Using Free/Libre and Open Source Software in the Geological Sciences

In the Geological Sciences, as in any other academic field, computers and software aided work are essential tools. Although Free and Open Source software is largely used in academic institutions for several purposes it is not yet state-of-the-art for the everyday usage. The usage of free and open source software is, besides the freedom of its ease of use, distribution, and modification, also recommended due to the increasing financial burden. There are many suited and effective alternative free software applications to the most common used proprietary commercial ones. Many common work steps can even be done entirely with the free operating system Linux. A selection of free software applications is compiled which are useful for geoscientific data evaluation and presentation. The provided information aims to lower the threshold of reservations against a potential migration and gives an overview about currently available alternative software useful in the Geological Sciences.