Softwarefor.org has made a compilation download of free software for students. The software is for Windows and Mac operating systems.
One of the most important pieces are Openoffice.org‘s suite of office applications. These programs are very similar to Microsoft Office and for the most part completely compatible with Microsoft Office.
Another great piece of free software is R. R is statistical software that is similar to the S-Plus programming language.
Latex is a typesetting program that is used by many scientist. It is a very powerful language for typesetting.