[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Gives Software to Nurture Future Coders here

[Kilme]

This looks very nice. I was really bummed when I found about Microsoft's other recent student offer, Office 2007 for $60, since I had purchased it beforehand for retail price. Now I'm glad I saw this, although I'm at work now and can't do anything about it. It looks like I'll be downloading a bunch of goodies when I get home today.

I'm also taking a class right now on Windows administration, and all I got was a crappy trial version of Windows 2000 Server. Now it looks like I can get the full version of Server 2003 to play with.

[yesudeep]

"DreamSpark is part of a company-wide effort to work with local governments, communities and academic institutions worldwide to give potential technology workers a head start in the competitive job market to foster technology innovation and improve citizens' quality of life, especially in developing countries."
BS. :-) All they are after is money.
More people use their software == More money and future opportunity THEY get. :-)
This isn't new strategy coming out of MS top brASS. These days, their strategies are basically see-through. Students smart enough to program don't need Microsoft 'handholding.' All you students out there getting fished into this net, watch out. It's not about your future---it's about theirs.

[LeoDRK]

A desperate measure for Microsoft to give something for free. They are trying to avoid new programmers to be free using Linux.

[jinx101]

I don't think anyone ever claimed Microsoft had noble amibitions here, it's clearly a business move to promote the future of their platform. They're betting that if they can get people to use their tools that people will stick with them instead of moving off. This move is not unlike Apple giving deep discounts to schools in the 80's which maybe the only reason they made it long enough to rejuventate their business into the thriving company it is today. Everyone can point fingers and trump up how terrible Microsoft is but they're hardly the only company who offers deep discounted software to students (though they maybe the largest). I myself program in Java, Perl, C, C# & Visual Basic and like to think of myself as open to the ideas of each environment. Each environment offers different pros and cons. For instance, I can't cram Java or .Net onto a 64K proprietary chip that needs low level programming... technically can't happen. On the same token, it doesn't make sense to use C to put together a Windows GUI program that needs a grid that updates a database or to use .Net for a program that needs to run cross platform (though you could make an argument that with Novell's Mono initiative you can write protable .Net applications now, but Java likely be a better choice). My point summed up is, If you want to demonize Microsoft for giving away software cheap to schools then you also need to point the finger at every other organization that does the same. For the individual that complained about tax write offs... how many "open source" communities are functioning as 401.3c's and doing the same thing as non-profits not paying any taxes for their operations, it's a write off also, in the same token should the government subsidize that or is it only bad for Microsoft?

For clarification, that's not a knock on the open source community, simply an analogy. I don't see a problem at all with a tax exempt status for non profit open source organizations and foundations.

[phelps]

There is NOTHING free from this new panic stricken ms. There will be a price to be paid by the people who fall for this bait and switch routine. Forget ms and learn Unix, or Linux using the GNU license and Free Software or Open Source Software. The Free Software / GNU software / Open Source software model has done in 10 years what took ms 25 years to try to do, and ms still doesn't have it right. What's this Vista SP1 deal? Their software sucks and they are trying to rope new talent by offering their crummy software for free. It's a trap. Don't trust them.

[LeoDRK]

It's not about demonizing Microsoft. It's about not being naive.


Besides Microsoft is a demon and doesn't need to be demonized. They play very dirt. You can remember what the did with Internet Explorer and Windows for making Netscape seem a slow browser. You can take a look to the "Software patents" issue at wikipedia -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softwarepatentdebate


I don't like Microsoft, I'm sorry :)

[jinx101]

I don't blame you for not liking MS LeoDrk. They do use aggresive strong armed tactics, I wouldn't ever claim they didn't. They've done a lot of things right though in terms of creating software for the end user that inspires loyalty (OS aside, everyone hates Vista)... namingly I'm talking about Office. Now however, that's starting to change. There's really not much of use they've added to Office in the last 3 releases that have made much of a difference to me except for Sharepoint integration which is a really cool idea and I have to admit has made document collaboration easier. Their addition of "the Ribbon" irritates the hell out of me though. :P To me that was them stretching to find anything to change that might be remotely attractive to someone.


For the poster that posted and said everyone should use Unix or Linux, I thought I'd share a blog post that I really liked written by a guy named Joel Spolsky. He's written a few books about software development and has some very interesting reasonble insights on the differences between the unix/linux & windows communities, I've been apart of both communities and I thought he made some really good observations (for reference, it's not "zealot alert" type of post, I almost can't stand to read them on either side these days, really makes me bitter for something that I have a passion for which is technology):

[LeoDRK]

As I see it, Office is the only worthy Microsoft product. You can add Windows Media to the list.

The Windows operating system is used because it seems easy to use. And because it is so widely used, a lot of users are forced to use it. With the time that will change and Linux will take over Windows with the help of Microsoft itself. But the time has not come yet.

[jinx101]

They have their hands into way more than most people realize (typically enterprise products they've acquired)... products that get NO name drops in most articles (Like FRX as a general ledger reporting system, ever heard of it?). Visual Studio is a great product that is by far the best IDE for developing GUI based applications. There are other IDE's that are catching up in other areas though. Eclipse (for Java development) with the GUI part aside is starting to knock on VS's door. You maybe correct about Linux and I also think you're correct that the time isn't now. In my opinion it's a culture change, not necessarily a technology change that will be needed in the Linux community to accomodate people like say, my dad.

[LeoDRK]

You are right, it's not a technology change. Once upon a time Internet Explorer was the only suitable web browser. Someone saw where Firefox came from? :)