SoftwareFor.org: Home of Software for Starving Students

Questions and Answers

Q: What software is on the CD?
A: For the 2007.09 release, the titles are:

Q: Why do you do this?
A: The cost of a college education is always increasing -- usually faster than students can earn money. We hope our efforts will help lower students' software costs. ^ return to top

Q: Why isn't your CD open source? and/or Why do you include non-open source software?
A: We enthusiastically support the concept of free/open software and standards. But our primary concern is that students have access to high-quality software, free of charge. If a software title could be useful for students and is free of charge, we'll seek permission to include it even if it is not open source. We've also chosen to license our contributions to the disc (the interface, etc.) such that it must remain free of charge. ^ return to top

Q: Why haven't you included [insert software title here]?
A: There are several possibilities -- we may not have heard of it (contact us!); the disc might already include a superior title that has the same functionality; we may have determined that it lacks sufficient functionality or has too many non-standard OS behaviors; or we might have decided that it doesn't fill a specific need for students. ^ return to top

Q: How can this be free?
A: We obtain all of this software, legally free of charge, via the Internet. Most of it is open source, the rest is obtained and distributed by permission. It doesn't cost us anything but our time (for the most part), so we pass the good will on to you. ^ return to top

Q: How can I get involved?
A: We need lots of skill sets, including programming, graphic design, marketing, and more. Contact us to tell us what skills and ideas you have. ^ return to top

Q: What is the license for Software for Starving Students?
A: Each software title on this disc is distributed under license terms as indicated on its software description page, on the CD. Where no license is listed, SoftwareFor.org has obtained permission to redistribute the software as part of this CD.

The Software for Starving Students CD interface, including all graphics and code, are © SoftwareFor.org and are distributed under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. ^ return to top

Q: Why is there no CD for Linux?
A: Our experience has been that people who use Linux are usually already aware of the open source and free software available to them (whereas OS X and Windows users are, as a whole, often less educated about such things). Additionally, we doubt that we could do a better job than existing Linux offerings like Edubuntu. ^ return to top