Hello, Thanks for all the emails (only some of which reached the bb). It is clear that I am not alone in feeling aggrieved by Invitrogen suddenly introducing licence fees, having first persuaded us to put our files and time into their "free product" over several years.
Once the thread goes quiet, I'll summarise the suggestions for everyone's benefit. I've tried several packages today but it would be good if suggestions were accompanied by brief "strengths and weaknesses". >From a first view, there are a number of clunky programs that do the job. And some that are really just viewers that are difficult to use for sequence manipulation. As a lab with hundreds of constructs and primers in our database, we also appreciate the file arrangement/storage as well as the sequence analysis function. Thanks Darren 2009/1/28 Darren Hart <h...@embl.fr> > Hello, > After several years of offering the molecular biology software VectorNTI > free to the academic community (their "open access program") and building > up a huge user base, Invitrogen have suddenly announced that they will no > longer renew these free licences and the existing ones will be left to > expire within the year. There are heavy renewal fees for anyone wishing to > continue use of this software. > > Can anyone recommend decent alternative PC compatible alternatives? Main > uses are construct and primer design, plus simple quick alignments, > sequence data analysis etc. The database structure for storing sequences > was pretty useful also. > > Ideally free, otherwise reasonably priced. I've seen CLCbio and Geneious > have products, both free and paid. Any experience? > > Thanks, > Darren > EMBL Grenoble > > ps anyone using VNTI might consider a backup of their work by exporting > files to .gb format. I don't know if a locked up (expired) version permits > this and you will have no notice that it is about to expire. > > > -- ********************************************************************** Dr. Darren Hart, Team Leader High Throughput Protein Lab Grenoble Outstation European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) ********************************************************************** EMBL webpages: http://tinyurl.com/6xdltl http://tinyurl.com/667jrp Email: h...@embl.fr Tel: +33 4 76 20 77 68 Fax: +33 4 76 20 71 99 Skype: hartdarren Postal address: EMBL, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP181, 38042 Grenoble, Cedex 9, France **********************************************************************