Using Brown Software
CIS can provide software acquisition and support services for you and your Department. The sections below contain information about acquiring various types of software, software entitlement, and known software issues. CIS also offers software support and hardware support for both Windows and Mac.
Software Acquisition
Departmental - If your department is interested in purchasing software, we can coordinate the software license purchase and distribution for you. If you do not see the type of software you need from the links provided on this page, please email Software_Services at Brown.edu or call 863-7476 for assistance.
CIS can assist departments to collaboratively acquire and distribute specialized applications. Our goal is to pool multi-departmental software purchases where practical, negotiate discounts and reduce departmental costs.
Individual - Individual software purchases can be made through resellers such as CDW-G, Brown Computer Store or other retailers.
A description of the general types of Brown University software licenses is available here.
Downloadable Software
Faculty, Staff and Students - Brown University provides more than 150 software titles to Brown students, faculty and staff at no charge. A complete list of software is available on the Software Distribution web page.
Known Issues
Off-Campus Use/VPN
All Brown software may be accessed using the VPN. However, users of Brown's VPN should be aware that not all ISPs support VPN connectivity. While most applications work well over the VPN, some applications may perform at reduced speed, and others (SPSS, for example) may or may not work at all. Please be aware that extremely large software packages will take a long time to download over VPN.
CIS will investigate the cause of problems and seek possible solutions. Please notify the Brown Help Desk at 863-HELP (email: help at brown.edu) if any of our downloadable software fails to perform satisfactorily while using the VPN.
Access/Entitlement
Access to Microsoft Office and Microsoft Visual Studio software is limited to Brown faculty and staff only. Eligibility for Microsoft Campus Agreement software is detailed in the Microsoft Campus Agreement section below.
ArcGIS
ArcGIS is limited to download by Brown faculty and staff only and must be installed on Brown-owned computers. Students may use this software in Brown University public computing clusters and labs on campus.
FileMaker Pro Software: Upgrade Considerations
- Once you have installed FileMaker Pro version 9 and you open an existing database with it, its file format is compatible with versions 7 and 8.
- Any other users of that database will need to use at least version 7 to access the database. Once modified, you will not be able to save the file in a version earlier than FileMaker Pro 7.
- FileMaker Pro 4.1 users can upgrade directly to version 9. However, relational database users may want to redesign their databases in version 9 and import their data, rather than simply upgrading.
- TCP/IP should be used be used for sharing databases.
- Before upgrading, be sure to back up your databases.
Join the FileMaker Users' Group by visiting: http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/filemaker-l.html and clicking on "Join or Leave the List..." You will be prompted to create a unique Listserv password that you will use to login along with your email address.
Microsoft Software
Faculty and Staff: Microsoft Campus Agreement (MSCA) Software - The Campus Agreement is an annual licensing program for higher education institutions. Brown University's agreement covers faculty and staff who are employed by Brown University only. Hospital-based faculty and staff may not be eligible. Some software titles covered under the Campus Agreement include Windows XP Professional, Office for Windows and Macintosh, Publisher and Virtual PC. Please see our Microsoft Campus Agreement program details for further information.
Faculty and Staff: Microsoft Select Software - Most Microsoft products are available for purchase at significant discount under the Select program. Examples include FrontPage, Project, Visio, and Windows Server. Please see our Microsoft Select program details for further information.
Students: Microsoft Student Select Software - Some Microsoft products are available for purchase at significant discount under the Student Select program. Examples include Office 2003 Professional for Windows, Office 2004 for Macintosh OS X, FrontPage, Project, Visio, and others. Please see our Microsoft Student Select program details for further information.
Research Staff and Students: Microsoft MSDN-AA Software - Microsoft MSDN-AA is limited to research and instructional use and includes Windows XP Professional, Project, Visio and Visual Studio.NET. Please see our MSDN-AA program details for further information.
Microsoft Office 2007
CIS SUPPORTS Microsoft Office 2007 primary applications (Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word) and provides INSTALLATION ONLY SUPPORT for secondary applications (Access, Groove, InfoPath, OneNote and Publisher). Office 2007 is available to paid faculty and staff on the Software Distribution web page.
An Office Compatibility Pack for Windows is available for download and linked from the Software Distribution web page. This software permits Office 2003 users to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, or presentations created in Microsoft Office 2007 file formats. There is no Office Compatibility Pack available for Macintosh users.
SAS Software
Faculty, Staff and Students: SAS Software - Brown faculty, staff and students who are connected to the Brown network on campus can use the current version of SAS from the Brown Web. For further information, see our SAS license details.
If you are installing SAS off campus, the VPN Client and KeyAccess must be installed and running prior to SAS installation. For detailed information, please refer to the SAS Download page.
Problems?
If you have problems downloading, installing or using any CIS web-distributed software, please contact the Help Desk by calling 863-HELP (4357) or by emailing Help at Brown.edu.