Microsoft to give students free developer tools

Microsoft wants more students using its software tools and it thinks it has hit on the right business model -- it's going to give away its software.

Starting this week, college students in 11 countries will be able to get Microsoft's Visual Studio, Server 2003 Standard Edition, Expression Studio, XNA studio for developing Xbox 360 software and SQL Server 2005 for free as part of an effort dubbed DreamSpark.

Over the next year, Microsoft plans to offer the program worldwide for college and high school students -- Australia is the second wave arriving in the first half of this year.

Microsoft already provides discounted academic versions of its software, as well as a free "express" version of Visual Studio. Students can also get free copies of Windows Server and the developer version of the SQL Server database.

"You can go build software applications," said Joe Wilson, Microsoft's senior director of academic initiatives. "You can go build Web sites. You can do a really cool Facebook application ... There are a lot of possibilities that comes with this small list of products.

Included in those initial 11 countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, and Germany.

Microsoft has two goals here -- the first is to get more students who have enough design or science aptitude to enter the software field, the other is to get them using Microsoft's tools early.

"That next generation and future generations of technologists, they are vital to any industry leader like us," said Wilson, who stated that his goal is, five years from now, to be able to spot businesses that got their start because a student used Microsoft's tools for free.

"I expect that to happen," Wilson said. "Maybe it's hundreds or thousands of companies."

Bill Gates is set to discuss DreamSpark in a speech to students at Stanford University later today.