Contest Update

It’s been three days since I announced my Visual Studio Team Suite / MSDN Premium giveaway. Since then, I’ve noticed that several other MVPs are planning similar giveaways. Come back often (or subscribe); I’ll alert you to any additional contests I discover.

I’ve received 67 comments so far and I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. The majority of comments say, essentially, “I really want it but I can’t afford it.” Come on, people! This isn’t a raffle; you need to give us a reason to choose you over someone else. A few have resorted to threats (“Choose me or else I’ll use Java/Linux”), promises (“Choose me and I promise to learn how to use it”), or pity (“Choose me or my children will starve.”) I was hoping to hear, “I work for this charity/non-profit” (I did get a couple of those) and/or, “I could really use these specific features of VSTS...”

There have been a few standouts: Aidan is working on an innovative Web project that deserves some attention. And I enjoyed Adam Wright’s poem. No promises, guys, but you made a favorable impression.

FYI, if you want the software because you’re a starving student or running a startup, Microsoft offers significant discounts to both academic institutions and software companies. If you don’t score a free copy from an MVP, you should check those out.

Update: Patrick Santry, owner of WWWCoder.com, is giving away several VSTS/MSDN licenses.

Update 2: XML guru Oleg Tkachenko has licenses to give away and is looking for ideas.

  5 Jan 06 9:20 PM · Comments (5) · Tags: .NET, Microsoft, Microsoft