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• February 22, 2008 •
Early this week Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates unveiled a software giveaway that will ultimately provide millions of college and high school students around the world with access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools at no charge to unlock their creative potential and set them on the path to academic and career success.
The Microsoft DreamSpark student program makes available, at no charge, a broad range of development and design software for download. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Broad global coverage, as well as an expansion of the program to high school students around the world, potentially reaching up to 1 billion students worldwide, will continue throughout the next year.
"We want to do everything we can to equip a new generation of technology leaders with the knowledge and tools they need to harness the magic of software to improve lives, solve problems and catalyze economic growth," Gates said. "Microsoft DreamSpark provides professional-level tools that we hope will inspire students to explore the power of software and encourage them to forge the next wave of software-driven breakthroughs."
Microsoft DreamSpark is available to all students whose studies touch on technology, design, math, science and engineering. Students around the world will be allowed to download developer-oriented products such as Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, Expression Studio, and XNA Game Studio 2.0, for free. The program will also provide students with free versions of SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition and Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition.
More information can be found on Microsoft's Channel 8 Web site.
