Many of the applications you'll need as a student or employee at WSU Vancouver are available for free or at reduced prices.

Free Software

Office: OpenOffice.Org is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, providing good compatibility with the goal of duplicating Office's functionality. Open Office is available for most operating systems.

Graphics: Gimp is a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop, providing most of the functionality of Photoshop. Gimp is available for most operating systems.

Antivirus: All current WSU students may download Symantec Antivirus software for free and use it on their personal computers while they are students at the University. This software is available by logging in to myWSU. For further help, see the version checking and download instructions. Faculty and staff may borrow a cd from our office and follow the Symantec installation instructions.

Microsoft: Many Microsoft applications (not including Office) are available through the MSDN Academic Alliance. Log in using your network ID and password. You will be given the option of downloading a file which may then need to be burned to a cd before install (depending on which software you choose), or you can instead choose to pay a small fee and have a cd sent to you.

File Transfers: An FTP program is necessary for those who want to transfer files to the school Web server. Windows users may want to use the free CoreFTP LE while a similar (and free) FTP program for Macintosh users is Fugu. Connections to the school's main Web server require a secure FTP connection (SFTP) which both of these provide. The student Web server allows both regular FTP and Secure FTP.

Discounted Software

Many software vendors offer educational discounts. It is often beneficial to check around vendor websites for education discount programs. WSU has partnered with some vendors to provide discounted software through E-Academy. Log in to the E-Academy website using your network ID and password for discounts on Microsoft products, Minitab, SPSS, SAS, Parallels Desktop, and many other pieces of software. Examples of other companies with discounted education stores are the Adobe education store and the Apple education store.

Site Licenses

WSU maintains site licenses covering many applications. These licenses apply to University-owned computers and some faculty or staff computers that are used for work. Applications such as Microsoft Office and Symantec Antivirus are licensed to be installed on all University computers. Other applications are available at discounted prices. More information and a list of software prices is available at WSU's site license page.

SkillSoft

SkillSoft is an online resource available to all WSU students containing an extensive collection of training and books on a wide range of technology and employment-related topics. Log in using your network ID and password.