Software for students (and everyone else too)!
Education is not cheap. Likewise, the tools students need to support their education aren't cheap too. Despite academic pricing, some software is still out of reach of some students. Also, a lot of software have more features than you will possibly use. What's a student to do?
There are alternatives to paid-for bloatware.
At home, I try to use as many web-based applications and free/open source software as possible. Many of the services I use were recently highlighted in Read/WriteWeb's feature on a whole bunch of useful Web 2.0 applications for students. Josh Catone suggests various apps for office, note taking, mind mapping, studying, bookmarking, collaboration, calendars, calculations and other tools.
However, some of these are not free services. Me? I'm a fan of the Google services. They're free, and they're great! I feel I'm too dependent on them, but I can't get away from their excellent software.
Here are a few more web apps to add to Josh's list:
- Slideshare: The YouTube for PowerPoint slides
- Motiji: Online video annotation service
- DotSub: Collaborative online video subtitling
- Fleck: Webpage annotation
- BibMe: Bibliography tool
For truly free software, check out Software for Starving Students. The creators of this website have compiled the best free and open source software for Windows and Mac. You download the relevant version, then burn the ISO image file to CD (burning instructions for Win/Mac).
From the CD, you can install various free/open source software "including a fully-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more." Since the software is on a single disk image, the individual titles might be slightly out-of-date. You can download the programmes individually from the software authors instead. Check out the software list, then click the titles to go to the homepage for the respective software.
Even if you're not starving or even if you're not a student, there's definitely something for you.
Do you have any other software to add to this list? Please share your recommendations in the comments!