Purchasing software

This article provides general information on buying new computer software. Before making any computer-related purchase, please check with your LSCR consultant, who can help you evaluate your needs and come up with specific recommendations. Not all software available through the vendors mentioned below can be supported by LSCR, and incompatibilities and other issues can arise.

Where to purchase

There are several ways to buy software at significant educational discounts. If you wish to buy a single copy of a product with the manual, media (CD-ROM or DVD), and license, it is often cheapest to purchase the software from The Scholar's Workstation (TSW).

If you wish to buy multiple licenses and do not need a manual or media for each machine, it is usually cheapest to purchase the product from Software House International (SHI) if it is available there. SHI is the vendor that the UC Office of the President has picked to handle volume license agreements for certain products from major vendors such as Adobe, FileMaker, Symantec, and Microsoft. Purchasing software under those volume license agreements is available only for departmental purchases, although campus-affiliated individuals can purchase the retail educational version of some of the same products individually from either TSW or SHI.

Note that some software (such as anti-virus software) has been licensed by the Berkeley campus. This software can be downloaded by campus-affiliated individuals at no charge from Software Central.

The terms of various licensing agreements can be confusing, so please feel free to contact LSCR to be sure that you obtain the software you need in the most cost effective way.

LSCR recommendations

Your LSCR consultant can provide specific recommendations, but here are some general guidelines for software purchases:

• If you have a new computer, you will generally want to be running the latest versions of whatever applications you run. Older software may have compatibility issues with newer machines. The exception to having the latest version of a particular piece of software is that is may be prudent not to a install a version that has just been released; waiting a month or so is often a good idea.
• Likewise, if you have an older machine, you may not want to install the latest version of a piece software. It is important to make sure that your machine at least meets the minimum hardware and software requirements.
• Generally, it is best to select software that is widely used on campus. For example, Dreamweaver is more commonly used on campus than Microsoft Expression Web for web development, and Microsoft Word is more commonly used than WordPerfect. The more popular software is not necessarily the better product, but there will often be fewer interoperability issues and better support.
• Check the LSCR software support levels page to see what versions of software are being supported and recommended.