introduction of some useful free software cheng-han du
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General Use OpenOffice
It is almost the same as Micro$oft Office. Many functions work similarly. The only downside is its compatibility with M$ P
owerPoint. You can install OpenOffice in M$ Windows, Mac
OS, and Linux. http://www.openoffice.org/
General Use FireFox
Originally, it is called “Mozilla”. The one which can completely beat M$ Internet Explorer. Much better security comparing with IE. Lots of available plug-ins to enhance user experience. You can install OpenOffice in M$ Windows, MacOS, and
Linux. http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
General Use GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
A graphics editor which is much more robust than M$ painter.
Its usage is more complicating. However, it can handle advanced functions if you know how to use it.
http://www.gimp.org/
Entertainment Foobar2000
A music player with clean and simple user interface. Interface can be fully-customized. Some functions can be used for better audio quality. Great number of media formats support. http://www.foobar2000.org/
Entertainment Amarok
A music player in KDE Linux environment. It provides a iTune-like user interface. You can listen to web broadcasting. http://amarok.kde.org/
Entertainment SMPlayer
A popular media player in Linux. Before watching some videos such as RealMedia, Windo
ws Media Video, or AVI, obtain the codecs first. http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/
Science Octave
A free software to perform calculation. It can handle most of MATLAB programs. Gnuplot is required for drawing figures. http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/
Science Gnuplot
A package which can help you with numerical plots.
It can handle 2D and 3D plots. Many aspects of the plots can be customized. http://www.gnuplot.info/
Science R-Project
A robust tools for statistical computing. Instead of simple figure-drawing software, it can
support statistics-relating problems. Harder to learn since it is generally used in comm
and-line mode. http://www.r-project.org/
Development GCC
Originally called “GNU C Compiler,” now it is “GNU Compiler Collection”
If you want to learn C programming, you should use GCC. (Visual Studio S**ks!!)
http://gcc.gnu.org/
Development Python
A programming language of growing popularity. Simpler code and more dynamic. Some commercial software requires it to work properly. Many other programming language and can be integrated
with Python (Ruby, Perl, Tcl). http://www.python.org/
Development OpenGL
An open-source graphic library to efficiently handle 2D and 3D object imaging.
For better visualization experience in Linux, OpenGL is essential.
OpenGL is prerequisite for 3D scientific data rendering. http://www.opengl.org/