Microsoft is now offering Windows 7 on pre-order to American students for $29.99 via a promotional site at win741.com
The offer applies to Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional, and students must have a college or university e-mail address.
According to the Windows Team Blog:
Students in the US can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 in the US starting today and students in the UK can pre-order their copy beginning on September 30th (pre-ordered copies will be available for download beginning October 22nd). Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico can participate in this offer on October 22nd (Windows 7 GA).
GA is "General Availability". Windows 7 has already shipped to many professional categories of users.
The UK announcement implies that this is an upgrade version. It may also have been done in a bit of a rush, because it says: "You can take advantage of this offer from September 30th" and "This offer will be available from 1st October".
The US announcement at win741 also mentions the MSDN Academic Alliance. Students at universities and colleges that subscribe can already get free Microsoft software, and the licences never expire, even after they graduate.
