ARCHIVE: Free Software Titles (do not delete)
Thanks to the IT student workers, this is a non-comprehensive list of their favorite free software titles. None of these titles are endorsed by Rice University; they are just personal favorites of our students.
Our Favorite Free Software Titles
Thanks to the IT student workers, this is a non-comprehensive list of their favorite free software titles. None of these titles are endorsed by Rice University; they are just personal favorites of our students.
Web Browsers
Mozilla Firefox - available for Windows, OS X, and Linux; compare to Internet Explorer, Safari, or Opera.
Opera - available for Windows, OS X, Linux, and Mobile Devices; compare to Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox.
Google Chrome - available for Windows
Email Clients
Mozilla Thunderbird - available for Windows, OS X, and Linux
Office Suites
LibreOffice - available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Compare to Microsoft Office. This multi-platform office productivity suite includes key desktop applications like a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites.
Media Players
Apple iTunes - available for Windows and Mac OS
Media Player Classic - available for Windows
VLC - available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
foobar2000 - available for Windows
Winamp - available for Windows
Graphics Editing
GIMP - available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Compare to Photoshop.
GIMPShop - available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Compare to Photoshop. Builds a Photoshop-esque UI on the GIMP platform.
Paint.net - available for Windows
Operating Systems
Fedora Core Linux
Ubuntu Linux (see Linux FAQ)
SuSE Linux
Space Simulation
Celesia - available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
Orbiter - available for Windows
Math Software
Octave - available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux; Compare to MATLAB and Mathematica
Sage - available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux; Compare to MATLAB and Mathematica
Scilab - available for Windows and Linux; Compare to MATLAB and Mathematica
Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials - available for PCs with Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. Windows 8 and Windows 10 have Windows Defender built-in.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - available for Windows
Miscellaneous
3D Animation: Blender - available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
C/C++ IDE: Dev-C++ - available for Windows
Development Platform: Eclipse - available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux; compare to Visual Studio and NetBeans
File Archiver: 7-Zip - available for Windows and Linux
Graphing Calculator: GraphCalc - available for Windows and Linux
Sound Editor: Audacity - available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS
System Optimizer: CCleaner - available for Windows
Virtual Globe: Google Earth - available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux