Dreamspark in India

For students aspiring for a career in the software industry or those who are passionate about building software, this should be great news. Microsoft is giving away the latest developer and designer tools that normally cost hundreds of dollars at no charge to verified students through its DreamSpark program. DreamSpark was so far restricted to a few countries. The goodies include the following -

• Visual Studio 2008 & 2005, Professional Edition
• SQL Server 2008 & 2005, Developer Edition
• Windows Server 2008 & 2003, Standard Edition
• Virtual PC 2007
• Expression Studio
• XNA Game Studio 2.0
• 12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club

This offering for students is much better than what they can expect out of open-source tools.

These tools are available both online as well as offline on DVD through NIIT, Aptech and Hughes Net Fusion Centers in several towns & cities across India.

My first brush with computers was more than a decade ago when I was in college. All we got was clunky Unix terminals. I graduated later to a 8086 PC but never owned a PC till several years after I finished college. A 8086 PC at that time cost over a lakh (or $2000). For many, it was also hard & expensive to find the right learning resources for picking up tech skills.

Fast forward to 2008, you can get a decent assembled PC & an annual Broadband Internet subscription for about Rs.20,000 ($400). Relatively speaking, students of this age have abundant learning resources including the Internet. The Internet (with a good Broadband connection) is a great leveller. It throws open a treasure of knowledge and ideas, making it immaterial in which part of the world you live. There are also helpful communities on a variety of computer technology to seek help from. The DreamSpark program is a great complement to all those resources.

Students enthusiastic about Computer Science and technology hobbyists may never have it so good.