What is with all the free stuff from Microsoft?
I use the quotes because I havent read the whole license agreement, but from the outside it looks FREE. So, what am I talking about? There are two programs that Microsoft announced recently that provide their high priced stuff to you for free (at least for a while).
Microsoft BizSpark You can get software to run your business (Windows Server, Office, SQL Server, BizTalk, Dynamics, SharePoint, Expression Studio, Visual Studio Team System Team Suite, MSDN subscription and more). You can be in the program for 3 years, as long as you make less than $1 million and dont go public, and only pay $100 when you leave.
Thats a lot of software that you get for free.
Microsoft Office Live Small Business Get a free web domain plus website hosting (500 MB) plus online applications (web design tools, email, contact manager, document manager, project manager, etc.) to run your business free for 1 year and only $14.95/YEAR after that.
That is quite an offer.
Personally, I think that this is probably in response to Google Apps.
