Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Microsoft aims

Microsoft is trying a brand new tactic to get extra college students thinking about developing for the Windows platform: It;s likely to give them the development tools for free.During a speak entitled “On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back” at Stanford University on February 19, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is set to unveil the Microsoft “DreamSpark” program. Via this program, Microsoft will make Visual Studio Professional Edition (both the 2005 and 2008 variants); Expression Studio, its family of design tools; SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition; and Windows Server, Standard Edition, among other tools, available to school students — and eventually high-school college students,Microsoft Office 2010 Professional, as well — for totally free.According to Microsoft, 35 million school pupils in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. qualify for your program immediatly. Microsoft will extend it to high school college students all through the coming year. Company officials said the program potentially could reach up to 1 billion pupils worldwide.(In case you were wondering how Microsoft will make sure only college students will get access to the absolutely free equipment, Microsoft plans to verify individuals; student status by using “various reputable student databases to confirm student identities,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said. College students will choose the identity provider that maintains the database (i.e. their school, organization, or other academic-based group) that will confirm their student status, she explained.)All this sounds impressive and quite generous, on Microsoft;s part. However, the reality is that many university pupils already have access to Microsoft;s tools for free via their unversities. And Java and open-source advancement instruments like PHP already have a strong following among pupils — making Microsoft;s new program look more like a defensive move than an entirely philanthropic one.Microsoft;s new tool give-away is “a positive advancement but not completely unprecedented,” said Charles King Principal Analyst, with Pund-IT, Inc., based in Hayward, Calif. “Other vendors provide colleges/universities a variety of absolutely free or subsidized support programs, but what;s interesting with Microsoft;s effort is that they;re putting the instruments directly in pupils; hands.”While “Microsoft already makes (absolutely free) ‘Express; versions of Visual Studio available for casual users, making the Professional editions available will give far more advanced students the opportunity to explore these instruments further, and better prepare them for careers as developers because they will have had access to the same equipment that today;s companies are using,” said Mark Frydenberg, Senior Lecturer and Software Specialist within the Computer Information Systems Department at Bentley School.Microsoft has a number of student outreach programs. But it has no choice but to do additional to obtain the next generation of tech users and developers on its side. Macs already are the dominant computing platform at many a school these days. Microsoft needs new ways to ensure that Windows, Visual Studio and SQL Server aren;t relegated to little a lot more than the history books….