Mandatory software is in boldface. Mandatory software must be installed and configured on your machine, and you should be prepared to use it as needed. You may use alternatives, as long as your work is fully compatible with the mandatory software. Documentation assumes you're using the mandatory software, unless otherwise noted. In-house support may be limited for workflows with non-mandatory software.
Recommended alternative software is in regular face. If an alternative to mandatory software is needed or desired, we recommend these be considered first. In-house support is still generally available.
Optional alternative software is in italics. In-house support for these is limited.
† Transitional only, not for final file output.
‡ Limited support, no in-house tech support.
$ Proprietary, permitted but not officially supported by the company. Should be used transitionally.
- LibreOffice 6
- Calligra
- OpenOffice.org ‡
- LibreOffice Writer 6
- AbiWord
- Calligra Words
- OpenOffice.org Writer ‡
- LibreOffice Calc 6
- Calligra Sheets
- OpenOffice.org Calc ‡
- LibreOffice Impress 6
- Calligra Stage
- OpenOffice.org Impress ‡
- Dia
- LibreOffice Draw 6
- Calligra Flow
- OpenOffice.org Draw ‡
- LibreOffice Base 6
- Calligra Kexi
- OpenOffice.org Base ‡
- Xournal
- LibreOffice Math 6
- GeoGebra
- ZeGrapher
- OpenOffice.org Math ‡
- Visual Studio Code: Live Share (text/code only)
- Etherpad [DevNet] (text/code only)
- AbiWord ‡
- Scribus
- LibreOffice Writer 6
- Calligra Words
- OpenOffice.org Writer ‡
- Calligra Braindump
- Freemind
- Evolution
- Thunderbird
- Geary
- Brave
- Firefox
- Chromium
- Opera
- Vivaldi
- VirtualBox
- GIMP
- FlameshotJS
- Shutter
- GIMP
- Krita (Calligra)
- Inkscape
- Calligra Karbon
- Darktable
- RawTherapee
- Converseen
- Blender
- Kdenlive
- Shotcut
- Pitvi
- OpenShot
- Roxio NXT Creator 2 $
- Audacity
- Ardour DAW
- Apple GarageBand $†
- LMMS
- Hydrogen
- Garritan $†
- Apple GarageBand $†
- MuseScore
- Visual Studio Code
- Atom
- Geany
- KATE
- Nano
- Vim
- Brackets ‡
- Emacs ‡
- Sublime $‡
- CMake
- Visual Studio Code
- Atom
- Code::Blocks
- Geany
- Vim
- Anjuta ‡
- Brackets ‡
- CodeLite ‡
- Eclipse CDT ‡
- Emacs ‡
- Kdevelop ‡
- Netbeans ‡
- Sublime $‡
- Visual Studio Code (debugging frontend)
- gdb or lldb
- KCacheGrind
- Valgrind
- Bless Hex Editor
- Nemiver
- Sysprof
- clang-format
- cppcheck
- AStyle
- cccc
- Goldilocks
- Docker
- Visual Studio Code
- Atom
- Geany
- Vim
- Brackets ‡
- Visual Studio Code: Live Share
- Visual Studio Code
- Atom
- Geany
- NINJA-IDE
- PyCharm Community Edition
- Vim
- Aptana ‡
- Brackets ‡
- Emacs ‡
- Eric ‡
- Pydev ‡
- Kdevelop ‡
- Spyder ‡
- Sublime $‡
- pdb
- pudb
- black
- flake8 (includes PyFlakes, pycodestyle, mccabe)
- bandit
- flake8-bandit
- flake8-datetimez
- flake8-docstrings
- flake8-pytest
- flake8-mypy
- flake8-regex
- flake8-requirements
- mypy
- pydocstyle
- pylint
- pytest
- ward
- Git
- Arcanist
- Meld
- Git Cola
- Ubuntu
- Debian
- Kubuntu
- Linux Mint
- Lubuntu
- Ubuntu Studio
- Xubuntu
- Arch Linux ‡
- Fedora ‡
- Windows 10 with WSL ‡
Note
This list doesn't apply to open source contributors, although we strongly discourage use of the software below.
The idea of “Officially Disallowing” software for company use might initially seem to be overkill, but there is a logic to it. The decision is, again, not made lightly. In most cases, the software title in question contains security and privacy issues, bugs, or compatibility issues that make its use a significant business and development risk. In other cases, the software is disallowed on grounds of licensing issues. Paying several thousand dollars extra for commercial licensing is impractical when there is equivalent open-source software available.
It is worth noting that, while not the sole factor, drastic conflicts in business ethics were also taken into consideration. MousePaw Media is built around the conviction that educational and creative technologies should be accessible to everyone, not just those with a lot of money. Relying on corporations whose business practices are at stark odds with this ethic is, frankly, counter-intuitive.
The following may NOT be used for company purposes, under any circumstances, unless otherwise noted or unless special permission is given by a supervisor. If you need more details, talk to Jason C. McDonald directly. (You are welcome to use these for personal reasons all you want.
No Adobe products may be used for development, due to licensing costs, file-type compatibility, and ethical concerns. (All useful Adobe products have an open-source equivalent in our present standards.) This includes Adobe Flash.
No Autodesk products may be used for development, due to licensing costs, file-type compatibility, and ethical concerns. (All useful Autodesk products have an open-source equivalent in our present standards.) This includes AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Maya, and Sketchbook.
Existing files may be opened with personal copies of Autodesk software for review and export purposes only.
Due to licensing and patent concerns, the MP3 format may NOT be used for any audio.
EXCEPTION: A copy (NOT the master) of the audio may be saved as an MP3 for compatibility with third-party services and software. Distribution in MP3 is only allowed if the distribution platform strictly requires that format.
Due to serious security and performance issues, Microsoft Internet Explorer is NOT to be used under any circumstances for company purposes, including (but not limited to) accessing the staff network, company-commissioned web design, or accessing any website for work-related reasons.
Due to some ODT compatibility issues, and a lack of in-company training and support, Microsoft Office is NOT to be used on any company documents.
Due to licensing costs, SketchUp may only be used for internal idea drafting, and is strongly discouraged even for this.
As of 2019, due to revisions in the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies for Microsoft, we have lifted the ban on Microsoft Windows. However, we still require Linux for development work. In circumstances where Linux is directly uninstallable on a work machine, Windows 10 with Windows Subsystem for Linux may be used.