Dreamspark

Microsoft announced Tuesday the launch of a new student software giveaway program called Dreamspark. Here is an article form the Washington Post article covering this new program. The new program mostly differs from their other similar programs like MSDN academic alliance in student scope. Dreamspark is available to all students regardless of the major being pursued. What caught my interest in the article were a few snippets injected by the journalist about Microsoft’s motive. It made me wonder if a company like Microsoft could do anything without their motives being criticized? I’m not making a judgment, just asking a question. If they did something truly benevolent would anyone ever know, or would we always assume that there is some hidden agenda? And is it even worth them trying? Have we created an environment where it is not even worth being benevolent?