TOO HOT TO HANDLE! Free M$ software for some students! WinXP, Win2k, and more

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Well, I was in class yesterday for my first C++ class, anticipating a boring session when my teacher mentioned that, in light of the college's new licensing agreement with Microsoft. He is allowed to give away some Microsoft software to students taking any class in the computer sciences department, legally. I went to see him after class and confirmed that he had a bunch of software that applied.

Today I obtained a copy of win2k Pro, winXP Pro, Visual C++ (the version before .NET), and MSDN discs. All free of charge, on burned CDs with either CD keys and a product activation key if applicable. I'll say this again, I did not pay a dime for all this! Additionally, I have heard that you can also get win98 (didn't take it), Visual Basic (didn't ask for it yet, I might try later in the semester), and MS .NET server (no use for me, I did not take it). The only major MS software he told us he cannot distribute is Office or any part of it.

Each student is allowed 1 copy of each piece of software and the CD-Key sticker clearly states that it is NOT FOR RESALE, so don't bother asking me if I can ship you a copy of something.

If you are a CEGEP student in Quebec or perhaps a college or university student elsewhere, you should definetly inquire as to if your education establishment can give you any of this software, free of charge.

I'm not exactly sure how the lisencing agreement works but I did see a sheet of CD-Key stickers on his desk for Win2k that all had the MS logo on it. I assume that either
A) Microsoft wants to promote its products so that graduating students will buy full products of future versions
B) There is a small lisencing fee that the college is absorbing

-Ice

 

[anth0ny]

I am a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College. They do not offer free software unfortunately, but they do sell student versions (real versions) for very low costs. I picked up the whole Office 2000 Professional suite (7 cds) for $30.

 

[Snuffaluffaguss]

University of Texas, any microsoft product is $5 a cd, Office XP, 3 cd's so $15, XP Pro $5.

 

[Kilrsat]

The deal varies by what campus you have and the exact details of their license agreement.

For example, the University of Wisconsin system has every MS product for $30 each. With the office bundles being the full 7cd versions and such, and the licenses being good forever.

Other schools will have them for $5, 10, 15, whatever. Although some of those licenses are only good as long as you're a student at that institution.

Basic idea is, if you're a student, check with your school to see what kind of deal you can get.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Well he told us our licenses were good for "as long as we want to use the software". Too bad I can't get MS-Office though

-Ice

 

[CyberZenn]

I hate you guys (out of jealousy - nothing personal ) - my school, virginia commonwealth university - the second biggest school in the whole freaking state - has lisences for virtually NOTHING. We have the Norton antivirus, a SSH ftp client, and 2-3 other small, virtually worthless apps. We dont even get signifigantly discounted rates. Ill be damned if i pay $300 for a "student discount" copy of photoshop or $200 for MS office. Im a CS student as well, and our dept. isnt especially small - we have around 500 students. Evidently not enough to prevent us from being raped by the software nazis. Sorry for the rant, but overpaying for software is a real sore point for me

 

[IgorTs]

Could any of you resell it to other studends?
pm

 

[dpham00]

<< Could any of you resell it to other studends? >>


no.

 

[Coca-cola Bear]

Yep my school has that program as well but, we have to burn the discs ourselves. Oh Well. My brother on the other hand goes to OSU and they get Office XP as well I think. Oregon that is

 

[CKDragon]

I got Office XP for free from Drexel University in Philly... XP Pro OS to come in the spring, but I already have it on my own. Guess it'll go on the family's.

CK

 

[GermyBoy]

Purdue has $5 Microsoft Software.

 

[TheManiacal1]

too bad purdue's version of win xp pro is only an upgrade

 

[oshelef]

The school pays a licensing fee by student. I saw a calculator for the fees some place on MS's site, but I don't remember where(and that assumes a custom deal isn't worked out), but yes your school does pay some small fee to MS.

Orie

 

[thechronic]

not a hot deal since were already payin for it in our tuition. Plussince anyone who knows of anandtech is computer l;iterate, we proibally already knew that. Dont wanna come off mean, I am erubk;0

 

[JohnnyBlaze47]

Well, what if I just paid you for the box, and you happened to drop a CD-R in there?

Sorry, I couldn't resist it. Just mindless typing.

 

[nighto]

The reason MS is being so nice with the free stuff, is too improve there image, probably cause of the lawsuit, second college students can usually get this for free =). At my college, they have been giving out windows products for free since 2000. So paying for MS stuff is not so hot, hehehe

Btw i attend a major university, guess it pays to go to a good school, brb..

 

[frankqfrank]

Ohio State has XP Pro for $5.99 with student ID. You can get a free copy if you go to an "NT Sig Club" meeting.

 

[purpleD]

Just wanted to say that at Univ of Illinois we have the same deal. Tomorrow we are going to be able to go to a special event and download as much MS software as we want (besides Office) free of charge. The only weird thing is they are not letting us burn the stuff directly on CDs. So we have to either bring our computer to the computer lab and copy the install files or set up an ftp server and upload the install files.

-purpleD

 

[PokeSmot]

At penn state, we get everything for free (office xp, win xp, etc) they are all personal editions, but who cares. Since i'm comp eng, i get Visual studio and all the other bells and whistles. They also gave me a copy of .Net Beta

 

[TunaBoo]

<< Just wanted to say that at Univ of Illinois we have the same deal. Tomorrow we are going to be able to go to a special event and download as much MS software as we want (besides Office) free of charge. The only weird thing is they are not letting us burn the stuff directly on CDs. So we have to either bring our computer to the computer lab and copy the install files or set up an ftp server and upload the install files.

-purpleD >>



Go UIUC!

Purdue sucks!!!


P.S. They have 50 loaner CD's. We can borrow and burn them.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< too bad purdue's version of win xp pro is only an upgrade >>

lol....XPPro (upgrade and XP Home ) ...can be used to do a full install on a brand spanking newly formatted harddrive

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< Just wanted to say that at Univ of Illinois we have the same deal. Tomorrow we are going to be able to go to a special event and download as much MS software as we want (besides Office) free of charge. The only weird thing is they are not letting us burn the stuff directly on CDs. So we have to either bring our computer to the computer lab and copy the install files or set up an ftp server and upload the install files.

-purpleD >>

and finally...what if your comp happens to have a CDRWriter in it ?

 

[RobSay]

Here at University at Buffalo, we get free copies of Office XP to keep along with a bunch of other Microsoft titles and can take out every version of Windows at the library.

 

[miniMUNCH]

THat's pretty sweet...I wish I coulda spared the cash in college.

Now I get all my software from a friend who consults and does windows driver projects for MS on ocassion...his status gets him all the free software he wants for his entire company (which is actually really small, like 6 or 7 guys). They even gave him an X-box for free a while back.

 

[straubs]

For those of you that can't see the obvious:

M$ is trying to lock in as many users as they can. How do you think Office got to be the dominant office app? Monopolistic practices such as this. Give away software like IE and eventually everyone will use it. The only problem is dealing with the government The problem is that once you are out of school, they rape you or your company with ridiculous $500+ prices for the same software...but since it's what you and your friend are used to, they have to eat the cost. :disgust:

I got office 2k and win2k through school for $25 each. Recently got XP Pro for $25. I tried it and see virtually NOTHING improved over win2k except the "kiddie" theme they applied and the slowness because of it. Still don't see why anyone would upgrade from 2k to XP. Is a theme really worth it?