Here is the cheapest price around for Win2K Pro!

[Dave2]

You're not going to beleive this. I bought Windows 2K Pro for $5.00! I bought it at UTA and I'm a student over there. This is only for UTA students and staff. It is not the retail boxed version with the manual but who cares with that low price. For that low price I gave it a try. I'm sure glad that I didn't pay $199 for it.

[Dave2]

The problem is that the EULA states that I can't sell it. Anyway's I'm thinking about going back and exchanging it for Win 98 SE since I'm having problems with my CDRW software in Windows 2K.

[neo_otyugh]

i've heard at UTA you can get most any software for cheap...here in housto n at UH the best they did was sell me a copy of Oracle 8 for $10 that never worked for the class i needed it for. turns out my job is supplying me with a copy of win2k in order to learn enough to take support calls on it....heheh

[jack the hack]

hey dave if you can get another disc I will buy it off of you for $20 ad pay shiping too.

[wyvrn]

All university of Texas schools get the discounted rate. The deal is open to any University via Microsoft, but only a few schools offer it to their students. I believe you can get copies of any microsoft software you want. I have spoken (via bb) to the store manager at UT campus and he states that the software is only for students, you only get one copy of whatever you order, you pay only the cost for the disc, and your student id is verified when you buy it.

I would make a plea here that no one buy this software and copy/distribute it, simply because if this happens Microsoft will pull the deal and the nations' students will have to pay full price once again.

[bdunn]

I'm a university employee and we dont have that here for students. Can anyone find out who at Microsoft to contact to start it here.

[jeana]

Right, my university charges $180 for the software. I went to the Microsoft site and hunted around under "Education", looking at bulk pricing, but couldn't see the deal. Does the university have to buy a license? In other words, is the good deal the students at the expense of some initial cost to the university? I know you probably don't know, Dave2, but maybe wyvrn knows some more about it?

It would be great if I could persuade our software center to look into this deal... although I don't know why I'm so hopeful-- their prices and personnel make CompUSA look like a guru-filled bargain paradise. Why would they do anything that gives them more work, might cost the university a small amount, but saves students a lot of money?
[Don't take this as an attack on all university staff, bdunn-- this is just a personal gripe about my own particular school, where it doesn't feel like the administration or the support staff are in our corner. I've been in other universities where the employees at all levels actually seemed to care about making improvements for the greater good, but this is not one of them.]

[wyvrn]

Here is the information Ben posted at anandtech about the offer to UT.

***********************

Hello everyone,

I'm the manager of the UT Campus Computer Store. Interesting thread. I just wanted to set a few things straight for you guys who are interested.

First, we are selling Microsoft Software for cheap! We can do this because the UT System (not just UT Austin) paid several $Million to Microsoft for a systemwide license of Windows 95/98/etc, Windows NT/2000/etc, Office Premium, Visual Studio Pro, Office Mac, and FrontPage Mac. The students pay a small fee each semester to pay for the license. Since UT ownes the license, we just sell the media for people to do their installations.

Of course, this is only for UT Students, Faculty, and Staff. This does not apply to Texas-Exes, former faculty or staff, or even someone auditing classes. You have to be a degree seeking student or at least a 1/2 time employee.

We do limit the purchases to 1 copy per student to limit the amount of piracy and reselling of CDs. We do this by keeping a database of all the eligible people here at UT and checking each person before we sell them the software. I won't say that we catch every single ineligible person but we turn people away all the time so chances are you wouldn't be able to buy it from us.

I won't get on a soap box here but it is just as illegal to buy these CDs from a student (or pretend you are a student) as it is to download it from a warez site. Do UT a favor, if you're going to steal it anyway, do it anonymously over the net. If Microsoft finds out that a lot of people are getting our CDs illegally, they will cancel the deal. So, help us keep it available for our students who paid for it!

As far as the CDs go, they are manufactured just like the ones you buy in a retail box. It's higher quality and cheaper than burning them on CDRs when you're dealing with the quantity we sell. We do contract out the production of the CDs and we make custom art for them. The company that makes our CDs is here in Austin. They also make CDs for such titles as TombRaider, Madden Football, MacOS, Alpha Centauri, and others. Those are just the ones I've seen so I'm sure they do much more. I'm pretty confident in the quality...

Finally, this deal (or a similar one) is available to all higher education institutions who are willing to pay for it. It's called the Microsoft Campus Agreement. Check with your school's administration to find out if there is anything in the works. Start a petition! I'm sure that if enough people demanded it (and were willing to pay for it), the school would listen.

If you do have additional questions, please feel free to email me. I'm at ben@campuscomputer.com .

Kindest regards,

--Ben Finklea


-------------------------
UT Campus Computer Store
A HiEd, Inc. Company
ben@campuscomputer.com
(512) 475-6550
fax: (512) 232-4696

Browse our entire product catalog at: http://www.campuscomputer.com/
******************

Hope that helps. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[wyvrn]

By the way I got he win2k prof. cd through my fiance's school and plan to install it on her laptop for better security/stability than win98. Cost us 10 bucks. Not a bad deal!

[tangudta@cats.ucsc.edu]

damnit my university store is so pro mac... they don't even have jack sh** software for PC... no win 98, 2000... and prices are freggin high.

[RobRich]

I'll sympathise with you, my school is pro-PC, but the prices are outrageous. I can honestly usually buy it cheaper from www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) , and thats academic software versus full retail!!

I have lucked out, though. A local CD shop has got into buying OEM software from bankrupt companies and reselling it. That makes it a legal venture in which to sell the OEM software. The shipments are somewhat erratic, but you can sometimes get excellent deals. Like a friend of mine just bought an Enterprise copy of Visual Studio (which also included a copy of NT 4.0) for less than $30!!

[jeana]

Thanks, wyvrn!

I guess I'll ask around and see if anything is in the works here. However, I have small hope that I'll be able to persuade the administration to invest several million for software licenses, in the hope that the cost will be made up in student purchases! Probably works for a large system like UT, but is less cost-effective for smaller schools.

[This message has been edited by jeana (edited 03-17-2000).]