Zero cost software
Most popular
There are many alternatives when it comes to choosing software or programs for a particular task. Sometimes only a specific application will do but a lot of the time there are freely available alternatives that will do the job as well as, and in some cases better, than the programs people typically use.
Below we have listed some programs that are freely available to download and install categorized into sections covering their uses. Many of these applications are also installed on the computer room PCs so you can open, edit and print your files on-campus.
Note for staff: if you wish to install one of these programs on a Brookes owned computer please check with your IT Support Officer for advice about any potential licensing issues.
| Category | Similar to | Description | In computer rooms? |
Download | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | OS X | |||||
| Internet | ||||||
 |
Firefox | Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari | A standards compliant web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation |  |
 |
 |
 |
Safari | Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera | A web browser developed by Apple (based on Webkit) |  |
|
|
 |
Chrome | Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari | A web browser developed by Google (based on Webkit) | |
|
|
 |
Opera | Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari | A web browser and email client developed by Opera | |
|
|
 |
Sunbird | Outlook calendar, iCal | A calendaring application developed by the Mozilla Foundation | |
|
|
 |
Thunderbird | Eudora, Outlook, Pegasus, Windows Mail | An email client developed by the Mozilla Foundation | |
|
|
 |
Pidgin | AIM, Trillian, Yahoo Messenger , Windows Live Messenger (MSN) | An instant messaging client that can access a range of networks | |
|
|
 |
Filezilla | WS_FTP | A FTP client and server for transferring files between computers | |
|
|
 |
Azureus | uTorrent | A bittorrent p2p application for downloading and seeding torrents | |
|
|
| Office | ||||||
 |
OpenOffice1 | Microsoft Office, iWork | An office suite compatible with Microsoft Office documents offering a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database suite of applications | |
|
|
 |
NeoOffice/J | Microsoft Office, iWork | An integrated, native OS X version of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Office documents | |
|
|
 |
Abiword | Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer | A light weight word processor originally developed for Linux. Compatible with Word documents | |
|
|
| Graphics & Design2 | ||||||
 |
Amaya | Dreamweaver | A standards compliant web authoring and publishing application | |
|
|
 |
Blender | Maya, 3ds Max, Lightwave | A 3d modelling and animation application | |
|
|
 |
Dia | Visio | A drawing program for creating flow charts, UML and other diagrams | |
|
|
 |
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) | Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint, Paint Shop Pro | A graphics editor for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring | |
|
|
 |
Inkscape | Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Xara X | A vector graphics editor | |
|
|
 |
KompoZer | Dreamweaver, Frontpage | An unofficial 'bug fix' for NVu while it undergoes rewriting | |
|
|
 |
NVu | Dreamweaver, Frontpage | A html/css authoring application for composing and publishing web sites | |
|
|
 |
PDFCreator | Acrobat Professional | A program that can be used like a printer form almost any Windows program to generate PDF file output | |
|
|
 |
Scribus | InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, Quark, Pagemaker | A desktop publishing application | |
|
|
| Media | ||||||
 |
Audacity | Cubase, Logic Pro, Pro Tools | Digital audio editor | |
|
|
 |
Miro | iTunes, Windows Media Player | A media, Internet TV and video player based on Mozilla technology | |
|
|
 |
VLC (Video Lan Client) | QuickTime, Real Player, Windows Media Player | A DVD and video player | |
|
|
| Security3 | ||||||
 |
Clamwin Anti-virus4 | McAfee, Sophos, Symantec | An anti-virus application supporting scheduled scans, on-demand scanning and automatic updating | |
|
|
 |
ClamXav5 | McAfee, Sophos, Symantec | An anti-virus application supporting scheduled scans, on-demand scanning and automatic updating | |
|
|
 |
AVG (free edition) | McAfee, Sophos, Symantec | An anti-virus application supporting scheduled scans, on-access scanning, on-demand scanning and automatic updating | |
|
|
 |
Spybot S & D | Windows Defender, Ad-aware | Anti-spyware application | |
|
|
| Other | ||||||
 |
7-zip | Winzip, Power Archiver | An archive program to open and create zip, rar, gz, bz2 etc archives | |
|
|
 |
VirtualBox | Parallels, Virtual PC, VMWare | A vitalization application that allows you to run other operating systems on the host system | |
|
|
| Programming | ||||||
 |
Alice | An object-oriented programming environment for controlling the behaviour of 3D objects and characters in a virtual world | |
|
|
|
 |
Context Free | An open source graphical application for editing, rendering, and exploring context-free design grammars (CFDG) | |
|
|
|
 |
Crimson Editor | BBEdit, TextPad | A text and source code editor | |
|
|
 |
Eclipse | JBuilder, Visual Studio, WebSphere | A fully featured IDE for Java and other languages | |
|
|
 |
jEdit | BBEdit, TextPad | A text and source code editor written in Java | |
|
|
 |
Netbeans | JBuilder, Visual Studio, WebSphere | A fully featured IDE for Java including a GUI builder | |
|
|
 |
Processing | An innovative programming language and environment for images, animation, and interactions | |
|
|
|
Most of these programs are also available for Linux. Refer to your distributions package manager.
The software listed here is just a small selection. There are many other choices and alternatives available from a wide variety of sources!
For a convenient selection on CD that you can pass to friends and relatives see the OpenDisc or the OpenEducationDisc projects.
| Microsoft DreamSpark | |
|
Microsoft have recently announced an initiative called DreamSpark which offers students Microsoft professional developer and design tools at no charge for non-commercial use. Software options currently include Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, Windows Server 2003 R2, Microsoft Expression Studio, XNA Game Studio 2. You will need a Windows Live ID and if prompted for your institution simply choose 'Eduserve' and login with your normal Brookes Athens details. |
Notes
1 Mac version requires X11 for OS X
3 You can use Sophos Anti-virus for free while you are at Brookes
4 Clamwin does not feature a on-access scanner
5 ClamXav does not feature a on-access scanner but does allow watching of folders or drives for changes
Note: we refer to the term 'free' meaning that the software is provided in a version that carries no financial cost. While most of the programs listed here correspond to the definitions of open source and/or free software you should check the licensing terms for further information.
If you have any queries or suggestions for other software please contact the Service Desk.