Free Software

Software can still be very expensive, sometimes costing hundreds of pounds for a single product and you can often find the software starts to cost more money than the actual computer itself. Then of course you end up paying for subscriptions and the inevitable upgrade to the latest version.

So we have trawled the internet to find you some of the best freeware available.

Apache Open Office

Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. Apache OpenOffice is easy to learn, and if you’re already using another office software package, you’ll take to OpenOffice straight away.

If you already have files from another office package – OpenOffice will probably read them with no difficulty. Best of all, Apache OpenOffice can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. Apache OpenOffice is released under the Apache 2.0 License. This means you may use it for any purpose – domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees – anyone you like.


AVG Antivirus

Essential Protection. Easy to use. Award-winning virus removal and prevention Faster smarter scan with Free phone support.


GIMP Image Editing Software

GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows and more operating systems. It is free software, you can change its source code and distribute your changes.

Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. You can further enhance your productivity with GIMP thanks to many customization options and 3rd party plugins.


Microsoft Office 365

Although this isn’t actually Free, it is available with a 30% discount, so we thought we should mention it.

LAS employees can get this through the Microsoft Home Use Programme (HUP). Full details are on ‘the pulse’ and require you to have an NHS e-mail account.