==== Zero-cost Software ====

Many software and technologies companies make their commercial software or services available at no cost to university students:

  * Amazon's [[https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/ | AWS Educate]]
  * GitHub's [[https://education.github.com/pack | Student Developer Pack]]
  * JetBrain's [[https://www.jetbrains.com/student/ | Desktop IDEs]] (including IntelliJ IDEA)
  * Microsoft's [[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/students/ | Azure for Students]]
  * VMWare products at [[https://jmucs.onthehub.com/ | OnTheHub]]

Besides VMWare products, other packages are available from [[https://onthehub.com/ | OnTheHub]]. Search for JMU and choose either "James Madison University" or "College of Integrated Science and Engineering" as the department to find other packages.

**Important:** The above offerings are "free as in beer" not "free as in speech" (for more info, see "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre |gratis vs. libre]]" and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software |Free Software]] movement). For the most part, these companies make their software and services available for free with the goal of acquiring you or your employer as a paying customer after you graduate.

==== Free/Libre Software ====

Here are some popular "free as in speech" alternatives to commercial software:

  * [[https://www.audacityteam.org/ | Audacity]] - audio editor
  * [[https://www.blender.org/ | Blender]] - 3D creation suite
  * [[https://www.eclipse.org/ | Eclipse]] - development environment
  * [[https://www.gimp.org/ | GNU Image Manipulation Program]] - image editor
  * [[https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ | GNU Octave]] - scientific programming language
  * [[https://inkscape.org/ | Inkscape]] - vector graphics editor
  * [[https://krita.org/en/ | Krita]] - painting program
  * [[https://www.latex-project.org/ | LaTeX]] - document preparation system
  * [[https://www.libreoffice.org/ | LibreOffice]] - office suite
  * [[https://www.scribus.net/ | Scribus]] - desktop publishing
  * [[https://www.virtualbox.org/ | VirtualBox]] - desktop virtualization