Excellent, Alternative Software (Oh Yeah, It's Free)

Not so long ago, in fact a week ago to be exact, I was a student. While there are downsides to the academic lifestyle there can be benefits as well. For one, software retailers tend to give you discounts that they deny to the general public. For instance, I purchased from two separate retailers, a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium edition for $70 U.S. That price included shipping. So, for what it would cost a regular consumer to buy just one copy of Vista Home Premium, I was able to buy two (one for the desktop, one for the laptop). If you're interested in where I found these deals, check out the Academic Superstore or CCV Software.

But let's say you're living off of Ramen noodle soup and microwave popcorn.  Well in that case you'll need some free (and LEGAL) software that's good enough to compete with its paid counterparts.


Software For Starving Students was created for this very purpose.



From their website:

"Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone). We've gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one disc for OS X, one for Windows), including a fully-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more."


Each platform has a different set of programs but here's a list for the curious:

OS X

• Acqlite
• Adium
• Audacity
• Bleezer
• Blender
• BZFlag
• Camino
• Carbon Copy Cloner
• Cashbox
• Celestia
• ClamXav
• Crack Attack!
• Enigma
• FreeDMG
• Freemind
• Fugu
• Genius
• GLtron
• HandBrake
• ImageBurner
• Monolingual
• MozoDojo
• NeoOffice
• NVU
• Pac the Man X
• Platypus
• POV-Ray
• Seashore
• Schoolhouse
• Smultron
• Thunderbird
• Transmission
• TypeTrainer4Mac
• VideoLAN Client

Windows

• 7-Zip
• Ant Renamer
• Audacity
• Blender
• BZFlag
• Celestia
• ClamWin
• DeepBurner Free
• Dia
• Enigma
• Eraser
• Exact Audio Copy
• FileZilla
• Firefox
• Freeciv
• Gaim
• GIMPShop
• GLtron
• GNU Chess
• Icebreaker
• Inkscape
• Juice Receiver
• KeePass
• MozBackup
• NVU
• OpenOffice.org
• Paint.NET
• PDFCreator
• Portable Apps
• POV-Ray
• PuTTY
• SolarWolf
• Spybot S&D
• Stellarium
• SuperTux
• The GIMP Toolkit
• Thunderbird
• Tortoise SVN
• Tux Paint
• Tux Racer
• Tux Typing 2
• VLC
• WinDirStat
• Wink
• winLAME
• WinSCP
• XAMPP
• µTorrent

I can personally attest to the usefulness of many of the programs offered for both Windows and OS X platforms. Need to unzip or compress files? 7-Zip will fit the bill and then some. Want to record podcasts? Audacity to the rescue! Need to edit images without paying $600 to Adobe? Try the GIMP! Need to turn in that paper in Microsoft Word format but don't have the money for the Microsoft Office suite? Try OpenOffice and stick it to the man! It really is a great software package to have in a pinch, and the best thing is that it comes as an ISO file so you can burn it to 1, that's right I said ONE cd. Tell your family, tell your friends, tell the money hungry software developers to take a leap! Check out Software for Starving Students!