Windows XP Cheap for Students

Call_Centre_Guru

Student office package currently available on special at PC World at £89

nige

At our university you have to be doing at least one Comp unit in the current academic year to get access to MSDN, we get mostly the same software, but XP variant is only XP Pro with SP2 and no Windows 2000 and a few other bits less I think. However one thing I never understood was why offer Virtual PC 2004? I mean MS are giving it free to everyone from their website anyway and will be giving Virtual PC 2007 when it is released for free too so what is the point of it being on MSDN?

anewman

30111987 wrote:

I'd avoid office just now as a new version is due in q1 next year

Office 2007 and Windows Vista has already been leaked by pirates on the internet http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061112-8204.html so the cheapest option is free, which isn't legal.

I can recommend open office, it has some great features microsoft office doesn't have, and can use the usual office formats.

ollyshaw

I agree, open office is great, free an legal.

The same goes for ubuntu, https://www.ubuntu.com. A LEGAL free operating system. Worth a look if you are not a gamer.

Olly

h4x3r

if u buy a new computer from dell, pcworld, etc ull get windows xp free alternative email micrsofot emplain ur a student theyll redirect to a wesbite which offer microsoft products @ student discount prices

bobtastic

Just checked my colleges ELMS website and we have 95 different microsoft downloads! Theres 9 different versions of XP on there, but no office.

lellie

In Manchester CS students can't get it, but informatics (former UMIST) can.. which seems ridiculous.

I wouldn't want an upgrade to vista anyhow.. just slow your pc down!

Skyhigh

I'd try and avoid buying upgrades at this stage.

One reason being that Aria are currently offering Windows XP (I think its Home) with a FREE Vista upgrade (when its out) for about £40.


As for office, like the others said - Open Office is a good choice since a new version of MS Office is due out soon.
Not that this means you should get the latest version, but obviously the prices of the previous version will drop - also the support from MS for previous versions will have a shorter lifespan than a brand new version.


MSDNAA is great, but really its only CS and engineering students that get access to it.
Plus you are only meant to use the software on your own pc while you are studying at the University.

Virtual PC is on there since it just gives everyone else another access point.
Plus with MSDNAA you can order burnt disks - some people don't have broadband....or friends with broadband (apparently), so this lets them order it on a handy CD.

And at the end of the day...why not?
MSDNAA is currently supported by E-Academy ** (Canada!) and all your downloads come from there - unless your department has opted for trying to keep track of lots of CD's.

** Who seem to provide a poor service, sure its FREE but spending hours downloading DVD .iso's only to find that they're corrupt, won't continue downloading, won't start downloading or simply keep 'stopping' after every 10Mb and have to be restarted....

:!:

lellie

I don't understand why people would want to upgrade to vista? It just uses valuable processing resources to render windows, which you really don't need.