If you work for a large company or attend school, you may be able to purchase some expensive software for free or fractions of what you would pay at a retail store. Most schools offer these very cheap versions of the product. There usually are restrictions on these versions however. Many programs are "Student" versions intended for student use only. You may be required to remove the software when you leave school, and some versions may not be the full blown version. Check with your school's information technology department for more details about your school.
You can also find academic pricing on online stores. You will be required to show you are a real student of the school, usually by presenting a student I.D. or a school email address. Even your college within a university may have its own program. A few schools I have been to offer free licenses for many Microsoft programs to their engineers and computer students. To check for your school you can check Microsoft's MSDN: Academic Alliance website and find your school. The catch is that you can have the software only as long as you're a student and you're not allowed to resell any of the software you may receive.
So just how cheap are these academic licenses compared to the professional and retail versions? Microsoft's Vista Home Premium upgrade is retail priced at $160, but the academic price is $70. Adobe's Photoshop CS3 Extended goes for $999 but it can be in a student's hands for $290. Microsoft's Office 2007 retails for $425, but the student and teacher edition is only $130, and at some schools you may be able to get it for $40. By purchasing just these three programs you can save over $1,000. Not too shabby for just being a student in school.
Can't find a program for free that I haven't mentioned? Don't give up all hope. I can't cover every freeware alternative in this article. Just Googling "Freeware (insert program name)" will bring up alternatives to what you want. You will find that there is a freeware version very similar to nearly every product you could want. If you are still at school, you may be able to get a substantial discount on this software. Check with your school and see what they have to offer. From the few possible alternatives listed in this article, you can save yourself over $1,000. For the ever growing list of freeware visit our forums and check out "The useful Freeware Database."
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