Botany IT can assist you with software licensing. If you are interested in acquiring new or updated software, please contact us via email or in person at our office. This page provides a brief summary of commonly requested applications.
Adobe Software
UBC IT received ongoing funding starting in 2017/18 to increase access to essential software for staff and faculty at UBC, including Acrobat Pro DC and Adobe Creative Cloud.
There are changes to the UBC-Adobe licensing program. Faculty and staff please take note of:
Please register your CWL with UBC IT: site-license@it.ubc.ca
UBC IT requires: Name, position, CWL username and software required
The current packages include:
Acrobat Pro DC
- Acrobat Pro DC
Adobe Creative Cloud
- Acrobat Pro DC
- After Effects
- Adobe Media Encoder
- Adobe Muse
- Animate
- Audition
- Bridge
- Character Animator
- Dreamweaver
- Experience Design
- Fireworks
- Flash Builder
- Illustrator
- InCopy
- InDesign
- Lightroom
- Photoshop
- Premiere Pro
- Prelude
- Scout
- SpeedGrade
Minimum System Requirements
CPU – 2 GHz
RAM – 2 GB
Storage: 56 GB free space (36 GB for application files and 20 GB for cached installation files)
Attention: This software is only available for faculty and staff members with a UBC-owned device. For personally owned devices, Adobe software may be licensed through the UBC Bookstore or directly from Adobe. Educational discounts may be applicable, which can save you some money.
Microsoft Office
Students: Qualified for a free subscription to Office 365 using a valid CWL. Please see UBC IT’s website for more information.
Faculty/Staff with an UBC-owned device: The UBC Microsoft Campus Agreement covers all computers (PC or Mac) owned by the university. Please contact Botany IT for installation of the package.
Faculty/Staff with a personal device: Microsoft’s Home Use Program is available, you may purchase a home-use license from Microsoft at a low cost. For information on licensing Microsoft Office via the Home Use Program, please feel free to contact us.
Note: The Home Use license is terminated once you leave UBC or if the Campus Agreement ends.
Microsoft Windows
Any UBC owned computer running a licensed copy of Microsoft Windows may be upgraded to the latest iteration through the UBC Microsoft Campus Agreement. If you wish to upgrade Windows, please contact us to arrange a time for installation.
Anti-virus
Botany IT supports the following anti-virus programs.
- Windows – Microsoft Security Essentials(Free open-source program) | Sophos Antivirus (UBC License. Free for everyone that has affiliation with UBC)
- Mac – Dr. Safety(Free open-source program) | Sophos Antivirus (UBC License. Free for everyone that has an affiliation with UBC)
Attention: Sophos can be downloaded from UBC IT’s website.
Note: Affiliation with UBC include faculty, staff, students, visiting professors, etc.
Data Analysis
NVivo software
This is used for qualitative data analysis by researchers, evaluators, educators, and students. It enables users to collect, organize, and analyze content from qualitative data sources.
Attention: This is free and available to faculty and staff members with an UBC-owned device only. Please see UBC IT’s website.
Tableau
A modern, easy-to-use data analysis and reporting tool that allows effective data visualization from departmental data sets.
Attention: This is free and available to faculty and staff members with an UBC-owned device only. Please see UBC IT’s website.
Mathematical & Statistical Software
MATLAB
MATLAB is a language for technical computing that combines numeric computation, advanced graphics and visualization, and a high-level programming language.
Attention: This is free and available for faculty and staff members with an UBC-owned device only. This can only be used for non-commercial Teaching & Research Purposes. Please see UBC IT’s website.
SAS
A software suite of products for business intelligence, business analytics, data warehousing, and data mining used to gather, manage, and analyze large amounts of information.
Attention: This can only be used on an UBC-owned computer for non-commercial Teaching and Research and /or Administrative purposes for UBC. Please see UBC IT’s website.
SPSS
An advanced statistical package for the social sciences.
Attention: This is only available for UBC-owned computers. Please see UBC IT’s website.
Maple
A powerful mathematical problem-solving and visualization system used worldwide in education, research, and industry.
Attention: This is only available for UBC-owned computers. Please see UBC IT’s website.
Backup Software
A free version of Crashplan is available for both Windows and Mac, which allows users to back up their data to an external hard drive or to an offsite computer.
Mac users can also use the built-in backup feature of OS X – Time Machine. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201250
Password Management
Due to expanding requirements in terms of password aging and complexity, it has become very challenging to remember them all. We strongly recommend the use of password management software to simplify the process.
Other Recommended Free Utilities
Windows
- SFTP/FTP File Transfer – WinSCP, Cyberduck
- Privacy/System File Cleaner – CCleaner
- Disk Defragmentation – Auslogics Disk Defrag
- Simple Image Editor and Manager – Picasa
- Image Viewer – Irfanview
- Media Player – VLC Media Player (32-bit) | VLC Media Player (64-bit)
- File Archiver (Zip and RAR) – 7Zip
- Intermediate Image Editor – Paint.net
- Advanced Image Editor (Photoshop alternative) – GIMP
- Advanced Image Creation (Illustrator alternative) – Inkscape
- Citation Manager (End Note alternative) – Zotero
- PDF Reader – Adobe Reader
- PDF Reader (Adobe Reader alternative) – Foxit Reader
- PDF Creation (Adobe Acrobat alternative) – PDF Creator
- PDF Creation (Adobe Acrobat alternative) – Primo PDF
- Illustrator Alternative – Inkscape, CreativeDocs
- Anti-Malware – MalwareBytes Anti-Malware
- Anti-Exploit – MalwareBytes Anti-Exploit
Mac OSX
- Improved File Archive Support (Zip & RAR) – The Unarchiver
- Simple Image Editor – Picasa
- Media Player – VLC Media Player
- Advanced Image Creation (Illustrator alternative) – Inkscape
- Citation Manager (End Note alternative) – Zotero
- PDF Reader – Adobe Reader
- Photoshop Alternative – Gimp, Seashore
- Illustrator Alternative – Inkscape
Linux
- Photo Organizer – Shotwell
- Media Player – VLC Media Player
- Advanced Image Editor (Photoshop alternative) – GIMP
- Advanced Image Creation (Illustrator alternative) – Inkscape
- Citation Manager (End Note alternative) – Zotero
- PDF Reader – Adobe Reader