Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Microsoft unveils giveaway program for students

news
Feb 19, 20081 min

Looking to entice a new generation of software developers, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveiled Monday a software giveaway program for college and high school students to access Microsoft developer and designer tools, the company said.

Available now to 35 million college students in several companies including China and the United States, the Microsoft DreamSpark program makes available a broad range of tools, the company said.

Tools included in the program include the Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 Professional Editions, XNA Game Studio 2.0, Microsoft Expression Studio tools and SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition. Also available through the program is Windows Server Standard Edition.

Global coverage and an expansion of the program to high school students could enable the program to reach as many as 1 billion students worldwide throughout the next year. The program will be expanded to additional countries as well, including Australia and Japan.

“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,” Gates said in a statement released by the company.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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