FileZilla

Open source; $0

Current Version: 3.1.5.1 (November 21, 2008)

FileZilla, a long-time favorite open source FTP client for Windows and Linux, is finally available for the Macintosh, making it the first true cross-platform (non-Java) FTP client that is available for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh.

Although FileZilla's user interface still has its roots in the Windows world, those who are fond of the software and who are seeking a consistent, familiar experience across platforms will certainly enjoy FileZilla for the Mac.

FileZilla's main features include:

• Ability to resume Uploads/Downloads (if the server supports it)
• Custom Commands
• Site Manager with folders
• Keep Alive system
• Timeout detection
• Firewall support
• SOCKS4/5 and HTTP1.1 Proxy support
• SSL secured connections
• SFTP support
• Upload/Download Queue
• Drag & Drop
• Multi-language support
• GSS authentication and encryption using Kerberos

Version 3.1.5.1 makes the following changes:

• Connection establishment through SOCKS proxies could fail in some cases
• Clearing private data no longer crashes if quickconnect bar is hidden
• Handle drag & drop of symlinks
• Update remote directory tree if deleting a subdirectory
• Fix parsing of HTTP chunk lengths for the update downloader
• Reduce memory consumption of remote directory tree
• Rewrite the code that added local directories to the queue. New one is faster and avoids some potentially thread-unsafe behaviour of the old code
• OS X: Fix help menu duplication on non-English systems

One thing I have noticed in my brief period of testing, however, is that FileZilla doesn't appear to use Mac OS X's built-in ssh configuration to manage SFTP connections. Let's hope that this is something that changes in the near future. Other than that, FileZilla is a well-built, if not awkward, FTP client that is more than worthy of consideration.