Should students be given free software for school?

[Darby]

Photoshop. Sony Vegas. After Effects. Acid Pro. 3DS MAX.
What's your opinion on this? Should students, primarily involved in tertiary education, with no large source of income, and a need to use them, be allowed to recieve a free copy of programs like these to better thier education?

 

[binvjoh]

I got a Macbook Pro 13" together with the entire collection of Adobe programs and some other stuff like Final Cut.

How they afford it is beyond me, but I'm not complaining.

Actually, any chance I get I work on my PC instead.

Edit: I realize I didn't really comment on the topic at hand, I do think getting access to such equipment and software is a great thing and it has certainly raised the quality of the assignments we work on.

 

[redisforever]

Well, 3DS Max, students can already get free with a student license on the Autodesk site.
But the other, I think so. We should get them for free. Then we wouldn't need to use questionable means to acquire them.

 

[Eri]

http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.openoffice.org/

There, 99% of you are set.

 

[Phishfood]

100% yes, on the condition they delete it when they stop being a student.

Even from a corporate point of view it makes sense - brand recognition and all. If you educate someone to use say photoshop then when they get out in the real world they are going to want to buy photoshop.

 

[manythings]

Well who is dealing with the "free" component? Either the companies in question and making them available to the colleges (or whatever) or the colleges are buying it and handing them out.

I would say this would never happen because no one would trust the students to not just put it up as a torrent and free programs for all. That would really lead to severe problems for colleges who would be held responsible for the actions of the few who would do that to "Stick it to the man" and ruin a lot of scholarship programs and the like.

If they need it and can't work in the college? I dunno about free but heavily discounted programs would be a good idea. People rarely value free things but if you part with money your more likely to treat it with care and responsibility.

 

[wizard_joe88]

Well, as far as I know, my school's journalism class frequently uses photoshop, and so does the graphic design courses. I say yes, depending on the circumstances. It would be kind of hard taking a graphic design course without photoshop on hand, right?

 

[Chemical Alia]

Yes, or at the very least, the cost of the license should be included in tuition, allowing the student to pay for it with loans and not straight out of pocket. Autodesk already provides free student versions, but there's no way I could have bought a $3500 13-month license for Max while I was in school. It's in the company's best interest to encourage students to get involved with their software and learn the tools when they're necessary for the jobs they're going after.

 

[AbstractStream]

I actually do prefer Photoshop over Gimp. Nothing wrong or against Gimp, just...
Anyway, maybe for highschool students these free programs might not mean much, but for vocational or university students, this is a real good idea (as long as it relates to the class you're taking). They don't give free copies where I'm attending :/

 

[klasbo]

You should get the software you need for your course.
I, studying engineering cybernetics, get Visual Studio 2008/2010, Matlab & Simulink, Windows 7, and whatever else I need for programming and simulation.

But no, I don't get Sony Vegas, After Effects, Lightroom, Bibble 5 etc. It's not part of my course. Uni shouldn't pay for my hobbies.

 

[zhoominator]

It depends how limited your income is. Most courses at least offer discounts but if you are expected to pay for books for an English course, I don't see why it's unreasonable to have to pay for (for example) Maple to do a Maths course.

 

[Dastardly]

Photoshop. Sony Vegas. After Effects. Acid Pro. 3DS MAX.
What's your opinion on this? Should students, primarily involved in tertiary education, with no large source of income, and a need to use them, be allowed to recieve a free copy of programs like these to better thier education?

Better instead to provide a computer lab whose computers have the required programs. Cuts expenses dramatically when you don't have to give away free software every year.

That said, more companies should get into the "providing limited licenses to students" game. Or even providing a semi-stripped version of the program for home use, allowing the student to get quite a bit of work done at home before finishing in the lab.

I think the onus is on the software companies to help students, rather than putting the financial burden on the schools.

 

[2xDouble]

I would love for that to happen, but it simply isn't possible. Software companies aren't going to simply give away full versions of their software, even to schools. So it has to be paid for by someone. As you've probably noticed, this software is expensive, and quite frankly, schools just don't have the budgets to afford dozens or hundreds of copies of software. They should and do offer discounted prices (sometimes greatly discounted, as much as 60-75% off), but unless you can convince higher authorities to grant you taxpayer money or convince a company to donate to the school, you'll just have to raise the funds yourself.

Some schools have necessary software loaded onto school-owned computers that you may be permitted to borrow. That's probably the best the school itself can do.

 

[Womplord]

Well who is dealing with the "free" component? Either the companies in question and making them available to the colleges (or whatever) or the colleges are buying it and handing them out.

I would say this would never happen because no one would trust the students to not just put it up as a torrent and free programs for all. That would really lead to severe problems for colleges who would be held responsible for the actions of the few who would do that to "Stick it to the man" and ruin a lot of scholarship programs and the like.

If they need it and can't work in the college? I dunno about free but heavily discounted programs would be a good idea. People rarely value free things but if you part with money your more likely to treat it with care and responsibility.

I think he meant that the government pays for the software.

 

[zHellas]

GIMP is nowhere near as robust or malleable as photoshop. Sure for simple things but if your training for graphics design, it really is photoshop you need.

It's one of the few examples of a premium product THAT ACTUALLY IS PREMIUM.

Not sure about all that (I kinda think it's somewhat subjective), but at least Photoshop has a better name.

 

[DEAD34345]

Well who is dealing with the "free" component? Either the companies in question and making them available to the colleges (or whatever) or the colleges are buying it and handing them out.

I would say this would never happen because no one would trust the students to not just put it up as a torrent and free programs for all. That would really lead to severe problems for colleges who would be held responsible for the actions of the few who would do that to "Stick it to the man" and ruin a lot of scholarship programs and the like.

If they need it and can't work in the college? I dunno about free but heavily discounted programs would be a good idea. People rarely value free things but if you part with money your more likely to treat it with care and responsibility.

If you can find a program that is used in education that isn't already a torrent then sure, that would make sense. However I very much doubt you could find a useful program that has never been pirated, and once it is out there it is out for good. Students releasing it too would make no difference.

I say yes, why not give students programs for free? It's not like it costs the company anything to do so, and will probably lead to them wanting to use (and therefore pay for) the program in the future. I was given Visual Studio for free because I needed it for my course. Where is the downside?

 

[cardinalwiggles]

oh god yes! i'm in university now and i need every software imaginable and i can't afford it. which bassically really hinders my ability to work OUTSIDE of the uni. save some essays any practical work is undoable. and drives people like us to either abuse the trial system of companies or even pirate because otherwise it would be impossible.

 

[Phishfood]

Well who is dealing with the "free" component? Either the companies in question and making them available to the colleges (or whatever) or the colleges are buying it and handing them out.

I would say this would never happen because no one would trust the students to not just put it up as a torrent and free programs for all. That would really lead to severe problems for colleges who would be held responsible for the actions of the few who would do that to "Stick it to the man" and ruin a lot of scholarship programs and the like.

If they need it and can't work in the college? I dunno about free but heavily discounted programs would be a good idea. People rarely value free things but if you part with money your more likely to treat it with care and responsibility.

I think he meant that the government pays for the software.

There are plans in there to deal with that kind of thing. Where I work we can buy software from county at really cheap rates because they buy licenses in 100,000 lots and so they get the best bulk rates.