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Back to School with Open Source
Priced for a student’s budget - free - open source desktop software presents a viable alternative to commercial software packages for those who can’t shell out the big $$$. I’ve never personally been an open-source zealot myself, but at these prices - you can’t afford not to consider them! These programs all run on multiple platforms (yes, even Windows!), and are surprisingly easy to download and install.
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Office Suites - OpenOffice is the multi-lingual, multi-platform productivity solution which includes a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation application, database creator, and math and drawing programs. All of the programs are very similar to the Microsoft Office applications and are compatible with their files. As an MS Office user, I found them all quite intuitive to use and had no problems opening my MS Word and other files. Compare to Microsoft Office at $399 |
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Project Management - Released only days ago, OpenProj is a free project management application which aims to be a complete replacement for Microsoft Project. It operates on multiple platforms, is compatible with MSProject files, and offers advanced scheduling and project management features including Gantt charts, PERT Charts and more. During my test of the software, it did indeed offer impressive functionality, and successfully opened my Microsoft Project file without any loss of data or formatting. Compare to Microsoft Project at $999.95. |
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Image Editing - GIMP is a free image editor similar to Adobe Photoshop. It offers a lot of functionality including working with layers, channels, paths, filters, and more. GIMP is compatible with Photoshop and many other file types. As a die-hard Photoshop user, I don’t know if I could make the transition as GIMP seems to lack some of my favorite PS tools such as adjustment layers, specifically Levels and Curves. But for many people who are not spoiled…er…accustomed to Photoshop’s advanced image editing features, GIMP is worth a look. Compare to Adobe Photoshop CS3 at $649 |
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Organization - qOrganizer is a new open-source general organizer which was just released a couple of days ago. It includes a calendar and schedule, to-do list, and journal/notes sections. Extras for students include a booklet section where they can enter and track their grades as well as absences. Think MS Outlook without the contacts and email functionality. |
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Stress Management - What better way to relieve the tension of a tough day of classes, than striving for world domination? This open-source version of Risk offers all the functionality of the Risk II software including playing games across the network or online as well as hotseat games. The only notable difference is the lack of sound effects which can be a bit disarming (excuse the pun) at first. Peace-lovers can try Open Yahtzee. |
August 27th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Check out more open source (free) alternatives at http://www.osalt.com Open Source Alternative. They list high quality open alternatives to many well-known commercial software packages.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Good writeup–but just to be fair, since you’re talking about software for students: Microsoft Office 2007 for Home and Students lists at $149 and typically sells for less, and it’s legitimate to use it on up to three computers for that price. That gets you Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote; the only real restriction is that use is supposed to be noncommercial. $149 for three computers is a long way from $399. (There’s been a student/teacher version of Office for less than $150 for a long time.)
August 27th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
For organization (strictly for students) you should use http://mynoteit.com you can store all your school stuff there.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Gimp is great, don’t forget the many extensions and addons for it. Also how about Utorrent for P2P downloads.
August 28th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
great suggestions, thanks everyone!
August 28th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
You forgot the most major part of all - the operating system. I bought a new Gateway notebook last winter. Physically it was great. Windows on the other hand never did work right. It would (for no apparent reason) blow up. Not every day, but at least once a week.
So I ran it using a Linux Live CD, and it was stable. Rock solid. So I switched. No more problems. And Linux Virii are non-existent, so maintenance will be a lot simpler.
It was a bit of work to get wireless up, but the Ubuntu forums had the answer, and for the few things that require Windows, I’ll use a Virtual Machine from now on.
And every piece of software, including the CAD program was free (as in beer).
You can’t beat the price, and you can’t beat the performance. Oh, it’s still a bit more work to setup than Windows XP is, but simpler than Windows 95/98, and I’ve heard it’s simpler than Vista (don’t know, never seen Vista outside of a store).