OtherI’m all in favour of using free software – well, why pay for something if you don’t have to? Of course, the quality needs to be good enough for your purposes.
You may already have commercial software that you prefer to use but if you need to upgrade any programs – and you’re on a budget – then the following suggestions may help. They represent some of my favourites. Basically, having a program from each of the eight areas is probably all you’ll need to complete most written assignments for training courses and to operate safely on the World Wide Web.
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1. Office Suite |
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Open Office http://www.openoffice.org Leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases. |
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2. Graphics |
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Paint.NET http://www.getpaint.net Image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. |
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GIMP http://www.gimp.org The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a comprehensive program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. |
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3. Audio Recording |
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Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net Software for recording and editing sounds. |
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4. Anti-virus |
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avast! www.avast.com Virus protection, with anti-spyware and anti-rootkit software built in for added security. |
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5. Web browsers |
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Firefox http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/ Web browser alternative to Windows Explorer. |
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Opera http://www.opera.com Web browser alternative to Windows Explorer (also includes an email program). |
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6. Email Programs |
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Opera http://www.opera.com Email program and web browser combination. |
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Thunderbird http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/ Email alternative to Microsoft Outlook. |
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7. Communications |
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skype http://www.skype.com Make calls from your computer — free to other people on Skype and cheap to phones and mobiles around the world. Can also do video conferencing. |
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8. Statistical Analysis |
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This is a specialist area and there are many free software packages available. Your choice will be influenced by the detail/depth of analysis required. For fairly straightforward, common statistics used in speech therapy, the Gnumeric spreadsheet is worth looking at. For in-depth, robust analyses R is used extensively. However, as it uses a scripting language, there is a steep learning curve if you’re not comfortable/familiar with programming. |
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Gnumeric http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric Easy to use spreadsheet with pre-programmed statistical functions, including, ANOVA, correlation, covariance, histograms, ranks, percentiles, regression, T-tests, F-test…and more. |
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A wide variety of statistical and graphical techniques, including, linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, and more. R is also a programming language with an extensive set of built-in functions. |
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Licences and permissions to reproduce logos |
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Open Office |
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Paint.NET |
Paint.NET is a trademark of Rick Brewster and licensed under |
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GIMP; Gnumeric; R |
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Audacity |
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avast! |
avast! and avast! logo are registered trademarks of ALWIL Software. |
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Opera |
Opera and Opera logo are copyright Opera Software ASA |
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Firefox; Thunderbird |
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SKYPE |
Skype is copyright Skype Limited |
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