Microsoft DreamSpark?

Anyone here ever use this or is it too good to be true? Awesome free software for students.

here's the page link:

[link to www.dreamspark.com (secure)]

Anyone here ever use this or is it too good to be true? Awesome free software for students.

here's the page link:

[link to www.dreamspark.com (secure)]

It's a joke. They're just trying to reinforce the idea that in order to be a "real" programmer, you'll need to spend thousands on their software, or a similar amount on a "subscription".

There's plenty of good software out there that is free to download and use, without restrictions on how you use it (dreamspark's EULA won't let you use a GPL license, for example). Most of that software is written by programmers themselves, unlike MS's garbage, where advertising to corporate execs is more important than programmer productivity.

Plus, they can't even keep their security certificates up to date, which is kind of telling on the amount of care and effort they're giving this project. Oh, and this is just a newer name for the same idea that hasn't flown in the past, they just keep changing the name in the hope that it'll catch on if they pick a cool enough one.

If it's free and you're a student learning how to program, it's not all that bad, as long as you keep in mind that MS is a business first. In the long run, using tools written by programmers for programmers is probably the better way to go.

EDIT: Look into cross-platform open source tools. Not only will you dodge the useless bells and whistles (which become annoyances once you're past the newbie stage), but you'll have an easier time porting your software to Mac and other platforms, something you won't be able to do with MS's tools without great headaches.