Microsoft is announcing DreamSpark today, which is a program through Channel8 that will offer our developer and designer tools at no charge to college students. The first release is targeted at 10 countries worldwide including China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, the UK and the US. Microsoft will be adding more countries over time as some details get ironed out. There are also plans to open this up to High School students in the near future - which is awesome IMHO.
The products available include the following:
- Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
- Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
- XNA Game Studio 2.0
- 12-month free membership in the XNA Creators Club
- Expression Web
- Expression Blend
- Expression Design
- Expression Media
- SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
- Windows Server, Standard Edition
If you want to hear some "from on high" perspective on this, see Channel8 talk to BillG about DreamSpark
The software is available to all college-level students regardless of discipline, major or class. There are some caveats though. This software is provided free of charge as long as the software isn’t being used for commercial purposes. You can build the next Facebook in your college dorm, but once you go commercial with it you need to purchase an appropriate usage license.
There will be challenges in the beginning. As it turns out, there’s no easy way to verify a student’s status. Although 90% of the people who take advantage of this program will have a problem free experience, there may be some edge case that prove to be a little more difficult. We’ll get these ironed out as the program rolls out. You can read the FAQ for more information:
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