Dreamspark

Have you all heard about Dreamspark yet? It is a program Bill Gates announced earlier this week to allow students to get a bunch of Microsoft development software including the new Expression design and web tools, Visual Studio, Windows Server and a free membership in the XNA Creators Club.

There are more details here. Since you don’t have to dump the software after graduation even those of you close to graduation may want to get a hold of this so you can try some things out on the cheap.

4 Responses to “Dreamspark”

  1. andrew says:

    I consider it extremely fitting/coincidental that the title of the very next entry on the main page is, “Grasping at Straws.”

    Apparently Microsoft can’t even count on students paying the already outrageously low educational prices for their software?

  2. Mr. T says:

    lol Students don’t want to pay for any software. We hear that time and time again from them.

  3. Matt says:

    Signing up for a Windows Live account needed to download them:

    “You also agree to receive targeted advertisements….”

    Uhh, no thanks.

    Actually, I processed that line as I was hitting Submit, so it’s too late. But don’t think I’m happy about it.

    Further, Bentley’s not on the list. I tried clicking through and got taken to some random company’s website asking me to order something for $0.00.

    So I’m sorry, but they’ve lost me. (It’s no great loss anyway, though… I only use Windows to play Team Fortress 2 or for Office… So I probably wouldn’t have even used the stuff if I’d downloaded it, but it couldn’t have hurt to have had it just in case I wanted it some day.)

  4. Mr. T says:

    Verification of students is the tricky part. Over time it will get easier as a lot of colleges and universities want to work with us on that. It turns out that in many parts of the world it is a lot easier as there are national database services that handle it.
    I assume you did not agree to targetted ads with your Gmail account right? 🙂

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