Ball State University students, faculty and staff will be able to download the full Ultimate version of Windows Vista free of charge as part of the Microsoft campus agreement, officials at University Computing Services said.
Ultimate, the top-of-the line version of the new Microsoft operating system, which was released Tuesday, typically costs $399 for the full version from retail stores.
Students also will be able to download a full version of Microsoft Office 2007, which retails for $498.
Students will be able to download Vista, along with Microsoft Office 07 Professional, from UCS as soon as UCS receives the software keys from Microsoft, said Loren Malm, the assistant director of security, policy and assessment.
Malm said UCS is expecting to receive the keys later this week or early next week. Currently, he said, UCS is working to secure the infrastructure of the download site to be able to handle requests for the software.
The software can be found at bsu.edu/msdownload, and students interested in downloading the software from the Web site will need to have the ability to burn it on to a DVD with their computer.
Malm said it will be interesting to see the number of people who download Vista right away. With any new software, especially a new operating system, he said there are three types of people: the early adopters, who are willing to put up with any initial incompatibility; the mainstream, who see their friends starting to transition over; and late adopters, who don't see the benefit of changing and wait until it is unavoidable.
Jim Crichton, team leader of Enterprise System Services in UCS, said he does not see much potential for incompatibility.
"There's going to be hiccups," Crichton said, "But there will probably also be patches released by the companies that make these different games that will make it work."
Potential issues with Vista could have been ironed out during early beta testing of the software on Ball State's campus. A group of around fifty beta-testers comprised of students and faculty interested in playing with the new software worked with UCS to look for problems with the software.
David Loss, the lead data protection and enterprise security engineer at UCS, said Microsoft worked closely with the beta-testers at Ball State through the Technology Adoption Program to fix any problems that came up throughout the tests.
Loss said after working with beta versions of the software, he is convinced students and faculty will enjoy what they will be downloading.
"It seems like they've really thought about usability a lot," Loss said.
Crichton said he agrees that the new operating system creates a user-friendly environment. It definitely has a very clean interface, he said.
"A lot of the stuff they've done just makes sense," he added.
Malm said he is also impressed with the improvements Microsoft has made to the operating system, but said he does not see the new software swaying Mac users to using a Windows operating system.
"I think people who really like the Mac will probably continue to like Mac," Malm said, "And for people who like the Windows interface this is probably an evolutionary step, and I think they'll like this better. That's my guess."
Malm said if he was a student he would absolutely download it for free, and the first thing he would do would be to make sure he had a tuner card and use the software to watch and record TV with its ability to act as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR).
The availability of the free software comes as a result of the Microsoft Campus Agreement, which Microsoft offers to all institutes of higher-learning, said O'Neal Smitherman, vice president for information and technology and CIO at Ball State.
The university pays licensing fees to a Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller, Bell Tech.logix, and acquires copies of Microsoft Enterprise software at very reduced prices. The Student technology fees cover approximately $320,000 for access to the software, Smitherman said.
The advantage to Microsoft is that the company gains new users and familiarity with its product, he added.
The university has been involved in the product agreement since 2002, and Smitherman said he believes it has provided Ball State students with a valuable program.
"It allows students to continue to receive, learn about and use the most advanced software as soon as it is released," he said. "This helps prepare graduates for a working world that demands information technology skills."
To download Office 2007 and Vista Ultimate go to bsu.edu/msdownload
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