A Review Of Microsoft Dreamspark Please?

[The Simpleton 2]

Recently, my college did the unthinkable and signed up for Microsoft Dreamspark. I was looking for a way to get into this programme but my college saved the day and now I'm in So now a lot of Microsoft tools are available for free download But I'm a bit confused by their website and no one told this clearly in college either - how long are students allowed to use the software freely? Until they complete their education or forever? Also, if you happen to be a part of Dreamspark too, could you share your experiences about it please?

[mahesh2k 0]

Some of my friends in college ordered it. There is not much for review. As you get professional version for free from them. They just check your student ID and other things to verify that you're student. They give professional software for free if you're student or using it for academic purpose. The crew which was for promotion, literally gave boxes to teachers and lab staff members. After all they have to survive against free software/gnu thing. Besides student who get this product owns it and get support till the life-cycle of this product. Nice way of promoting VS & other products to students.

[rvalkass 5]

Checking over the terms of service (I found my University is listed and let me log in) it looks like the only restriction is that you can't use the software for commercial or business purposes - for learning only. I assume the drive for Microsoft is that they would rather people get used to using Microsoft tools and have to buy them in the future than get used to using a Mac or Linux instead. If they offered everything free with no restrictions, however, then they would never sell any software to you when you finally graduate.

[The Simpleton 2]

Well the fact remains that I need to use MS tools for some of my college work, so this is a blessing in disguise, but I would definitely prefer to use Linux tools over MS anyday, even if MS decided to go open-source someday!