browser called Firefox. Download it here.. It
has more features and is more customisable.

Website editor

To help you make simple websites, Kompozer
is a visual HTML editor with formatting buttons. Download it here.You’ll find free
Kompozer tutorials here
These tutorials are for a previous version of
Kompozer called NVU but Kompozer is almost identical so you should be
able to get started:
http://www.designyourownweb.com/nvu/settingup-nvu.htm

To upload website files to the internet, you need
an FTP client so check out Filezilla. You can download it here.. (In order to install it, you
may need to first install The Unarchiver utility. Click the link to download it.)
Your ISP will be able to
give you the login information you need to set up FileZilla – ask
the people you rent your website space from.

Instant Messaging

Audium
allows you to connect to multiple IM accounts, including Facebook, in
a single app. Download it here.

File Sharing

Transmission
is a Bit Torrent client. Download it here..

Graphics

There are two graphics programmes included on the
CD.

If you want to do serious photo-editing, you need
the GIMP, a
fully-featured graphics programme. Download
it here. Gimp on OS X requires X Windows, which is included with
your system CD or a free version can be downloaded
here. Free
GIMP tutorials here
Inkscape
is vector drawing software., which also requires X Windows. Download it here. You’ll
find tutorials
for Inkscape here

Note
that Open Office also
has a vector drawing application.

Media

Multi-media player
VLC
is
a light and versatile movie player which opens more types of movies
than Quicktime. Download it here.

Ripping DVDs
HandBrake
is a DVD ripper. Download it here.

Video Editing
Processing
is an open source programming language environment for people who
want to program images, animation and interactions. Download it here..

Sound

Editor
Audacity
is a light-weight sound editor. There is a stable version and a beta version. The beta has more and better features, but you will need to save early and often. If that worries you, get the stable version instead. Download the stable version here. or Download the beta version here.

Ardour
is a a fully-featured Digital Audio Workstation with plug-in support
that can be used for serious audio projects. You can download it here. They will ask you if you want to donate to the project. You can put whatever amount you wish in the box, including $0.
Ardour
relies on a helper application called Jack,
which is also useful in it’s own right. Download
Jack here.

Programming
Pd
is a real-time graphical dataflow programming environment for audio,
video and graphical processing. It is especially useful for rapid
prototyping and can be used to write reactive music or the iPhone via
the RjDj app.
Download PD here.

SuperCollider
is an environment and programming language for real time audio
synthesis and algorithmic composition. It has a bit of a learning
curve, however, it is extremely
powerful and useful. Download
it here.