MSDN Academic Alliance

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MSDN Academic Alliance is a Microsoft program which provides some Microsoft developer tools for free to students and faculty in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, and related fields. The participating schools pay an annual fee to avail this alliance.

One of the benefits of MSDNAA is that the participating department can acquire free copies of Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Visual Studio .Net, and other Microsoft products for lab computers. The program also allows students and faculty to obtain free copies of selected Microsoft products, including Windows XP Professional and Visual Studio .Net, for use in coursework and personal projects. Despite its name, a MSDNAA account is not a true MSDN account and cannot be used to access the subscriber's section of the MSDN website or its downloads. Access to MSDNAA software is done through a separate website run either by E-Academy or by the university/high school itself.

Colleges and universities are mainly served by this program, but a high school version of the MSDNAA is also available.

The list of software each college and university gets is dependent on the agreements made by that particular school. Access is usually given to students who meet certain requirements ( CS classes for example )

One strong criticism against such an alliance is that, Microsoft funds the use of its software both for software development as well as general usage, binding the students to such use even after their graduation; this can be seen as both an advertising campaign limiting students' and teachers' use of Open Source software as well as a charitable act providing expensive and often useful software to students at a discount. However, MSDNAA prohibits certain software from coming under this umbrella - e.g. Microsoft Office, hence.

[edit] See also

• Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN)
• MSDN Academic Alliance Homepage
• MSDNAA Program Brief
• Search for schools participating in the MSDNAA
• e-academy Inc.