Apr 27 2009
The Best of 2002
The Year in Freeware
Best on the Web: Chimera Navigator
Fast, new and open-source, Chimera has grown from a shaky beta to a fully functional browser. With a great interface and handy extras Chimera laughs in the face of clunky Netscape and ho-hum Internet Explorer. Tabbed browsing, pop-up suppression, keychain password storage and favicon support make this gift from the open source community our number one.
Freeware Classic: FileCM
For those of you still living in the past, consider this a lifetime achievement award. And for what do we bestow this honor? FileCM adds cut, copy and paste file options to your contextual menu. ThatÃs one more command than even OS X.
Best System Extension: Diabolitin
For decades now, talented programmers have been filling AppleÃs gaps. This one creates a single interface, in the form of a preference pane, from which you can activate or deactivate all kinds of system items. Control your fonts, screensavers, preference panes and more from one interface.
Best Menu Item: Weather Pop
When the novelty of menu extras emerged, no one found a better use for them than Glucose Software. Best of all, when Glucose released a shareware version, they kept their ìliteî version free.
Best Plug-in: PDF Browser Plug-in
Do you ever get so tired of poor 3rd part support you wish you could do something yourself? Of those who took maters into their own hands, the PDF Browser Plug-in may be the best. At least the best one that is still freeware.
Let’s hope next year yields another great crop of free software.
Brian