19
Feb
Microsoft Dreamspark available to Singapore Polytechnic
Dreamspark is Microsoft’s program to enable students to get its high-end developer tools for free. And recently, I heard from The Fuzzy that Singapore Polytechnic has just hopped onto the program. This means that any student from SP can now download applications like Visual Studio.NET 2008 Professional for free now!
And about time too! Students generally aren’t the richest people around. Lint usually line our pockets, and for some, school breaks are for vacation jobs. To the struggling IT student, being able to gain access to these tools would allow her to make practical use of the theory learnt in school, as well as the opportunity to experience the tools used by corporations worldwide without paying through their noses.
Of course, hearing about this program set off alarm bells in my head. Being an inquisitive type, I’m apt to be snooping around when things sound or look too good to be true. It turns out that offering Microsoft products free to student developers isn’t as charitable a gesture as it appears to be.
Students who get their hands on Microsoft’s developer tools for free can develop applications. However, those same tools only create applications for Microsoft’s products, such as IIS and Microsoft SQL Server. By hooking up with future IT developers now, Microsoft stands a good stead in guaranteeing that developers with the capability to develop for and support its platforms would always exist.
I’m impressed. Software companies truly understand the need to engage students at an early stage. It’s a smart strategy to gain mindshare in future industry leaders. The goodwill that comes from this plan is immeasurable, but what’s not to say that the future chief information technology officer studying right now isn’t going to have Microsoft IIS in mind when he is charged with upgrading his company’s tech infrastructure?
Now, before you wag your finger at me and accuse me of being a conspiracy-monger, I want to say that programs such as Dreamspark are just sound business decisions made by companies. It’s not that Microsoft is some cold-hearted software giant bent on world domination. Ok, so they already dominate most of the OS world; but besides that point, I’m sure that the Dreamspark program was born with an intention to help struggling students. Hell, everybody has been a student once. What’s not to say that someone in Redmond didn’t reminisce about the trying high school days, and decided to do something about it so that future students need not struggle like she did? Taking over the world is just a side effect. Wait, did I get that the wrong way around?
I leave you to ponder over that point while I go test out the shiny SQL Server 2008 Developer edition 
on February 19th, 2009 at 10:06 am
It’s a pure marketing strategy. They KNOW students cannot afford their software so instead of forcing us to pay S$5-10(or even less these days?) to get pirated versions or switch allegience to other companies, they are trying to recruit new devotees. Hopefully one of these students who will benefit from the Dreamspark program will be the next CIO/CTO of a major MNC and switch the system from AS400/Lotus/Oracle to MS products.
It is very hard to switch to another software when you are so used to developing on one platform. I’m still most comfortable with VB6 and SQL2k although there are newer editions. Haven’t even scratched the surface of SQL2k8! Now tell me we are going to switch to Oracle tomorrow and I will jump right through the window…
Oh how we struggled to get decent software in those days… pro-Dreamspark probably given us more exposure to alternative softwares from Borland and other alternative software houses(read affordable).
on February 21st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
It’s probably something to do with Microsoft’s culture; I’ve met some of them from the Singapore office, and they genuinely do believe that Windows Media Player is the best software ever created, so much so that I didn’t feel like telling the tech evangelist that I prefer to use Ubuntu, only because I was afraid of bursting his bubble of decadence. The beauty of Netbeans means I do most of my Java programming in Ubuntu! Unfortunately, this semester I’m supposed to program using VB.NET, and all of us know which platform the IDE runs on.