Ever since I used the Microsoft Word student edition a few years ago, I have been suspicious of anything marketed to students. In theory, the idea of a student version is a good one. Student versions of software are cheaper, while still having enough features to meet the needs of students. The companies that sell them often give student discounts, making them even more affordable if you are in school. They are supposed to work well and be easily upgraded to the professional version. My Microsoft student edition was none of these things. It was so buggy that it would crash about every other time I used it. I lost hours of work before I finally figured out how to auto save my documents. At that point, I made a vow to myself: I would never purchase student software again.
That was, however, before I decided to take an engineering course. As an engineering student, you simply have to be able to buy the student version of software. You just can not get by with slide rules and calculators anymore, you see. You need to get some serious CAD/CAM software. In my case, the electric engineering AutoCAD student version was the only thing remotely in my price range. To get a fully functional professional edition, I would have had to spend something like 600 dollars. I didn't have that kind of cash, and even if I had had the money, I wouldn't have wanted to spend it. I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend my life as an engineer.
It turns out that the worry I had over buying a student version was misplaced. The software worked flawlessly! Had I bought the full version, I would have been in for a nasty surprise. You see, the professional version software requires a much more powerful computer that I owned. The student version, on the other hand, is a simpler program. It can run on any moderately powerful PC, something which is crucial for students who don't have the money to buy a brand-new computer.
I don't know about student software in general, but I know that the AutoCAD student version was great. I wouldn't say that it was easy to use exactly, but the professor was kind enough to help us learn how it worked. Soon, I was switching my major to engineering, and designing ever more complicated circuits. The software always seemed to work like a charm.
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