Should students be given free software for school?
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The companies aren't saying "oh well, it's already been pirated". There will be legal issues if students get it as part of a program and then college resources to hand it out.lunncal said:
A thousand times this. Not sure about the rest of the world, but here in the UK, convincing anyone to use anything other than Photoshop and MS Office is an uphill battle. Unfortunately this isn't going to be feasible here for a good while.Eri said:
OT: Students at all ages should be given those tools required for them to learn and train most effectively. This absolutely includes software.
Well I got a copy of Photoshop through my University, and it's what made me start doing Avatars here 
If you need it for your studies then yes. In university especially most of your work is done in your own time and if you don't have the tools then you can be at a MAJOR disadvantage. I couldn't have done my final project without the software and laptop my university gave me.
If you need it for your studies then yes. In university especially most of your work is done in your own time and if you don't have the tools then you can be at a MAJOR disadvantage. I couldn't have done my final project without the software and laptop my university gave me.
Wait what? Why didn't this happen sooner when I was at uni (I took a course were we used that software most of the time).redisforever said:
I kind of agree that the software should be free but I know that the company would make a lost from the deal. I suppose the student free software should have a limited lifespan meaning once the student had graduated they should either paid a discound fee to continue using it or remove it from their pc (the sorfware stop working once the student had graduated).
I doubt it, there are tons of programs like this to give out free software where I am from, and I have never once heard of anyone getting in any kind of trouble for releasing it on the net. In fact how often are the people who crack software caught anyway? Apart from the odd person made an example of, these people are almost never caught. Even if they were caught I seriously doubt that the college / highschool / whatever would get in any kind of trouble for it.manythings said:
Besides which, when we're talking about software that is needed for education anyway, why would they be less likely to release it on the net if they had to pay for it? I'd say that piracy is encouraged much more by not giving the program away for free, as that would force students who could not (or will not) pay for it to pirate it instead.
It is fun to live in a country in which school is free and all the mandatory items for studying are provided by the school or by the government's agency. It is in the law :, everyone must be able to attend to the line of education they have selected in the official application. All materials required as a mandatory part of the line of education is to be provided to the student. Because here in Finland, everyone is equal no matter what your financial status is. Lovely isn't it, no wonder we are topping the worlds scoreboard with our school system.
While, as a teacher, I'd never recommend some of the programs mentioned above (at risk of starting a flame-war, I won't be specific), I can say that it would be awesome if Adobe provided at least education editions of their software to students. I hate having to teach video editing in iMovie because it's all we can afford. Autodesk DOES do this and therefore my students can get Maya but it leaves an annoying watermark over the final outputs and almost renders the software inoperable too. Yes, I definitely think some subsidizing is in order.
Smacks of entitlement to me. Students don't deserve free programs, but there's nothing wrong with schools using that as bait to get quality students in their doors.
3ds max you can get a 6 month free trial that you can constantly renew. so. its fine. photoshop needs a better student version (longer lasting anyway), microsoft gives ALOT of software (unlimited copies of windows, office, programming suites, ect) to our school (at least computer science majors)
i think that software is generally fine. however, i think if you want mass adaptation and you wanna keep your lead, you should give your software freely so they can learn, adapt to your product and stay away from the competition.
i think that software is generally fine. however, i think if you want mass adaptation and you wanna keep your lead, you should give your software freely so they can learn, adapt to your product and stay away from the competition.
Free, maybe a little far, the companies need to get paid for what they do. Highly discounted? Why not.
I think Adobe are the best example, 80% off the Master Collection with an education license. Couple in the fact your uni could contribute to price and you've suddenly got a comprehensive creative suite that will last you literally years that's affordable.
Autodesk 3DS Max is totally free with a student license, but only for four years which I find disheartening. They should do the same as Adobe.
Microsoft also do Windows 7 Professional for £50 if you have an educational institution e-mail address (.ac.uk for UK) which is pretty good.
I think Adobe are the best example, 80% off the Master Collection with an education license. Couple in the fact your uni could contribute to price and you've suddenly got a comprehensive creative suite that will last you literally years that's affordable.
Autodesk 3DS Max is totally free with a student license, but only for four years which I find disheartening. They should do the same as Adobe.
Microsoft also do Windows 7 Professional for £50 if you have an educational institution e-mail address (.ac.uk for UK) which is pretty good.
I remember (when I first started my Foundation degree in IT & Multimedia) the first time we went to Uni to do programming one day a week we found out that people doing a nursing course got netbooks :/
Student's won't get free software. I would love it, but unfortunately it won't happen to the degree many people would want.
Student's won't get free software. I would love it, but unfortunately it won't happen to the degree many people would want.
The way it fucks around when you move a picture.RAKtheUndead said:
The way it distorts the image when resizing.
The annoying lines it puts in the document when copying and pasting text.
It just feels old. It frustrates me beyond belief.
At my uni we get most of the required software on University machines, so we have the microsoft office set, Adobe CS5 and various others that I haven't used on my course yet. These are only available on the University machines, and some are only available in the specific labs for that kind of work. Its ok to have access to them, but when assignment deadlines get close it can be hard to find an available machine with the stuff you need.
I think software should be available to students, so long as they need it for the particular course. As has been mentioned it familiarises them with that particular brand and interface and makes it more likely for them to use it in a more commercial environment.
I think software should be available to students, so long as they need it for the particular course. As has been mentioned it familiarises them with that particular brand and interface and makes it more likely for them to use it in a more commercial environment.
Yeah they all have their irritating little problems, I just think Office 2010 is so much better than other Office software out there. But of course it's gonna be, you pay for it and it's made by Microsoft.RAKtheUndead said:
