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OpenOffice.org |
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For those of you that can’t afford to pay the
premium price in purchasing Microsoft Office, even with a
generous student discount, you’ll want to look at
OpenOffice.org. It is a free piece of software that works on any
operating system, and includes access to software to write
documents, create spreadsheets, presentations, and more.
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GIMP |
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Don’t want to buy or use Photoshop illegally?
No problem. GIMP is freely distributed image manipulation
software that runs on all major operating systems (though with
Macs you’ll need to install X11 emulation). GIMP is great for
creating graphics and logos, photo tweaking, creating animated
GIFs, etc. |
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Adium & Pidgin |
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If you have friends on MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and
Google, you’ll want to find one piece of software to easily manage
your conversations with all of them, and Adium and Pidgin will
allow you to do that. |
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Both pieces of software allow you to combine your
collection of friends and family into one long list, making it easy
to communicate. Of course, you’ll be missing certain features that
native applications have, like Google Talk’s video chat, but being
able to be organized, and using fast and light pieces of software
are worth any trade offs. |
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The choice on which multi-client instant messaging
software to use is yours, and it really comes down to personal
needs and tastes as well as which operating system you use. Adium
is only for Mac OS X, while Pidgin works on nearly all operating
systems. If you have a Mac though, both are free so give them both
a try and stick with your favorite. |
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Octave |
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Think Matlab is way overpriced? So do we. The good
news is that there is a solid free replacement called Octave.
Almost everything that can be done in Matlab can be done in Octave.
Plus, if you used to have to go to a special computer lab to do
your Matlab work, now you can do it on your own
computer. |
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Just like Matlab, Octave is an ultra high-level
programming language that is used to solve mathematical problems
and plot their solutions. The nice thing about Octave is that it is
modular and can easily be expanded to perform additional
functions. |
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Eclipse |
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For those of you who are computer science majors
or just taking a few computer programming courses (which is
becoming more and more common, especially for science majors) the
good news is that you don’t have to buy an uber expensive C++ IDE
package like Visual Studio. Instead, Eclipse gives you an amazing,
fully featured development platform with all the plugins you could
possibly want. Plus, Eclipse runs on Windows, Mac OSX, and
Linux. |
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iTunes |
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Listen to music? Want to be able to download
movies, television shows, podcasts, and your favorite songs? Well,
iTunes pretty much corners the market when it comes to legal
downloadable media and the software is free. |
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For students on a budget, the myriad of video and
audio podcasts available for free on nearly any topic or interest
is a great way to pass the time, and iTunes has a radio section
that allows you to listen to an unlimited amount of streaming music
on hundreds of different stations. |
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Firefox |
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If you are still browsing the web on Internet
Explorer, then you need to get with the program. There are many
other web browsers out there that are better, faster, more secure
and easier to use than Internet Explorer. One of the best is
Firefox. |
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Not only is it faster but it allows for
extensions. Extensions allow you to add features to your web
browsing experience, from adding the weather and your e-mail count
to always display on the browser, to being able to look at the code
of a website easily, there are a million different things
extensions can do to make Firefox even better than it is “out of
the box.” |
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VLC |
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Trying to play video formats, and having issues?
Check out VLC. An amazingly lightweight piece of free software that
plays nearly any video that you ask it to. It can be used to play
DVD movies as well. |
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It also is available for nearly any operating
system, making it a great choice for everyone. |
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Skype |
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If you are away from your family, or don’t want to
pay crazy prices for a home phone line, take a look at Skype’s
offerings. One of the highest quality voice over the Internet
services available Skype has many great advantages over getting a
traditional phone line in your dorm or apartment, and is easy to
use. |
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Last.fm |
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Want another great way to listen to music,
especially if you don’t know exactly which songs to buy or
download, check out Last.fm. |
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Last.fm lets you create “stations” based on your
search preferences, from things as simple as “alternative” to
listing your favorite bands and having it try to find others that
you may enjoy as well. |
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