Computer Related Stuff

Programming Languages

• ActiveState Perl (click the [Download Now] button in the upper right for their free Perl interpreter)
• Python
• Java — To develop Java applications and applets, you need the JDK (Java Development Kit), which includes the JRE.
• The GNU Compliler Collection (GCC) — This includes front ends for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, Ada, and Go. On the right, click on the "Binaries" link in the Download section.

Miscellaneous Software

• Notepad++ - a good text editor for MS Windows
• MIT Scratch - a fun way to learning about programming
• Scribus - a powerful desktop publishing layout system

Books

• Programming Perl, 4th Edition This 21MB PDF file will take a while to download. If you want to learn Perl, I highly recomment you buy both Programming Perl and Learning Perl, published by O'Reilly.
• O'Reilly & Associates — Programming Books

Linux

All of the above are availabe for Windows computers. If you are serious about computer science, you probably will want to learn a little about Linux, a family of free, Unix-like operating systems. Three popular versions are linked to from here. Note that these are replacements for Windows. Installing them can wipe out all existing data on your computer so proceed with caution.

• Ubunto — a popular desktop and server distribution derived from Debian, maintained by British company Canonical Ltd.
• Fedora Project — a community distribution sponsored by American company Red Hat.
• CentOS — a distribution derived from the same sources used by Red Hat for their non-free Red Hat Enterprise Linux.