Personal software, purchased for your own use and not required in your daily work activities, may not be installed on college machines. Often these packages interfere with the processing speed of a computer and can create conflicts with other work-related applications, requiring computer center staff to waste valuable time diagnosing and fixing the problem. It is illegal to use copyrighted software unless you have purchased a copy. Yes, the price of software is high, and yes, it is often easy to copy. But that does not make it acceptable.
Programmers make their living by the programs they sell.
If you cannot afford a program, don't use it. The software in the clusters is adequate for most of the academic work you'll need to do. If you are unsure whether a piece of software can be copied freely or whether it is copyrighted, please ask the Computer Center staff. Curb the spread of viruses. Viruses are a fact of life wherever there are computers being shared by many people.