You Can Use Your Console For That

In the spirit of promoting linux applications for Mac and others, here are some apps which do a surprising amount without ever leaving your console.

1. Irssi – irc chat with heaps of features
2. Canto – rss feed reader
3. CenterIM – multi-protocol instant messenger
4. Mutt - mature and powerful mail reader. “All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.”
5. Mplayer – the swiss-army-knife of media players. Ok, it does require X to see the video, but you get the idea.
6. mpd with ncmpcpp – flexible, lightweight music server and controller
7. PyTone – python-ncurses based jukebox
8. feh – set your background or view a slideshow
9. beeswax – keep track of tasks using the GTD method
10. sgtd – more of the same
11. vim – the only editor a programmer will ever need. There’s good reason to use vim instead of vi. Trust me.

Most of these are available in pacman if you’re using Arch linux, or in the AUR. Some, like Beeswax are ready to be compiled on a mac with only a few changes.