Last night a student asked me a question on how she could acquire the Expressions Suite software. Being a student she can't afford to get it herself. Her question reminded me of something I had known about but hasn't come to the front of my mind until now. Microsoft allows students to have free access to Expressions and Visual Studio 2008 Professional at no cost through the DreamSpark program. I had registered for the program while I was still a student so that I could tell other students of Southern Polytechnic State Univerisity how the program works. Having been reminded about the program I decided to bring it to attention one more time for any of you that may be students.
So what does this have to do with Windows Mobile? If you wanted to begin programming with Windows Mobile there are two paths that you can take. One is the path without Visual Studio. It is not a path I would ever sugest unless you have no other option. The preferred path is to acquire a Professional version of Visual Studio. But this path cost money in most cases. If you are a student and would like to engage in Windows Mobile development you can take advantage of the DreamSpark program to go down this pathway without paying money (just remember to read the terms and conditions. I believe software acquired this way cannot be used for commercial purposes). If you are not a student and would still like to get your hands on Visual Studio Professional for experimenting then you can get it at a discount. As described on the Windows Mobile Team Blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2007/07/30/visual-studio-beta-2-professional-available-for-download.aspx
If you're concerned about the cost of Visual Studio Professional, you should consider joining the ISV Empower Program which is designed for Independent Software Vendors and provides limited Microsoft software licenses – including Visual Studio – for internal use, development and testing and technical support. Registration with the program costs around $375 for companies in the United States. Please consult https://empower-isv.one.microsoft.com/isv/Help/en/rsc.htm for a list of other countries which have an ISV Empower Program.
ISV Empower Program Overview : https://empower-isv.one.microsoft.com/isv/programguide/Default.aspx
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