Free Software

David Lippman

Pierce College

What is "Free"?

• "Free" as in "Free Beer"
• "Free" as in "Free Speech"

Software Licenses

• Proprietary
  • Software sold for profit, including Shareware
• Semi-Free
  • Example: free for non-commercial use
  • May or may not be open-source
• Freeware
  • Ambiguous term
  • Usually free of cost, but not open-source
• Open-Source
  • Free for commercial and non-commercial use
  • Freedom to use, modify, and redistribute
  • Does not mean Non-Commercial

Flavors of Open-Source

• Public Domain
  • You're free to do anything you want
• Non-Copyleft (e.g. Modified BSD-style)
  • Allows modification and redistribution as proprietary software
  • Usually require retaining copyright notices of original author
• CopyLeft (e.g. GNU Public License)
  • Freedom to use, modify, and redistribute
  • Any modifications, if made publicly available, must use same license
  • Preserves freedom

Tradeoffs of Using Free Software

• Community-based support vs. Vendor support
• Community-based upgrades vs. Vendor upgrades
• Maintenence costs vs. License costs
• Back-end costs
• Lack of Warranty
• Perception of Non-Commercial

The Goodies

• CAS
• Stats
• Typesetting
• Graphing
• Web-Based Assessment
• Other Handy Stuff
• Honorable Mentions

CAS

• Maxima + wxMaxima Frontend
  • Similar to: Maple/Mathematica
  • Upsides: Good symbolic integration. Easy Windows install
  • Downsides: No notebook-style formatting options
• Octave
  • Similar to: Matlab (mostly syntax equivalent)
  • Upsides: Comprehensive manual. Windows install.

CAS Cont'd

• Euler
  • Similar to: Matlab
  • Upsides: Fairly easy to use for Matlab users. Easy Windows install.
  • Downsides: Light documentation
• Yacas (Yet Another CAS)
  • Similar to: Maple/Mathematica/Matlab
  • Upsides: Windows install, web-based version, comprehensive manual
  • Downsides: Weak symbolic integration

Stats

• R
  • Similar to: S
  • Upsides: Windows install, comprehensive
  • Downsides: No friendly user interface
• PSPP
  • Similar to: SPSS
  • Downsides: No GUI
• Misc Web Tools: boxplot, t and z probabilities, etc.
  • Upsides: Web-based
  • Downsides: Not comprehensive

Typesetting

• MikTeX + TeXShell or TeXnicCenter
  • LaTeX based - steep learning curve
  • Upsides: Can output as PDF. Uses industry and academia standard (TeX).
  • Windows only, but alternatives for Mac/Linux exist.
• OpenOffice.org
  • Similar to: MS Office
  • Complete suite of word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database programs
  • Downside: Equation editor is weak. Add on (Jex) is available, but also not strong

Graphing

• gnuplot
  • 2D and 3D
  • Upsides: Extremely versatile
  • Downsides: Command line entry; no GUI
• GraphCalc
  • 2D and 3D
  • Upsides: Good 2D and 3D graphs with user-friendly GUI
  • Downside: Limited options
• SVG Grapher
  • 2D
  • Upsides: Web based, allows creation of piecewise graphs
  • Downside: Limited options. Graphs don’t always print well

Graphing Cont'd

• Java Graphers
  • 2D and 3D
  • Upsides: Web based. Very versatile.
  • Downsides: Can’t copy and paste into documents from web
• ODE Grapher
  • Similar to: ODE Architect
  • Upsides: Web based. View solutions to 1st-4th order ODE, or systems of 2 or 3 ODEs
  • Downside: Can’t copy and paste from web
• WinPlot
  • 2D, 3D, direction fields, etc.
  • Lots of options
  • Free of cost, but not open-source, and does not install icons.

Web-Based Assessment

• WebWork (Demo)
  • Upsides: Very versatile question language. Large question libraries exist.
  • Downsides: Tricky installation. Question sets only – no additional LMS features
• Aim / STACK
  • Uses maxima/Maple as backend CAS
  • Downside: Requires running maxima on web server
• WIMS
  • Interactive exercises as well as assessment. Uses maxima/Maple/etc for CAS backend
  • Downsides: Really complicated question language (for more than simple questions). Complicated server install

Web-Based Assessment Cont'd

• IMathAS (Pierce Site)
  • Upsides: Simple server install. Mini LMS along with assessments.
  • Downsides: Limited content available. Requires IE6 + browser plugins or FireFox 1.5 for visual graph/math display
• Moodle
  • Full LMS, like BlackBoard. Better math question types. Lots of optional add-on functionality
  • Downside: TeX–based math input is default – no equation editor (add-on ASCIIMath editor available)

Other Handy Stuff

• PDF Creator
  • Create a PDF of any document by choosing "Print"
• FireFox 1.5
  • Web Browser, like Internet Explorer
  • Built-in MathML and SVG support. Tabbed browsing. Less security holes
• GIMP
  • Photo-editing software, like Photoshop
  • Downsides: Not nearly as feature-rich as Photoshop. Need InkScape for vector graphics
• S5
  • HTML-based Slideshow System

Other Handy Stuff Cont'd

• Win____
  • Winarc: Game and puzzle generator, including Sudoku, Rubik cubes
  • Windisc: Travelling Salesman graph generator
  • Several other tools
  • Free of cost, but not open source.
• Mathtools
  • Indexed listing of online activities and other resources