Microsoft gives away free software
…but not just to anyone. It goes by the name of Microsoft Dreamspark. Bill Gates announced this today and it should be globally available to any (high school or university) student. Dreamspark is to include a set of development and graphic tools, including the XNA Game Studio 2.0 and Windows Server 2003 (standard edition). At the moment just a few countries are available. I tried it out myself. Surprised even, that the Netherlands, as one of the leaders in technology is not even listed. Say bye bye, Microsoft Park of Dreams. Or is it spark of dreams? Hmm, whatever. I do wonder when it will be available though, estimate: May 2008.
The initiative is part of the companies effort to increase (their contracts) working with academies, communities and governments. They’re telling people that it should increase their ‘quality of life’. Probably one of the other most important reasons is that they are still trying to compete with open-source technologies and free solutions, like linux, that are freely available. Go ahead and read more!
You might need to obtain an ISIC card or use a specific portal to gain access. So much for usability 
Apparently this is the full list of the freely available software.
- 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 Studio, which includes Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design and Expression Media
- SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
- Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
- Sql Server Developer Edition
- Virtual PC 2007
- Visual Basic 2005
- Visual C++ 2005
- Visual C# 2005
- Visual J# 2005
- Visual Web Developer 2005
