Best Molecular Modeling Software for Linux

GROMACS is a free and open source suite for high-performance molecular dynamics and output analysis. It is a versatile package for simulating the Newtonian equations of motion for systems with hundreds to millions of particles, with a strong focus on materials modeling, biomolecular simulation, and particle-based systems. GROMACS is primarily designed for biochemical molecules such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, which involve many complicated bonded interactions, but its speed in calculating nonbonded interactions also makes it useful for non-biological systems such as polymers and other materials. It can model ensembles of particles in liquid, solid, or gaseous states and supports a wide range of molecular dynamics workflows, from basic energy minimization and equilibration to production simulations and detailed trajectory analysis.

NAMD is a parallel molecular dynamics code designed for high-performance simulation of large biomolecular systems. Based on Charm++ parallel objects, it scales from desktop and laptop computers to high-end parallel platforms, hundreds of cores for typical simulations, and beyond 500,000 cores for the largest simulations. NAMD is built for researchers who need to simulate large molecular systems efficiently while preserving compatibility with widely used molecular modeling workflows. It uses the popular molecular graphics program VMD for simulation setup and trajectory analysis, and it is file-compatible with AMBER, CHARMM, and X-PLOR. It is designed to support biomolecular simulations involving proteins, membranes, nucleic acids, solvents, ions, and other molecular systems where atomic interactions and time-dependent motion need to be studied in detail.

ESPResSo, the Extensible Simulation Package for Research on Soft Matter, is a highly versatile open source simulation package for performing and analyzing scientific molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo many-particle simulations. It is designed as a universal tool for simulating a variety of soft matter systems, especially coarse-grained atomistic or bead-spring models used in physics, chemistry, molecular biology, and process engineering. ESPResSo can be used to simulate polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, polyelectrolytes, ferrofluids, gels, biological systems, DNA, lipid membranes, bacterial motion, and super-capacitors. In coarse-grained models, a group of atoms or molecules is treated as a single bead, allowing researchers to investigate larger time and length scales than would be practical with fully atomistic simulations. ESPResSo supports classical molecular dynamics simulations in different statistical ensembles.

With its comprehensive suite of integrated software, StarDrop™ delivers best-in-class in silico technologies within a highly visual and user-friendly interface. StarDrop™ enables a seamless flow from the latest data through predictive modeling to decision-making regarding the next round of synthesis and research, improving the speed, efficiency, and productivity of the discovery process. Successful compounds require a balance of many different properties. StarDrop™ guides you through this multi-parameter optimization challenge to target compounds with the best chance of success, saving you time and resources by enabling you to synthesize and test fewer compounds.

Swiss-PdbViewer (aka DeepView) is an application that provides a user-friendly interface allowing to analysis of several proteins at the same time. The proteins can be superimposed in order to deduce structural alignments and compare their active sites or any other relevant parts. Amino acid mutations, H-bonds, angles, and distances between atoms are easy to obtain thanks to the intuitive graphic and menu interface. Swiss-PdbViewer (aka DeepView) has been developed since 1994 by Nicolas Guex. Swiss-PdbViewer was initially tightly linked to SWISS-MODEL, an automated homology modeling server developed within the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) at the Structural Bioinformatics Group at the Biozentrum in Basel. However, the SWISS-MODEL web interface evolved to a point where it is now possible to use it directly for advanced modeling. Maintaining a direct interface with Swiss-PdbViewer is too complex and no longer supported.

Avogadro is an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible high quality rendering and a powerful plugin architecture. Avogadro is a free, open-source molecular editor and visualization tool, designed for use on Mac, Windows, and Linux in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible high quality rendering and a powerful plugin architecture.