Here’s the list of the tools to start a PhD. Not in an old-fashioned way, but in a {free} way. All the tools in the list are crossplatform, avaialble in Linux, Mac, and Win.

1. Office suite: LibreOffice, OpenOffice and their forks, or use LaTEX.

2. Reference manager: Zotero, Mendeley, JabRef.

3. Note-taker: Evernote.

4. image processor: Gimp.

5. Diagram maker: Dia, VUE.

6. statistics and programming: R, Python.

7. Blogging: Markdown syntax.

8. GIS: QGIS, GRASS GIS, Post GIS And you may continue the list.

@dasaptaerwin