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Except that as a student you get most everything on the MS Stack for free.

Enjoy your straw man.

They have student pricing for microsoft server and sql?

Yes. They are both free under the dream spark program.

To be clear, it's SQL Server express or developer edition, but if your goal is just learning the stack then it's enough.

What restrictions are there, exactly? I'm not familiar with licensing of these products, as I mainly use open source stuff at the moment.

Simply put, the restriction is that you cannot profit from it. I use all the 'Express' stack to develop at home. All free. Including the XNA lib.

Do they have an express version of windows I can hack on?