IT Services

Software Review 2013-14

IT Services would like to thank all the staff who contacted us about the software review this year. We’ve been going through the responses and are now preparing the software to be installed on student PCs over the summer in time for the start of the new academic year.

The student PC desktop will once more be based on Windows 7 and continue to use Office 2010 (including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Project and Visio).

Web browsers

On the student PC desktop Internet Explorer will be upgraded to version 10 and both Firefox and Chrome will be installed as alternative browsers.

New software

Additional software on the student PC desktop includes:

• Fragstats (spatial pattern analysis)
• Mathematica (advanced symbolic mathematics)
• Mendeley (citation software)
• Paint.NET (image manipulation software)
• R Studio (integrated development environment for R)
• Skype (internet voice call and messaging)

For a full list see:

sussex.ac.uk/its/services/software/review

Withdrawn software

Software to be withdrawn from the student PC desktop at the end of summer term 2013 includes:

• MSN Messenger (internet messaging)
• SAS (statistical software)
• Aladin, Stellarium and IRIS (astronomy software)
• Sound2Picture (multimedia/music software)

Mac desktop

The hope is to upgrade the student Mac desktop to Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8). No major items of software are being added or removed, but Sibelius (music software) is being upgraded to version 7.

Engineering software

We are now delivering specialist engineering software using Application Jukebox. Software provided through Application Jukebox is installed on demand when it is needed and can be kept up to date centrally by IT Services. This enables us to provide software in a more flexible manner and is a move away from the more static PC desktop that historically has been delivered on a yearly basis.

IT Services hopes to extend the Jukebox service to deliver other complex software that is required in other locations.

Other software

Apart from these changes, the software on student computers will be the same as the current list, although in some cases, programs will be upgraded to more recent versions. You can check the exact version of all the applications on the 2013-14 PC desktop by visiting the software webpages online at:

sussex.ac.uk/its/services/software/list

We are now packaging and testing the new software configuration before deploying it to student computers during the summer vacation.