Free Microsoft development tools for students

This has been available for some time has it not? I know since I've been applying to study Computer Science this last year and they all made a thing about providing Visual Studio Professional to the students although granted it was the 2005 edition.

I've been studying engineering for two years and we have thos software (and some others) trough an other Microsoft programm. I do believe it's a good thing for students, since those software cost so much money.

I got my dev tools from MSDNAA, my understand of this was that it wasn't run by Microsoft, but was an affiliate, MSDNAA that is.

It's not done out of the kindness of their heart it's just an attempt to become the preferred IDE of the industry. Microsoft produce excellent software that does it's job extremely well which is normally to make tasks easier for the end user. But I believe academic institutes should advise those learning in a professional capacity to stay away from feature packed tools until they are sufficient working with out them.

Is it just me or is journey ed not working? I tried with firefox, ie , and safari and I says there is an error?

I tried doing this earlier as soon as I heard about it, but apparently the only school in all of Canada is "ISIC" or something like that. No University of Lethbridge. [sad]

MS really do treat developers pretty well, regardless of their failings in other areas. I qualify for these tools and plan to install them when I get my new laptop (macbook pro) and install the (also free) version of Vista business I get from my University. This is, of course, partly motivated by a drive to reduce piracy, which is pretty common among students. It also creates a user base who will no doubt pay the full price one day.

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Original post by speciesUnknown This is, of course, partly motivated by a drive to reduce piracy, which is pretty common among students. It also creates a user base who will no doubt pay the full price one day.

Yeah, I don't understand why more software companies don't give away free licenses to hobbyists and students. For example, I am never going to go out and buy Dreamweaver of that entire suite of tools... they may as well let me have it so that maybe I will get good at using it, and want to use it commercially one day.

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Original post by smitty1276 Quote: Original post by speciesUnknown This is, of course, partly motivated by a drive to reduce piracy, which is pretty common among students. It also creates a user base who will no doubt pay the full price one day. Yeah, I don't understand why more software companies don't give away free licenses to hobbyists and students. For example, I am never going to go out and buy Dreamweaver of that entire suite of tools... they may as well let me have it so that maybe I will get good at using it, and want to use it commercially one day.

It sounds good on paper, but I'm sure it's a lot harder than it looks to setup a separate product line for students and a method for validating their identity. It may just not be worth the money.

Hurr, yeah.

They were doing some last-minute testing last week where they announced it to like 50 people at each site (though the BATTLESTATION WAS FULLY OPERATIONAL) to make sure the shibboleth system worked fine for everyone. Download speeds are kinda meh though (potentially due to my crappy home connection) - 10 hours to download the VS2008 ISO.

;_;

Has anyone else from Canada tried doing this yet? I'm not sure whether I should try and get an ISIC card or just wait until they start adding Canadian universities...

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Original post by Cromulent This has been available for some time has it not? I know since I've been applying to study Computer Science this last year and they all made a thing about providing Visual Studio Professional to the students although granted it was the 2005 edition.

No. You are thinking of MSDNAA. This is different.
"For once, something that sounds too good to be true really is this good and really is true. Starting today (or soon in some areas), students worldwide will be able to download our professional development and design tools for free! It's called DreamSpark and it is upon us."
With MSDNAA your instructor has to sign up for it in order for you to access it. Some colleges like mine don't even bother too so if they don't you are out of luck and either have to use express or pay $99 for an academic copy of VS online.
So yeah I expect this to be quite popular and I hope they have allocated enough bandwidth for everyone trying to download a copy.
I just signed up via journeyed(no problems and used firefox) and am now waiting for my confirmation email.

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Original post by Mike.Popoloski It sounds good on paper, but I'm sure it's a lot harder than it looks to setup a separate product line for students and a method for validating their identity. It may just not be worth the money.

Sure, but I wasn't talking about a separate product line and validating their identity--well, maybe a separate line with Express editions. Generally, though, "academic editions" can be relabeled versions of the same product and sold through campus bookstores which can require student IDs. And surely Adobe doesn't expect every part-time hobbyist to drop $999 on CS3 Standard... why don't they give it away for non-commercial use? They have to know that most people are pirating the hell out it... why not let them register online and get it for free?

This is lovely. All I had to do was click through, sign in with my Dartmouth Blackboard password, and download over my T2 trunk connection. Guess I do get something out of my Ivy League education besides all the Keystone Light I can drink.

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Original post by Megaman_22 This is lovely. All I had to do was click through, sign in with my Dartmouth Blackboard password, and download over my T2 trunk connection. Guess I do get something out of my Ivy League education besides all the Keystone Light I can drink.

Oh god no! You have to use Blackboard in the US as well! We suffer in solidarity, brother.

You said that its available to highschool students too, but I don't see anyway to sign up. It only has colleges and there's no way Microsoft can add all the highschools in the "world" if they can only get one Canadian college.

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Original post by Evil Booger You said that its available to highschool students too, but I don't see anyway to sign up. It only has colleges and there's no way Microsoft can add all the highschools in the "world" if they can only get one Canadian college.

ISIC isn't a college - its an International Student Id Card. You have to pay $22 or so to get one. For me, the nearest place to apply for one is in Calgary, which is a good 3 hour drive away. I won't be going up that way for roughly a month, and even then when I am up there I probably won't have time to stop by and apply for an ISIC card.

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Original post by Evil Booger You said that its available to highschool students too, but I don't see anyway to sign up. It only has colleges and there's no way Microsoft can add all the highschools in the "world" if they can only get one Canadian college.

I agree since they must already be backed up with applications since having applied yesterday I still haven't received my email although it did say it could take up to 24hrs...

UPDATE: okay well I guess it does take 24 hrs to get your email after you apply since I finally just got it.
Off to redownload a 3.3GB VS2008.iso image since my already installed trial version of VS2008 won't accept the key they gave me.
Was hoping it would so I wouldn't have to redownload since I don't have the fastest connection, not to mention burn another DVD. Must be a custom ISO then or something then since it's still supposed to be full VS2008 Pro and not a stripped down version like express?


[Edited by - daviangel on February 21, 2008 5:54:19 PM]

It isn't for high school students (at least not yet, I heard that they may be extending it to high school students in a year). I would like to ask gamedev.net to stop saying it is for high school students until high school students can actually download it, which is currently not the case.