Microsoft to Give Away Development Tools to Students Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Microsoft to Give Away Development Tools to Students Posted by XanTium | February 19 11:42 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From pcworld.com: [QUOTE] Microsoft is giving away development and design software to university and high school students around the world through a program aimed at fostering technology innovation worldwide. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is expected to unveil the DreamSpark program Tuesday at Stanford University on the first stop of a U.S. and Canadian college tour. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Software available to students through DreamSpark includes Microsoft's development environment, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, and its Web and graphic design toolset, the Expression Studio. Microsoft also is making available XNA Game Studio 2.0, SQL Server Developer Edition, Windows Server Standard Edition and other software and resources through the program. In the next six months Microsoft expects to extend the program to college students in Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and other countries. And in the third quarter, the software will be available to high school students as well, Microsoft said. [/QUOTE] Full Story: pcworld.com

[Software2]

They've been doing this for a long time. In addition to those softwares, they also give out XP Pro and Vista Business, in addition to to lesser known apps. It's actually a very nice system now. They used to charge you shipping for the discs, but now all of the programs can be downloaded in ISO format through the site.

[101499]

this sucks, there are hardly any schools on the list so few ppl will be able to dl anything

[ILLusions0fGrander]

yep.. here comes my free year of XNA!

funny not to see the best part in the news post, but from computerworld:

The students are also eligible for a free 12-month academic membership to the XNA Creators Club.

if your school is not on the list, they offer options through this page to get verified as a student (site seems slow atn)

in general the MSDN alliance has given me access to TONS of software i couldnt otherwise afford, server 03 enterprise, vista, Visio, you name it.. all except office, but thats only 60 bucks for students anyways.

This post has been edited by ILLusions0fGrander: Feb 19 2008, 10:04 PM

[0794]

excellent program and brilliant idea, too bad i am so many years out of college, but i guess that means that i should be able to pay for all that software now though...thank goodness for OEM on newegg...

this sucks, there are hardly any schools on the list so few ppl will be able to dl anything

actually, if your school is not listed yet, there is an alternative way to verify student status that appears simple enough...

[commandersafi]

can you do it if your still in high school?

[ILLusions0fGrander]

as for eligibility from the faq:

What are the student eligibility requirements to download and use the software available through DreamSpark?

Pretty basic: to be eligible, all we ask is that you are a currently enrolled student attending an accredited university, college, junior college, community college, or a tertiary/higher education institution with digital student ID credentials (e.g. username and password) provided by your school, organization or another identity provider listed as a verification source on the DreamSpark Student Status Verification page.

We’re giving you the software for non-commercial use to support and advance your learning and skills through technical design, technology, math, science and engineering activities. For more information, please see the DreamSpark software license agreement.

This post has been edited by ILLusions0fGrander: Feb 19 2008, 11:13 PM

[Tiuk]

We've been able to get most of that through MSDN:AA for quite some time now (my copies of Windows XP and Vista came from there). XNA for free is good to hear, though.

[commandersafi]

Sucks it doesnt apply for high school students.....I've been really wanting to use XNA but dont want to pay

[rooter75]

"And in the third quarter, the software will be available to high school students as well, Microsoft said."

Patience young grasshopper it will come, it will come.

[ILLusions0fGrander]

just to let you guys know, all i had to do was submit my studentID and I was verified within 2 days as a student. My school was not on the list either.

setting up my 12 month free of XNA creator club now.



This post has been edited by ILLusions0fGrander: Feb 22 2008, 10:13 PM