The “OS” in OS-College stands for several things:

• office suite
• other software
• operating system
• open source

The last item in this list, open source, is different from the other items because it is a major feature of all the other items. Most of the office suites, other software, and operating systems covered on this Website are open source. This means there are not any restrictions to how many computers these applications and operating systems can be installed on. Users also can access the source code for them and modify them. Most open-source applications are free of charge as well. These are a few reasons why the Website values and covers open-source software.

A second criteria for the office suites and other software is that they work equally well across Windows, Mac OS, most Linux distros, and some other operating systems. Many open-source applications fit into this. The two office suites covered here that are not open source meet this criterion. These applications give users the freedom to choose the operating system of their choice.

Here are brief descriptions of the first three items in the above list:

Office suites

Office suites are the focus of OS-College. While operating systems and other software are covered on the Website and related social media sites, most videos, pages, and articles are about LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, and two other office suites. LibreOffice and OnlyOffice are open-source, and they work equally well on Windows, Mac, and just about every Linux distro.

Microsoft Office Online and Google’s office applications, known as Google Drive, are the other two suites covered on the Website. They are not open source, but users can access them on any operating system, through a Web browser. This means Linux users, as well as those with Windows and Mac OS, can use them. Both are popular sets of applications.

Other software

In addition to office suites, OS-College covers a few other creative applications. OS-College has videos, pages, and blog articles about GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and Inkscape. Users can create artwork and images that can be part of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Other applications are not covered as extensively. There are blog articles and videos about them. These applications include Web browsers, startup disk creators, and utility applications.

Operating systems

OS-College has videos, blog articles, and pages of the following operating systems. They are not covered as extensively as office suites and video and photo-editing applications.

• Ubuntu
• Linux Mint (all user interfaces)
• Manjaro (all user interfaces)
• LXLE

These operating systems can be downloaded, written to a USB stick, and installed on most Intel/AMD laptops and desktops. All of these operating systems also come preinstalled on several computers that are designed to run Linux distros. Several of them also have versions for unique and inexpensive computers that are on the market.

In addition to the operating systems and applications, OS-College has pages and blog articles about computers that come preinstalled with Linux distros or ones that distros were designed for. Examples are System76 computers and Raspberry Pi.