I'm not sure if you missed it but this week Microsoft launched the DreamSpark Program.
"Starting this week, college students in 10 countries will be able to get Microsoft's Visual Studio and several other programs for free as part of an effort dubbed DreamSpark. Over the next year, Microsoft plans to offer the program worldwide for college and high school students."
- https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/
Hopefully this means a whole new group of DNN developers and users.