If you're a College student (in Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK, US), you can obtain a free copy of Microsoft Development software. Visual Studio 2005/2008 professional, Windows Server 2003, Expression Studio, Game Studio 2.0, etc...

Go here: https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Products.aspx // Click on the product you want to download to get started.


If your school is not listed in the drop down box, you can still be instantly verified to start your download.
Go here: https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/StudentIdOptio ns.aspx

Even better, if you become an IEEE student member (student rate is something like $40/year) you get access to all MS software (with very few exceptions) - Server 2008, Windows 7, VS 2008, TFS, etc. It is an incredible deal.