Microsoft + GitHub: Free Tools for Student Developers

When we launched the new Visual Studio Community 2013 edition last year, we talked about students being one the audiences this product is really great for.  Free access to the tools that professional developers use every day is a great resource for students to learn, code and build the next great app.

GitHub is the home of a strong open source community, including hundreds of Microsoft projects, and students are a critical part of this community.  Recently, GitHub announced the GitHub Student Developer Pack, a collection of resources for students to get started with access to great developer tools and services offerings from dozens of partners. 

Today, GitHub and Microsoft are making Visual Studio Community 2013 available as part of the GitHub Student Developer Pack.  

Through the Student Pack, student developers can access Visual Studio, as well as great free offers for Azure and Visual Studio Online.

• Visual Studio:  All the tools, designers and debuggers you need for your next project – with support for web, mobile, desktop and cloud apps using C#, Node.js, Python, F#, VB and more.  Visual Studio 2013 Community is free for students and other non-enterprise developers.
• Visual Studio Online: Tools for planning, backlogs, tracking bugs and running builds and continuous integration – all in one place.  Visual Studio Online accounts are free for up to 5 users.
• Microsoft Azure:  Host apps in the cloud on a platform that supports any OS, any language and any framework.  Microsoft Azure subscriptions include 10 free web sites and 10 free mobile services.

That’s just the start though.  Students can also get free access to many more Microsoft tools and developer offerings through DreamSpark, including SQL Server, training courses and Windows Store developer accounts.  Along with the GitHub Student Developer Pack, we’re making it easy for students to discover and access the offerings available through DreamSpark.

Go ahead and get started today.

Namaste!

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2015
  All of the Microsoft software in this pack is FREE FOR ANYONE.

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2015
  @0, Most of the content above is free for everyone but there are some restrictions around VS Community edition which are important to understand. Learn more in the Q&A here: www.visualstudio.com/.../visual-studio-community-vs

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 13, 2015
  It's NOT free for ANYONE, Chinese students CANNOT obtain these free offers in a normal way. Because there is no option for China in Azure registration. I feel helpless, China is always a special case in many ways. Whether in Github Student Pack or in Azure registration.

• Anonymous
  January 14, 2015
  To me it's not clear what exactly do you get for the subscription based stuff (VS online and especially Azure): If I invest a lot of time to set up a small hobby website  just for private use AND to learn - what happens, if my trial period is over? Will it stop working and all my effort is lost? (I will definitely not pay privately, that my hobby website is running, but probably I would propose to use Azure at work if I had a good experience on hobby project.) -> That question is what hinders me starting trying this at all. Its different for Google App Engine. They kind of promise to run my hobby-website forever. (I am a  .Net guy)

• Anonymous
  January 14, 2015
  @Steffen - Azure Websites is free up to 10 websites (azure.microsoft.com/.../websites) for as long as you want to run them.  Visual Studio Online Basic is free for the first 5 users in a project (www.visualstudio.com/.../visual-studio-online-basic-vs.aspx).

• Anonymous
  January 15, 2015
  Does this Azure offer require a credit card to register?

• Anonymous
  April 05, 2015
  I dont have a credit card how can i register on azure for free services? I have my github student developers pack but i dnt know how to get azure free services please guide me anyone? :)

• Anonymous
  April 06, 2015
  @touseef - Check out this page for details on signing up for Azure as a Student: www.dreamspark.com/.../Product.aspx