Open Source Software
Open Source Software is a revolutionary movement complete with idealism, freedom fighters, and heroics. And, it's beginning to take root in our schools. The Free Software Foundation (FSF), established in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' rights to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. Free software emphasizes the importance of freedom from reliance on one vendor, freedom to see the source code, freedom from complicated licensing, and freedom from forced upgrades.
OpenOffice
is the free alternative to Microsoft Office. The cross-platform
productivity suite includes a word processor. spreadsheet, presentation manager,
database, and drawing program.
Blender
is a full functional integrated 3D creation software suite. It lets users
create high quality 3D graphics, movies and replay real-time, interactive 3D
content. Over the last decade, Blender has evolved as an in-house tool for a
leading European animation studio. Blender is powerful technology used for
creating broadcast quality 3D content. Available for all major
operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
Celestia ... The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All movement in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit. Celestia is expandable. Celestia comes with a large catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. If that's not enough, you can download dozens of easy to install add-ons with more objects.
Nvu ...Finally! A
complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop users as well as
Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage
and Dreamweaver. Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") makes
managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a
website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.
Tux Paint is a free drawing program designed for young children (kids ages 3 and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who helps guide children as they use the program. (See the full list of features.) It provides a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help your child be creative.