Visual Studio Pro for Free

Microsoft have announced Dreamspark (yeah, not a great name, but hey) - a program allowing students to download a wide range of their professional developer tools. XNA Game Studio 2.0 is also included. Students will need a Windows Live ID account, and their school needs to be signed up to the program - and needs to act as an ‘identity provider’. Though this (happily) can be done without sharing data about the student - other than confirming that a user is a student:

Administrators are able to share information over an encrypted channel using Shibboleth or Microsoft CardSpace technologies. Using Shibboleth, students will be able to assert their identities by logging in to their Universities with their existing log in credentials. If the log in is successful a binary True/False value will be returned back to the Microsoft site via HTTPS/SSL encryption. No sensitive student information (including passwords) is shared with the DreamSpark site using Shibboleth. CardSpace is similar, in that a card is sent to the student and is used as the means of verification, without sharing any personal student information. Both of these devices, Shibboleth and CardSpace, help enable verification without sharing sensitive student data.

Not yet sure if my own school will have signed up…