[P4rD0nM3]

I'll post this one here since I figured out most of you guys/gals are college students (Sorry for kids and teens still in grade school and high school), hehehe.

Microsoft is allowing anyone who can verify that they are a student at an accredited institution to download some of their packages for free! These are not the 'Express' editions that you can also get for free from Microsoft (Ed. Thanks sawce).

We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed keep checking back, we will be adding more countries throughout the year. - Who can get this right now? Microsoft DreamSpark

Included in this deal are:

MS Expression Studio
MS Visual Studio 2008
Windows Server 2003 SE
xna Game Studio
SQL Server 2005 Dev. Edition

Click Here For More Information

Oh...read the fucking TOS (I don't think you guys read TOS's at all ever). For personal use only, not commercial use. I got this from [H]. Trash the thread if I'm violating any of the forum rules.

[TheNewt]

You aren't advertising anything cause you aren't getting anything out of it. This is kinda like the if you have the ATi graphics card you get a game for free through steam.
Cool beans.

[sawce]

On the same subject, although I'm sure most of you should know already:

Microsoft has been providing "Express" versions of some programs (most notably Visual Studio) for a while. For free. For anyone - not just college students, although I would think a company wouldn't be allowed to use them, I'm not sure. No limitations (you can even make proprietary software and sell it with no obligations with it... at least last time I read their mile-long license).

They are slightly limited, but from my experience with Visual C++ Express, I didn't see any feature that it was missing which I needed.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/

[hoboman]

this news is so last week :p

meh...may be a while until they update their lists of accredited institution...

[TheNewt]

hoboman, you don't even know what accredited means. Do you? It isn't THEIR list that they use, it is checked against state standards, and a university needs to be "accredited" by the state before the credits earned at the university or school are valid.

Or I may completely wrong and Microsoft has their own accredited school list. <- doubt it though, how are they supposed to judge whether a school or university is valid.

[hoboman]

Originally Posted by TheNewt hoboman, you don't even know what accredited means. Do you? It isn't THEIR list that they use, it is checked against state standards, and a university needs to be "accredited" by the state before the credits earned at the university or school are valid. Or I may completely wrong and Microsoft has their own accredited school list. <- doubt it though, how are they supposed to judge whether a school or university is valid.

man..what the hell are you babbling about...

I was merely referring to the fact that their lists aren't updated as most countries only have a few ( if any at all ) listed institutions.
I was just trying to verify that I am Canadian student and the only institution that came up for Canada was "ISIC".

[YamiKaitou]

Well, why not read the rest of the page and see that there is another way to get verified. I just did it and it picked me up as enrolled in an accredited school.

[P4rD0nM3]

Originally Posted by hoboman this news is so last week :p

Yeah, it's been out for awhile, I just thought I'd post it here since it looks like there's a bunch of college students that lurk around.

[hoboman]

Originally Posted by YamiKaitou Well, why not read the rest of the page and see that there is another way to get verified. I just did it and it picked me up as enrolled in an accredited school.

I was just trying to verify that I am Canadian student and...

Other Verification Options Particularly for students in France, Switzerland and the US.

[YamiKaitou]

Then I guess you are out of luck. Your issue is not with Microsoft, it is with whomever provides Microsoft Dreamspark with the list.