Free and Open Source Software
To maximise the reusability and reproducibility of our workflows—both for ourselves and for others—we preferentially use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) whenever suitable and appropriate options are available.
Bibliography manager *USEFUL FOR ALL TESS LAB MEMBERS*
Zotero is a FOSS to facilitate managing libraries of information sources and citations for automatic referencing in documents. Zotero can be extended with Citethisforme.com to facilitate website citations.
Data analysis *USEFUL FOR ALL TESS LAB MEMBERS
R is a FOSS powerful computing language for most aspects of scientific computing including but not limited to geospatial and statistical analysis and beautiful data visualisations.
GIS
QGIS App that uses QGIS backend to facilitate GIS and data collection in the field
GIS (Fieldwork)
QField is a FOSS application using a QGIS backend to facilitate GIS and data collection in the field.
Version Control
Git is a FOSS tool to help develop and share our computer code.
Diagraming
draw.io is a FOSS flowchart maker and diagram software for making high quality outputs, with online and offline versions.
Surveying
Open Drone Map is a FOSS application for processing photogrammetry data, including multispectral imagery.
Office work
LibreOffice FOSS LibreOffice is the modern version of ‘OpenOffice’, and is the ‘go to’ if needing a FOSS alternative from Microsoft Office. Includes PDF editing capability.
Graphics Editing
Gimp is a FOSS equivalent to Photoshop, fully featured and very powerful for editing raster images and photographs.
Graphics editing
Inkscape is FOSS professional quality vector graphics software, which can be useful for producing publication-quality figures to illustrate and communicate scientific concepts.
Screen Video Recording
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a FOSS for recording screen captures with voiceover and video feeds, this can be useful for making instructional guides and tutorials.
Video Editing
Shotcut is a FOSS video editing software (fully featured). Useful for converting formats and editing clips with sound tracks etc. Award winning feature length movies have been made using this software and there are lots of tutorials available online.
Video Playback
VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files, and various streaming protocols.
File management
We use Git to help develop and share our computer code, using the TESS Lab organisation on GitHub.
File management
FileZilla is a FOSS tool for facilitating file transfer. (Note this functionality can also be accessed programmatically).
File management
7zip is a FOSS for compressing and uncompressing files.
Geospatial Processing
Cloud Compare is an open-source software for working with point clouds (great as a viewer but beware of truncated precision if saving exports).
Programming
Visual Studio Code is a FOSS Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that’s great for coding with multiple languages including Python.
Spectroscopy software
Spectragryph is a FOSS package valuable for spectroscopy applications.
GNSS Processing
RTKLIB is a FOSS library for working with Global Navigation Satellite System data, for example post-processing RINEX data or converting to KML files.
Qualitative Data Analysis
NVivo is widely used for qualitative data analysis and organisation, but there are several FOSS alternatives. QualCoder is currently our preferred option to investigate for substantial qualitative coding and thematic analysis, although users should evaluate whether it meets their specific requirements before committing to a workflow. When selecting a tool, consider functionality, ease of use, software maintenance and development, data portability, interoperability, licensing, and the long-term accessibility of project files. FOSS does not by itself guarantee reproducibility, so maintain a documented codebook, analytical framework and versioned project files regardless of the software used. Options include:
- QualCoder: a cross-platform, open-source qualitative analysis tool supporting text, audio, video and images. Our first option to trial for substantial thematic coding.
- Taguette: a lightweight tool for highlighting, tagging and organising qualitative research materials. A good option for relatively straightforward coding, but potentially more limited for complex thematic analysis.
- AQUAD 8: an open-source qualitative analysis platform supporting text, audio, video and images. Worth considering, but with a smaller contemporary user/development ecosystem.
- RQDA: an R-based qualitative data analysis tool. Attractive for R-integrated workflows, but its ageing technical infrastructure makes it less suitable as a default choice for a new project.
Other non-FOSS but very useful software
Canva powerful tool to create professional designs.
Collaboration Tools
Jamboard quick and easy input in group meetings, anonymous by default.
Padlet is slightly more structured/complex than Jamboard, with the ability to comment and like comments/notes. Useful for slightly more formal capture of ideas.
Presentation Tools
Mentimeter is great for capturing interactive polls in real time.
Accessibility (and more)
Microsoft Edge is a free web browser with a very good read-aloud (text-to-speech) capability that some people find helpful (easily reading webpages and PDFs, highlighting each word as it is read, easily skip paragraphs, adjustable pace and range of voices, with no annoying extensions). It also supports PDF editing (adding text, drawings and highlighting).
Data analysis
RStudio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) optimised for integration with R.
Photogrammetry
Pix4D for photogrammetric processing of image data from drone platforms etc.
Terrestrial Ecosystem Science & Services 