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Even Microsoft Visual Studio isn't that expensive. Microsoft created it's Express Editions partly as a response to the fact that institutions were choosing Linu
by quanticle 15y ago
Even Microsoft Visual Studio isn't that expensive. Microsoft created it's Express Editions partly as a response to the fact that institutions were choosing Linux for introduction to programming, because of the plethora of free tools available. And even before Visual Studio had free versions, Microsoft was rumored to be turning a blind eye towards piracy of Visual Studio, so that programmer who used a (pirated) copy of Visual Studio at home would ask for a (legitimate) copy of it at work.
- zerohp 15y agoMy gut feeling is that Microsoft has turned a blind eye toward piracy by individuals for many years. Almost everyone I know who began doing system administration during the late 90's learned NT4 by pirating it.
- guelo 15y agoIn a way it's a smart way to differentiate customers. Since the pirates also add value to the platform you don't want to lose them, but you also want to extract the money you can from those willing to pay. By demonizing pirates while allowing the pirate channel to exist they are able to do both.
- zokier 15y agoAnother similar case: Photoshop.
- 89a 15y agoWhich actually became easier to pirate in the later versions
- T-Winsnes 15y agoMicrosoft have been giving free versions of their professional range to students for several years with the Dreamspark program :) https://www.dreamspark.com https://www.dreamspark.com
- rplnt 15y agoAlso MSDN Academic Alliance. Almost every MS product except Office is there for students, for free. That includes Visual Studio, all Windows version starting at 98 (including Server editions), XNA, and much more. Edit: Now I see that it's probably the same thing. I'll leavy my comment here though, if anyone else was familiar with MSDNAA.