We have put together a list of high quality software for staff, parents, and students. Many of these applications come in versions for Windows, Mac and Linux. All of these applications are FREE for you to download and use at home.

Firefox

Web Browser

The Firefox web browser empowers you to browse web pages faster, more safely, and more efficiently. Key features include pop-up blocking to stop those annoying ads, tabbed browsing to let you view multiple web pages in a single window, and opening links in the background so that they’re ready for viewing when you’re ready to read them.

Built with your security in mind from the start, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by preventing harmful ActiveX controls, and offers a comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity private. In this age of rampant virus, trojan and phishing attacks, Firefox provides a secure alternative.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

OpenOffice Writer

For all your documents

WRITER has everything you would expect from a modern, fully equipped word processor or desktop publisher.

It's simple enough for a quick memo, powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, etc. You're free to concentrate on your message - while WRITER makes it look great.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

OpenOffice Calc

The all-purpose spreadsheet

CALC is the spreadsheet program you've always wanted. Newcomers find it intuitive and easy to learn; professional data miners and number crunchers will appreciate the comprehensive range of advanced functions.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

OpenOffice Impress

More power to your presentations

IMPRESS is a truly outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, and high-impact drawing tools.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

OpenOffice Draw

The powerful graphics package

DRAW - from a quick sketch to a complex plan, DRAW gives you the tools to communicate with graphics and diagrams.

'Park' your most commonly used drawing tools around your screen ready for single-click access.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

OpenOffice Math

Create equations and formulae for your documents

MATH is OpenOffice.org's component for mathematical equations. It is most commonly used as an equation editor for text documents, but it can also be used with other types of documents or stand-alone. When used inside WRITER, the equation is treated as an object inside the text document. Similarly, one can also insert these into other OpenOffice.org programs like CALC and IMPRESS.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

GIMP

Create and edit images

GIMP can be used to process digital graphics and photographs. Typical uses include creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, changing colors, combining images using a layer paradigm, removing unwanted image features, and converting between different image formats. GIMP can also be used to create animated images using an improved layers method. The full capabilities of the GIMP extend much further, however, and include advanced image editing, manipulation, and professional graphics creation.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

Inkscape

Create scalable vector graphics

INKSCAPE is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

Blender

Software for modeling and animation

BLENDER is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Download at Home | Instructions, Manuals, Tutorials

Additional Open Source Software for Home

• AVG Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, and Anti-Rootkit - GRISOFT today announced the release of their new product AVG Internet Security Home Edition. It is specifically for home use and offers complete protection for 3 PCs against viruses, spyware, spam and unauthorised access to your computer.

• ClamWin Antivirus - ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code. You may download and use it absolutely free of charge.

• Spybot Search and Destroy - Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies.

• Windows Defender - Windows Defender is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software.

• Art of Illusion - is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java, and should be usable on any Java Virtual Machine which is compatible with J2SE 1.4 or later.

• Audacity - is a sound editing program which can record, playback, and mix sounds or apply effects using a variety of filters. Audacity lets you edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo) and mix multiple tracks together. Use Audacity to record your own podcasts, mix music, or just be creative!

• Blender - is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems.

• FastStone - An image browser, converter and editor that supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA. It has a nice array of features such as image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, color adjustments, musical slideshow and much more.

• Finale NotePad - is your invitation to the world of music notation software! Find out how fun and easy it is to transform your musical ideas into beautifully printed music by downloading NotePad 2008 today!

• Google Picasa - A free software download from Google. Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC.

• Google SketchUp - Google SketchUp is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships. And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies.

• Hydrogen - Hydrogen is an advanced drum machine for Linux, Windows and Mac. It's main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming.

• Microsoft Photo Story - Create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions. Small file sizes make it easy to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device.

• Paint.net - Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

• AbiWord - AbiWord is a free, simple to use, and powerful word processing program similar to Microsoft® Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.

• Dia - Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio',though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams.

• Freemind - FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. FreeMind is used for keeping track of projects,research, notes, essay writing and brainstorming, and other organizing needs.

• GnuCash - is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, which allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. Features include double-entry accounting; stock/bond/mutual fund accounts; customers, vendors, jobs, invoices, A/P, A/R; QIF/OFX/HBCI import; transaction matching; reports and graphs; scheduled and financial calculations.

• IBM® Lotus® Symphonyâ„¢ is a set of applications for creating, editing, and sharing word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. There are three applications that make up the Lotus Symphony tools: Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets, and Lotus Symphony Presentations. These applications offer a complete set of features and can serve as an end user's daily office productivity solution. For many customers and organizations, the Lotus Symphony tools are a viable alternative to purchasing, deploying, and managing typical vendor-proprietary productivity suites.

• KompoZer - is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

• OpenOffice - OpenOffice.org the product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office.

• PDFCreator - PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDF files from nearly any Windows application.

• Scribus - Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

• Celestia - The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

• Google Earth - Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

• GCompris - GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10. Some of the activities are game orientated, but nonetheless still educational.

• Scratch - is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.

• Stellarium - Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.

• TuxPaint - Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (preschool and K-6). It combines an easy-to-use interface and fun sound effects. Kids are presented with a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative.

• Portable Apps - Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind. PortableApps.com provides a truly open platform that works with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc).It's open source built around an open format that any hardware vendor or software developer can use.

• OpenDisc is a collection of high quality open source software for the Microsoft Windows platform, aimed at users exclusively using said operating system. The two goals of the disc are to provide free alternatives to otherwise costly equivalents, and to educate people about the Linux operating system.

• Software for Starving Students - The Software for Starving Students CD enhances the Windows and Mac desktop computing experiences by providing an easy way to install free, high-quality software titles via a user-friendly interface.

Below are Linux Distributions where applications and operating system are free to use. Most Linux distributions have a Live CD or Live DVD you can freely download. The Live CD allows you to run the full operating system and applications directly from the CD or DVD without affecting the Windows installation on your hard drive.

• openSUSE - The openSUSE project is a worldwide community program sponsored by Novell that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. The program provides free and easy access to openSUSE. Here you will find a community of users and developers, who all have the same goal in mind—to create and distribute the world's most usable Linux.

• Ubuntu - The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. See also Kubuntu, Edubuntu.

• Fedora Core - The Fedora Project is a Red Hat sponsored and community supported open source project. Its goal? The rapid progress of Free and Open Source software and content. Public forums. Open processes. Rapid innovation. Meritocracy and transparency. All in pursuit of the best operating system and platform that Free software can provide.