Top 10 Open-Source Software Alternatives for Poor College Students

Top 10 Open-Source Software Alternatives for Poor College Students

Beer money. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about: those sweet scented bills which all too often end up in your schools' bookstore cash register. Maybe you don't like beer. Maybe you like gadgets, or shrubs. It doesn't matter what you like (unless of course it is buying proprietary software, at which point you should stop reading this article and resume your career aspirations of becoming a jackass), all you have to like is money. And as a college student, I can't think of anything much more important. Ok, well, maybe some things, like a functioning DVR. Nevertheless, the truth is you can save a ton of cash on your college education by finding alternatives to expensive goods such as...



Replacing cds with mp3s.

Replacing food with Ramen Noodles.


Replacing steady girlfriends with whats her name.



But the real way you can save cash, is by replacing all that expensive proprietary software with open source solutions.



If you are a college student, you probably don't have a lot of extra money. Even if you do, why spend it if you didn't have to? Although many colleges and universities are now recommending that students bring a computer with them when they start college, most of them don't require a specific list of software. This is a blessing in disguise, because this is how you can save quite a bit of money.

There are a few schools, mainly engineering or art and design schools that recommend certain software, but guess what? There are low or no cost alternatives to almost all those expensive software programs.

You may have heard of open-source software (OSS) or free open-source software (FOSS) as some people call it. If you are not familiar with it, OSS is basically "any computer software whose source code is available under a license (or an agreement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change and improve the software and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form."

The following programs are some of the most common used by college students and their OSS alternatives or equivalents.

1. Open Office---instead of Microsoft office, this alone could save you $200-300. And Open Office has equal if not better features, including a word processor, spreadsheet, multimedia presentation, drawing, database and more.


2. Scribus--This desktop publisher can create documents such as term papers, research papers and more, for much less than Quark Xpress which costs $749.


3. Maxima--Chances are you'll need some type of math software and for higher math and algebra, and why pay for Mathsoft when Maxima is free?


4. BRL-CAD--If you are in an engineering or technical field, you know what TurboCad costs. This software developed by the US military Ballistics Research Laboratory, will cost you nothing.



5. ClamWin--Developed to work with Windows, this antivirus program includes automatic downloads and programmable scanning, just like Norton Antivirus which costs $70


6. Gimp--For GNU Image Manipulation Program, this program or its newer brother Gimpshop can equal Photoshop which retails at $650.


7.  SciCraft--For statistics and data analysis, this software rivals SPSS.


8.  Kompozer--Built on Nvu, this newer version can provide web design features like Dreamweaver which costs $400.



9.  Banshee--For your music needs, instead of iTunes, why not check out this software with iPod synchronization as well as music players, burners and playlist features? 


10.  Mozilla Seamonkey--Instead of Outlook, this software is an email service and internet browser with Chatzilla features. And you've got to love the name! Now that you know OSS is available, the choices are endless. There are literally hundreds of software programs out there for free or minimal costs. There is even a compilation called "Software for Starving Students" that includes over 40 programs, including games. This software is available for Mac OS X or Windows and includes OpenOffice and Firefox.

Just for fun, you might want to check out the Citrus Alarm Clock, which utilizes the media player on your computer to wake you at a set time. It even has features like fade-in or mute.

And then there is iProcrastinate. Unfortunately, only available for Mac users at this point, this software allows students to enter classes, assignments and due dates and assign them priorities So you know exactly when you'd better get busy.