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Everyday Software

Software Essentials

Math Packages

Yea, I hate paying for software too. With OpenOffice, you get a full featured office suite that will handle most of your needs. It is worth donating. Seriously good software.
If you do research on any topic, you need Zotero. It is a plug in for Firefox that pulls data from Eric or any other databases, formats the citation into any format you need, and allows links and library functions for all your citations and data. A life saver for your data collection.


These four packages are the top of the symbolic algebra open source mathematics pile. There are others, but Sage, Maxima and Octave are heavily documented for new user.

Smath is available on multiple platforms (WinMobile, Palm, iPhone, etc, unlike the other 3 packages) but the learning curve is very steep. All of these platforms have a steep learning curve, however. They are symbolic algebra systems after all! 


Powerful graphics editing software that can do much of what the ordinary user needs. It does not have the super advanced features of Paintshop, but most people do not need those features.		 Scribus is open source graphic design software. Very powerful, and a steep learning curve. It is worth learning though if you need powerful page layout software.

Avg is great anti-virus that is free. I use it.
Don't forget about your internet provider though. Charter.net gives the full F-Prot security suite free to it's subscribers. On another of my computers in the house I use it.
If you edit sound on a pc, Audacity is your friend. It can do multiple tracks, levels, and anything else you need.
 
If you want to make your work open, but still retain control, CC is how to do it.
 
I use this to maintain my hundreds of passwords. Safe and secure, it encrypts the database and lets you create very strong passwords without forgetting them!
If you use Geometers Sketchpad, you can use Geogebra. The main difference is you will pay over $100 for GS, and you will pay nothing for GG. My department has switched over to GG and has not looked back.
 


Print to CutePDF and turn anything into a PDF. Easy, simple and fast. What more can you need?

 C.a.R.: compass and ruler construction for geometry.
   
    MathGV Function Plotting Software
It plots functions. Not glamorous, but very useful!
   
   
If you need help learning algebra, this software will tutor you step by step through basic and intermediate equation solving. Free and maintained by a teacher from New York. Easy to use, and very well developed.