College is expensive. All those classes, books and fees add up quickly, and while there are many pieces of technology designed to enhance your college experience, most come with a price. While you earn your bachelor degree, take advantage of these powerful free programs to move your forward without the extra expense.
1) Email
Every student needs email, but not all email is created equal. Sites like Yahoo and Google offer nice and free email services, but for a full featured Microsoft Outlook-like program, check out Thunderbird by Mozilla the makers of the Firefox web browser. Thunderbird offers many great free plug-ins to enhance your email like a pro.
2) Word Process, Spreadsheet, Presentation
As tempting as it maybe to pirate Microsoft Office due to its high cost, there are free alternatives just as powerful. LibreOffice was created by the same team as the very popular, but purchased by Oracle and ignored, OpenOffice. LibreOffice provides virtually the same functionality as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Visio. You can even open and save in the Microsoft format. All this power for free.
3) Recording Your Classes
If your teacher streams his or her lectures online, or even if you’re sitting in class trying to take fast notes, you may not catch every word. Audacity is a free audio recorder and editor that allows you to record anything via a microphone in your computer or streaming.
These are only a handful of what is available. Look for free operating systems, video editors, scheduling calendars and PDF creators. The best educational software for college students may not always be labeled as such, but they are out there if you look.