A list of well known, free and open source software is provided on this page for the convenience of Brown's software user community. These products have been selected as the best alternative solutions for those who are not eligible to use certain Brown-licensed software.
| Software Type | Product Title | Description |
| 3D Image Viewing | Microview | 3D image viewer with image analysis tools and plug-ins |
| Computational | OpenStat | Open source alternative to SPSS software |
| PAST | Includes common statistical, plotting and modelling functions | |
| PSPP | Replacement for SPSS that is similar in appearance | |
| R | Alternative to S-Plus that provides a command line interface for power users | |
| Sage Notebook | Viable open source alternative to Magma, Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB | |
| SOFA | Statistics, analysis, and reporting program with emphasis on ease of use | |
| Computer Aided Design | AutoCAD | AutoCAD programs for instructional use only |
| Connectivity | Xming | X Server for Windows |
| Data comparison | Meld | Visual diff/merge tool |
| Data visualization | Tableau for Students | Interactive data visualization tool. Free Tableau Desktop licenses are available for full-time enrolled students. |
| Tableau for Teaching | Interactive data visualization tool. Tableau Desktop license is free to instructors for instructional use and/or noncommercial academic research. Bulk lab or student licenses are also available to use Tableau in a course. Visit Tableau for Teaching FAQs and the Instructor Resource Page for details. |
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| Graphics editing | Paint.NET | Free image and photo editing software for Windows |
| Paintbrush | Simple paint program for Mac OS X that permits editing of most major image formats | |
| Inkscape | Open Source vector graphics editor similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the SVG file format | |
| Note-taking | Tomboy Notes | Simple note-taking |
| Office productivity | Canva Infographics | Data visualization tool that includes hundreds of free design elements |
| Libre Office | Suite of six feature-rich applications for your document production and data processing needs | |
| OpenOffice | Open source software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and databases | |
| Scribus | High-quality, multi-platform desktop publishing application | |
| Password manager | KeePass2 | Lightweight password manager |
| PDF Creation | CutePDF | Create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document |
| doPDF | Most lightweight free PDF creator | |
| PDFCreator | Easily create PDFs from any Windows program | |
| PDF Viewing | Foxit Reader | Small, fast, and feature rich PDF viewer for Microsoft Windows, which allows you to open, view, and print any PDF file |
| Photo editing | GIMP | GNU Image Manipulation Program that is freely distributed software for tasks such as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring |
| GIMPShop | A modification of GIMP with the look and feel of Adobe Photoshop | |
| Google Photos | Free photo editing software with name tags | |
| S/FTP | Filezilla | S/FTP client |
| Text editing | Eclipse | Open source text editor for web and Java developers |
| Geany | Text editor and basic IDE | |
| Notepad++ | Free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. | |
| Web design | Aviary | Suite of free online web page creation tools |
| Video Editing | Blender | Free software for video editing and game creation |
Open Source as Alternative (OSALT) is a website committed to providing easy access to high-quality, open source alternatives to well-known commercial products. Please refer to OSALT if you are seeking alternative applications that are not suggested above.