I have come across a lot of posts on many Indian forums where they say Microsoft is giving away free software but that is NOT valid for India which kind of annoys me but as it turns out, Indian students are also eligible to free software, yes you read it correctly – free.
There are 2 ways by which you can eligible for this:
- Enroll into the MSP program, ie. the Microsoft Student program.
- Become an IEEE member, which most engineering students do.
The software that you are entitled to under both these programs are pretty much the same.
Details of the Microsoft Student Partner program are –
Free goodies that you are entitled to:
- MSDN subscription.
- Vista(Business Edition)
- Resource DVDs
- Books
The eligibility criteria for this is:
- Over 17 years of age.
- Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree student at an officially recognized University/college.
- Studying a full time course at the University/college.
How to enroll:
You need to give an exam which includes a written test & group discussion. The written test will test you on your Analytical Ability, Verbal Ability, C Programming & Computer Science concepts.
Other benefits:
- Exclusive MSP Boot-camps conducted by Microsoft
- Rewards & Recognition for top performers
- Networking opportunities
- Technical training & resources
- Microsoft events
- Interactions with MVPs & Microsoft Employees
- Internship opportunities at MS and partners
- Recruitment opportunities at MS and partners
More Details on MSP Website.
Details of the IEEE program are –
Free goodies that you are entitled to:
- Windows Vista & Windows 7 Business Edition
- Visual Studio Team System
- Expression Web Designer
- Project 2007
- Visio 2007
- Windows Server 2003
The eligibility criteria for this is:
- Your institute must be a part of the IEEE-Microsoft IEEE program.
- You should be an IEEE member.
- You should belong to the respective department. Off course you can navigate this.
To check whether your institute is part of the program, head here. Enter the city & country and check the list.
Once you sign for this offer, consult your college professors for it you will be provided with your log in credentials which you will use on the Software Centre page of your college.
Other benefits:
Some more crappy IEEE benefits that are well, really useless and crappy. More details.
~Have fun!
You may also like
Related
18 comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Me
Hi, I’m Manan and here I write about gadgets and technology. Find me on Twitter or Mastodon and my stream on Twitch. Get updates over email. Or sign up for the Newsletter.
thanks very good
You went for the MSP thing? I did. Results on 28th.
Nope, I didn’t go. All the best.
Great info brother..
Think about it .Why is microsoft trying to give “free software”?
The below reasons are hypothetical.
1) Gets all the young engineers hooked to MS$
Example i asked a cs student to do an open source project for the final year and all the students wanted to work on ASP.
2) M$ will only do things to benefit their company in the long run.
why india? They tried it in china but could not enter the market.
Will this make students more employable
How many had to learn vb then change to vb.net
Now if they had learnt python,ruby,perl they would have an edge after then finish college.And would have a better edge if they were linux gurus .
Spread the word…..
There is nothing wrong with MS giving away free software to anyone. How can someone have a better edge if they know about an OS that is hardly existent?
And who is stopping them from learning any of that stuff?
As a student I want to learn about Python, I do it, I want to learn about Microsoft products which are most widely used, I want to obtain them at a discount and MS provides them to me. I’m happy and feel glad about the offer.
Learn VB and then change to VB.Net? How many had to learn CRT technology and then had to change to Plasma or LCD?
How many had to learn BJTs and then switch to SMDs?
It not about “stopping” people from learning stuff.
What do most cs colleges teach students? propriety technology like ASP. why not php/perl/python?
For that answer we need to look back a few years when M$ bill gates visited india . What did he sign with the education department?
There is nothing wrong with MS giving away free software to anyone.But they do it for a reason.And that reason
How can someone have a better edge if they know about an OS that is hardly existent?
Again it related to why the education department does not have linux in all courses. And why is it not promoted by the government instead of using and OS with so many security holes .
1. MSDN subscription. (money for an online knowledge base which should be free ?)
2. Vista(Business Edition)
Hasent vista been rejected by most businesses ?
Once you sign for this offer, consult your college professors for it you will be provided with your log in credentials which you will use on the Software Centre page of your college.
The consulting college professors is the tough bit.
Btw- there’s another means of getting free M$ software- Join the IEEE Computer society. I haven’t had the time or inclination to look it up properly, but I believe you can bypass the college professors with this one (this point is probably a deal breaker for some of us folks;-)
This link might help- http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/students/
Interesting.
@Sam, did Gates tell them to teach only Microsoft technologies? Can you link me to some textual proof?
Which company does not give promotional products, there are many industrial software that are given to students at discounts/free/evaluation versions for their academic purposes.
And it’s not only Vista business edition have a look at their entire list, it’s exhaustive list of some awesome niche software used by developers.
Microsoft is not forcing anything on you. If you’re a student and are interested in Microsoft technologies they are giving it to you for free. They are not holding a gun to anyone’s head and saying take it for free.
Hey Sam,
I’m not a big fan of Microsoft products (except MS Office, which is awesome). I do use open source software.
Of course MS gives out free software. Of course they want to get people hooked to the software. They’re a business. If they didn’t do that, they’d be a pretty pathetic business. They need to make money.
Now what you said about educational institutes teaching proprietary stuff makes sense. IMO, institutes shouldn’t be relying entirely on closed source software for instructional purposes. Yes, in certain cases, this is unavoidable- for instance, when you have to do 3D modelling, there are very few good alternatives to closed source software like CATIA, Pro/E, Solidworks, etc. But when excellent alternatives do exist that are being widely used, students should not be restricted to only the closed source options.
For instance, it is important for the average core engineer to know how to use MATLAB- it is one of the most widely used numerical computing packages in the industry. But when great options like Scilab and Octave exist, it is important that the student know how to use them as well. MATLAB commercial licenses are typically very expensive. And there’s no guarantee that the student will join a firm that is doing well enough to be able to purchase MATLAB.
So while it is necessary to teach students how to use certain widely used commercial packages so that the student has a chance in the market, it is just as important to teach students how to use alternatives.