One of Microsoft's best-kept secrets is the availability of lots of free software for development, as well as some terrific program and software values for small companies. In addition to the information below, our team regularly blogs about Free Software and other offers from Microsoft.
Express Versions of Microsoft Software, Free
Microsoft's Express Edition software is available for FREE. Just follow the links below and download the software. You may find free production, beta (if you are really on the cutting edge) and some 180-day trial versions. SQL Server's Trial software is also available on CD if you prefer that option over download.
XNA Game Studio
.NET Framework
Microsoft DreamSpark
On February 18, 2008, Microsoft unveiled a program for students that makes available a broad range of development and design software for download at no charge.
This program provides Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, XNA Game Studio 2.0, Expression Studio, SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, and Windows Server Standard Edition. The Microsoft DreamSpark download page is hosted by Channel 8. Proof of student status and a Windows Live ID are required for all downloads through this program.
The program is available in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Broad global coverage as well as an expansion to high school students will continue throughout the year. In the next six months, Microsoft expects to expand the program to college students in Australia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, and many more countries.
For more information:
Bill Gates talks about DreamSpark with Channel 8's Max Zuckerman
Q&A with Joe Wilson, Microsoft's Senior Director of Academic Initiatives
.NET Framework Reference Source
January 2008, the source code to the following list of .Net Framework Libraries was made available for the purposes of debugging:
- NET Base Class Libraries (including System, System.CodeDom, System.Collections, System.ComponentModel, System.Diagnostics, System.Drawing, System.Globalization, System.IO, System.Net, System.Reflection, System.Runtime, System.Security, System.Text, System.Threading, etc).
- ASP.NET (System.Web, System.Web.Extensions)
- Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms)
- Windows Presentation Foundation (System.Windows)
- ADO.NET and XML (System.Data and System.Xml)
Scott Guthrie gives a detailed explanation of the release and the license in his announcement via his blog. He provides links to step-by-step instructions for enabling the source code access in Visual Studio 2008, and links to support resources.
Microsoft Action Packs
Annual subscription to a wide variety of Microsoft software for internal use and development for up to 10 users. $299. Must pass one training class and belong to MSPP to be eligible.
And if those sites don’t lead you to the answers, check out the Microsoft employee blogs. Most Microsoft developer blogs are hosted (or searchable) on either Technet or MSDN. Do a quick search on http://blogs.msdn.com/.
