MSDN Tries To Get 'Em Young

A new low-cost MSDN subscription for high school students and teachers will be available starting this summer. The $299 fee covers Visual Studio.Net Academic Edition, Visual Studio 6.0 as well as access to "e-learning," documentation, training and support. That fee covers all students, all teachers and all school computers. Students enrolled in at least one related for-credit course can also load the software on their personal computers.

That may be a deal, but the full-boat MSDN Universal subscription includes not just the toolsets but the most up-to-date versions of operating systems, Office, and most of the server software for about $2,700 per user. Volume discounts apply. Subsriptions are available direct or through resellers.

Schools can register now for the as-yet-unannounced high school option, a Microsoft spokeswoman said. More information is available on the MSDN web site.

On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned the program in passing at a Washington event. "We're trying to have high school-affordable access to MSDN," he noted in response to a question about how the company can help teach next-generation programmers about developing secure software.

One east coast solution provider lauded the idea but pointed out that most tech-inclined students now work with open-source software that is freely available on the Web, so Microsoft is playing catch up.

"Open source tools have become what Microsoft tools used to be," said another observer. "But remember, Microsoft got its start appealing to developers. It was the gold standard" so it's tough to discount them, he said.

One long-time Microsoft solution provider said there are also ways savvy programmers can get around the steep price for Enterprise MSDN subscriptions. "The absolute cheapest way to get it is to tell Microsoft you're doing a .Net application and need this stuff. Then you can get MSDN for $300," he said, characterizing this as an "unadvertised option."