Tuesday, February 19th 2008
Microsoft Offers Software to College Students for Free via DreamSpark Program
Microsoft DreamSpark will provide, free of charge, professional level development programs for students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Within the next six months the program will be expanded to students in Australia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and many more countries in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Microsoft plans to include High School students in the program around third quarter 2008. Why is Microsoft doing this? Joe Wilson, Microsoft's Senior Director of Academic Initiatives, had this to say.
"We believe students can do amazing things with technology if given access to the right tools. This is a way to make sure that they have what they need to test the boundaries of what today's technology can do and also prepare for a great career at the same time. The added benefit to industry is that we're addressing one of the toughest challenges confronting employers today: attracting and developing qualified IT professionals. We're trying to help close this gap by giving students globally the opportunity to get the tools they'll need after they graduate and jump-start their careers to land that first job."
While Microsoft may initially have nothing to gain from the program, over the long-term it may have a significant effect. Students who use Microsoft's programs while in school will inevitably become more familiar with Microsoft's programs than with software from competitors. When students eventually enter the workforce they will most likely wish to continue using the software they are most familiar with and will have their companies purchase Microsoft software for them.
Current Software Available from DreamSpark:
-Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
-Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
-Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
-SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
-Expression Studio
-XNA Game Studio 2.0
-Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
-Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
-Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
-SQL Server 2005
-Visual Web 2005 Express Edition
-Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
-Virtual PC 2007
Sign up here.
Source:
Microsoft
"We believe students can do amazing things with technology if given access to the right tools. This is a way to make sure that they have what they need to test the boundaries of what today's technology can do and also prepare for a great career at the same time. The added benefit to industry is that we're addressing one of the toughest challenges confronting employers today: attracting and developing qualified IT professionals. We're trying to help close this gap by giving students globally the opportunity to get the tools they'll need after they graduate and jump-start their careers to land that first job."
While Microsoft may initially have nothing to gain from the program, over the long-term it may have a significant effect. Students who use Microsoft's programs while in school will inevitably become more familiar with Microsoft's programs than with software from competitors. When students eventually enter the workforce they will most likely wish to continue using the software they are most familiar with and will have their companies purchase Microsoft software for them.
Current Software Available from DreamSpark:
-Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
-Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
-Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
-SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
-Expression Studio
-XNA Game Studio 2.0
-Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
-Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
-Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
-SQL Server 2005
-Visual Web 2005 Express Edition
-Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
-Virtual PC 2007
Sign up here.
24 Comments on Microsoft Offers Software to College Students for Free via DreamSpark Program
Great story, thanks :) Most of this stuff my college gives away for free through Microsoft's academic advantage program.
channel8 has an asp error, ahahaha.
Oh, wait. The probably already have it. :laugh:
Seriously though. When did you sign up? I'm sure thousands of people are signing up right now. It could take a while.
As for lying, for me it asked me to sign into my uni netowrk first, so not sure how you can work around the system.
edit: I got instantly verified this way.
Have to sign in with your live account, and verify that youre a student.
EDIT: I am now verified. Can't argue with free software, the legal way too.
Damn UK and being the slowest to be added to anything...
Daniel
Unless you're a giant nosy company that likes to pry into what you're doing on your own computer. Oh -- right.
Damnit, This would be very useful to me xD, I use virtual machine to test OS's before using them lol etc. Just saw server 2003 O.o omg noicccce...
Daniel
My school wasn't listed, got a card at 15:00 (£9 :( ) and was able to verify myself on the site by 18:00. I am also in the UK.
According to a Google search "ISIC cards are issued to students studying for a minimum of fifteen hours per week and cost £9."
This is all short term. In the long-run who knows what would happen. But I would argue that if their intent is to familiarize their customers with the product so that they use it throughout their lifetime, a lower price would definitely support this. The lower price also makes it less enticing for competition to try to take a chunk of the pie. Though obviously most attempts at this haven't worked yet (even though these alternatives are typically free).