Free Microsoft Software for Students

kippen_noedel

he program is called Dreamspark, and is designed to give students professional-grade development software.
Some of the available software:
Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Expression Studio 2
Sql Server 2008
Windows Server
XNA Game Studio (for developing games that can run on XBox)

also posted in Student Money Saving

BikerEd

Microsoft aren't the only company that do this. In fact companies like Sun Microsystems make all their software available for free download to anyone e.g. Java, NetBeans, OpenOffice, MySQL, Solaris. Why tie yourself into closed source software that isn't compatible with the rest of the world?

[Deleted User]

BikerEd wrote: »

Why tie yourself into closed source software that isn't compatible with the rest of the world?

Because for writing software for the Windows platform there isn't anything that is even worth comparing to Visual Studio. It is the standard IDE in the industry, so getting people using your products before they become employed in that sector really is a no brainer.

Good luck trying to develop for an Xbox on anything other than XNA too

PROLIANT

BikerEd wrote: »

Microsoft aren't the only company that do this. In fact companies like Sun Microsystems make all their software available for free download to anyone e.g. Java, NetBeans, OpenOffice, MySQL, Solaris. Why tie yourself into closed source software that isn't compatible with the rest of the world?

....because nothing in your "open source" utopia compares to the intelligence, scalability and power of the development platform - Visual Studio.
Well done to Microsoft for allowing access to their development tools in this way, another generation of productive and creative software engineers is on the horizon. :beer:

BikerEd

PROLIANT wrote: »

....because nothing in your "open source" utopia compares to the intelligence, scalability and power of the development platform - Visual Studio.

Zzzzzzz.....

Another Microsoft Kool-Aid drinker added to my ignore list

[Deleted User]

Here's some food for thought for you BikerEd.

Two of the most popular Open Source applications, Firefox and OpenOffice, both require Visual Studio in order to be compiled successfully on the Windows Platform.

kippen_noedel

BikerEd wrote: »

Microsoft aren't the only company that do this. In fact companies like Sun Microsystems make all their software available for free download to anyone e.g. Java, NetBeans, OpenOffice, MySQL, Solaris. Why tie yourself into closed source software that isn't compatible with the rest of the world?

Let's put it this way I wouldn't post anything from MS if it wasn't free.

There are thousands of jobs out there that require Microsoft Certification.

By your comments all those people should ignore one of the most widely used platforms in the world because there are other options.

As is happens I use very little of MS for personal use but for some business use I have no choice whatsoever.

Very short sighted my friend.

feel free to ignore the thread and start one yourself with all the free options for other platforms.