Microsoft Offers Software to College Students for Free via DreamSpark Program

[Polaris573]

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


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[robodude666]

Well, all express edition software is already free. Is the Visual Studio 2008 and 2005 total full version? Server 2003 for free is pretty cool.

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.

 

[bretts31344]

If your college isn't on the list you have to enter your SSN to get verified. I risked it, but haven't got an email yet... I am starting to get suspicious.

 

[Polaris573]

Yes Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 are the full professional edition.

If your college isn't on the list you have to enter your SSN to get verified. I risked it, but haven't got an email yet... I am starting to get suspicious.

Microsoft wants your identity!

Oh, wait. The probably already have it.

Seriously though. When did you sign up? I'm sure thousands of people are signing up right now. It could take a while.

 

[xylomn]

I'm sure I already get most (if not all) of these free through the MSDN Academic Alliance and a hell of a lot more too

 

[muon]

This is pretty good. Before i couldnt get anything because my university wasnt on the msdn list.

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.

 

[Polaris573]

but haven't got an email yet... I am starting to get suspicious.

I just completed the "purchase" on JourneyEd since my school wasn't on Microsoft's list yet. It says it will take about three hours to get the e-mail. It may take longer than that even because of all the people doing it.

 

[WarEagleAU]

And how do we sign up?

 

[Snake05]

If your college isn't on the list you have to enter your SSN to get verified. I risked it, but haven't got an email yet... I am starting to get suspicious.

It took about 5 hours for my "purchase" to go through. You're welcome for the heads up Polaris.

 

[muon]

And how do we sign up?

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

Have to sign in with your live account, and verify that youre a student.

 

[Polaris573]

Thanks to Snake05. For tipping me off to this story.

 

[bretts31344]

I signed up this morning (like 8 hours ago). Still no email, but I think it will come eventually.

EDIT: I am now verified. Can't argue with free software, the legal way too.

 

[shmig]

How about this: why not set lower prices on their software, making it more available to everyone. That way, they could charge more than $5 in China, less than $200 in the U.S., piracy would be less of an issue, and people like me who are no longer in school can build up our expertise and familiarity with the same software that used to be available to us when we were in high school? No no, that makes too much sense...

 

[nflesher87]

sounds to me like Microsoft's retirement account

 

[Thermopylae_480]

How about this: why not set lower prices on their software, making it more available to everyone. That way, they could charge more than $5 in China, less than $200 in the U.S., piracy would be less of an issue, and people like me who are no longer in school can build up our expertise and familiarity with the same software that used to be available to us when we were in high school? No no, that makes too much sense...

Because literally teams of people sit around crunching numbers all day say that selling the products for X price makes the most profit, and create the most profitable company in the world. No offense, but they probably have a have a little more information, and some pretty bright people that you don't have access to.

 

[DanielF50]

I cant sign up, they dont have Alton College in the list ¬_¬

Damn UK and being the slowest to be added to anything...

Daniel

 

[mdm-adph]

If your college isn't on the list you have to enter your SSN to get verified. I risked it, but haven't got an email yet... I am starting to get suspicious.

Wait a sec -- you had to enter your SSN to this thing? And you did it? Unless Microsoft has some inside information on the student databases of all schools and colleges everywhere, I don't see how your SSN would help...

Unless you're a giant nosy company that likes to pry into what you're doing on your own computer. Oh -- right.

 

[Thermopylae_480]

I cant sign up, they dont have Alton College in the list ¬_¬

Damn UK and being the slowest to be added to anything...

Daniel

You have to follow and additional link. Look under the map, and they have instructions for people who's school is not listed.

 

[DanielF50]

You have to follow and additional link. Look under the map, and they have instructions for people who's school is not listed.

Yeah, nothing for the UK only US, France, and "Countrys not listed" lol

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 omg noicccce...

Daniel

 

[stordoff]

DanielF50, Just get a ISIC Card (Redundancy )

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.

 

[Polaris573]

Why did you pay? It's supposed to be free.

 

[stordoff]

I was about to pay £40 for Visual Studio anyway, so I saved there.

According to a Google search "ISIC cards are issued to students studying for a minimum of fifteen hours per week and cost £9."

 

[shmig]

Because literally teams of people sit around crunching numbers all day say that selling the products for X price makes the most profit, and create the most profitable company in the world. No offense, but they probably have a have a little more information, and some pretty bright people that you don't have access to.

Though you are right, it does not mean that I am not. Though there are alternatives to Windows, Word, Excel, etc., you are not likely to find them on any pc. Thus comes out the whole monopoly argument. I'm a bit rough on it, but from what I remember in this situation price is best determined by the intercept of marginal demand and the supply curve, as opposed to supply and demand curves. The result is profit maximization. What that means is they could sell many more units of their product simply by lowering price and shipping more units at the cost of profit.

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).

 

[tiys]

Will this still be here in 4 years?

 

[AddSub]

Because literally teams of people sit around crunching numbers all day say that selling the products for X price makes the most profit, and create the most profitable company in the world. No offense, but they probably have a have a little more information, and some pretty bright people that you don't have access to.

You give Microsoft too much credit. In business, in general, it's not how good you can perform and/or produce, but how bad can the competition do or screw up. Microsoft isn’t what it used to be. Heck, it never was what people made it out to be. As for this free offer? I mean, it's 2008 already and they are still desperately pushing their .NET architecture onto people. (Whenever Microsoft gives away something it means it wasn’t selling that well to being with.) What kind of indicator of success is that? How many people have .NET Framework installed on their machines? Not 100% for sure, which was what Microsoft promised back in 2002, when they said .NET would be omnipresent by the time their next gen OS was released. Heck, I know people who avoid .NET like the plague and go out of their way to work around it. Developers and users. I mean, with Vista being pretty much semi-legally free (reduced mode is out) they are giving away almost everything they got at this point.