Software Download Site

• Berkeley Lab IT maintains a repository of software available for purchase or download at software.lbl.gov.
• This site provides access to the most commonly used software at Lab, for office and research purposes.

Free Licensed Software 

• Many applications are available free of charge, as the have been licensed for use site-wide. Often these are purchased by the IT division, but in some cases scientific tools have been made globally available by the purchaser.

Software available for purchase

• There are many paid applications (such as Microsoft Office or Mathworks Matlab) which can be purchased directly through the software download site.
• Software purchases require a valid project and activity ID, as well as the DOE number of the system where it will be used.
• All purchases much be approved in accordance with Berkeley Lab procurement policies. Purchase approvals are managed in-app.

License Types

Free, Open-source

This includes many popular applications such as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, Putty, and 7-zip. While many of these products are available through software.lbl.gov, it can be challenging to keep the site up-to-date. As such, some downloads are just links to the product pages.

Note that some open-source licenses may not be completely free, in that they may be restricted from use in commercial settings. Always review the license terms before installing an app that is not downloaded from software.lbl.gov.

Site Licenses

Berkeley Lab IT provides many essential tools free-of-charge to the the Lab community. This includes critical security products like anti-virus and anti-malware, IT management tools like BigFix.

True-up Licenses

This is a common type of license for paid software. Each year the Lab IT division counts how many licenses are in use, and purchases the appropriate number of licenses from the developer. The cost for each license is then charged to the project ID provided at the time of purchase from software.lbl.gov.

Subscription

Some product suites, like Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud, are licensed under a subscription. Each user's license is only valid for a fixed period of time, after which it must be renewed in order to continue using the product. These licenses typically include all upgrades during the license term. Typically the subscriptions all expire on the same date, and new users may not get a full term of use before being charged for renewal.

Requesting New Software

If there are software applications that you need, but which are not available through software.lbl.gov, you may have to purchase it directly by submitting a requisition through the Lab's procurement office.

If there is a wider need for an application, IT may be able to make it available for purchase on software.lbl.gov. To request an application to be added, please contact the licensing team at licenses@lbl.gov.

Acceptable Use of Software

Software licensed to LBNL is for the Lab's business purposes.   Incidental use of such software is permitted to the extent allowed under the Acceptable Use of Information Technology policy.  

Some site licensed software is licensed for home use and can be installed on any machine used for Lab business (e.g. Sophos A/V Home Use).

There are circumstances where LBNL licensed software is purchased for installation on a non-LBNL owned machine (e.g. Visiting Scientist, UCB joint appointee, personally owned laptop used for lab use etc).  In such cases, line management should approve the installation and the license must be uninstalled and returned when the relationship to LBNL or the business need end.