Microsoft gives away tools to stem open source
In an effort to stem the growing move to open source software, Microsoft yesterday announced plans to make a selection of its own developer software available for free to students.
AP reports that the company said it will let students download Visual Studio Professional Edition, a software development environment; Expression Studio, which includes graphic design and Web site and hybrid Web-desktop programming tools; and XNA Game Studio 2.0, a video game development program.
The company will also give away SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition and Windows Server Standard Edition.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said the company’s past efforts to arrange educational discounts for these programs limited the number of students who ultimately could use them. DreamSpark, as Microsoft is calling the free software offering, opens up access to many more students.
Gates said that while the programme will mean the company has to “give up some revenue, but we gain the fact that we’ll get the feedback of these students, get more courses to incorporate our tools into the programs and get more startups where kids are familiar with Visual Studio, Expression Studio and SQL Server.”
Gates said students will want to try Microsoft’s tools because he claims they are more powerful than the open source Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP combination of tools that is used to power much of the Internet today.
Gates said giving away Microsoft software isn’t intended to turn students against open source software entirely. Rather, he hopes it will just add one more tool to their belt.
The programs are now available to students in the US, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK with more countries planned for next year.
