Win 1 in 3 copies of Microsoft Expression Studio Commemorative Editions

What’s better than going to Vegas? Getting all the freebies without going of course! I’m proud to say I have with me not only one, but three (3) copies of the exclusively limited Commemorative Editions of Expression Studio to give away! Considering each of these are valued at over $600, you could say I’m giving away the equivalent of 3 iPhones – take that Engadget.

Microsoft Expression Studio Commemorative Edition

Unfortunately for three MIX07 attendees who got a little distracted by all the Pussycat Dolls, they forgot to pick up their complimentary copies of Expression Studio. Fortunately for the rest of us, some lucky people will have the chance to own their little piece of Microsoft history. Like I’ve said many times, these are intriguingly unique – every single one of these is different ever so slightly. One of these has a Chinese recipe for battered fish, another has someone’s day schedule and the last describes someone’s love for coffee.

The contents of the box include a “thank you” card, a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, and pre-release versions of Expression Blend, Expression Design, Expression Web and Expression Media. Because these were packaged before the products were finalized, you will have to download the latest release from the website and use the product keys included.

The rules and conditions of entry are as follows:

  • Submit at least one comment below with a legitimate email address for contact. Multiple comments will only count as one entry.
  • You must be a residence of any country with an operational postal system and valid shipping address.
  • Microsoft employees or their immediate family members are only allowed to enter by providing internal documents on Vista SP1 or Windows 7.
  • Contest will close Friday, 6th of July 2007. Winners will be notified soon after.

Special thanks to Miwa Mueller from Microsoft for providing these wonderful gifts, who actually coordinated the design efforts on this project.

Update: Competition closed – entries are no longer accepted. Winners are Josh, John and Ivan.

314 insightful thoughts

  1. Great Idea – “Win 1 in 3 copies of Microsoft Expression Studio Commemorative Editions”

  3. Wow… am I the only one who’s entering? I could really do with one of these… need to get developing πŸ˜‰ Thanks Long πŸ™‚

  10. I’ve been considering purchasing the package. Winning one (commemerative at that) would be even sweeter.

    thanks for the chance,
    Fred

  16. This got to be easiest contest I have entered. Great blog by the way. (Congratulating here; not sucking up :))

  20. I think I am not alone when I say, I love these limited edition runs that Microsoft does sometimes, this is certainly not your ordinary Microsoft packaging.

  22. Hi,

    I’d like to get my hands on that, but I don’t feel like I have the chance.

    I hoped that they would give me one of these at the REMIX 07 (in Budapest, Hungary), but they only gave a 60-day trial. That’s strange, since the only difference between MIX and REMIX was that the latter was a free event. πŸ™‚

  24. Hey, I’m one of the distracted attendees, give it back!!!! Mua Mua…

    ;)LOL

  25. I’m excited to match this against CS3. Looks good so far.
    Great idea for a giveaway, too.

  28. Way to wake us up on a Monday morning Long!

    Winning a copy of this software would be great.

    Thanks for the opportunity.

  31. Love your blog, I’ve been reading it for almost a year.
    From Sweden by the way.

  34. lol!
    Can I have the one with the “Chinese recipe for battered fish” on it! ^^x

  44. wicked! i love the cover design, its very unique and refreshing. hopefully i’ll be a winner here…thanks Long πŸ˜‰

  45. It is time for me to update my Visual Studio (still using 03, ugh). Please save my wallet by not making me purchase Expressions as well. Thanks for the opportunity!

  47. Never has another person’s misfortune made me so happy! Or at least it will if I get one!

  49. Comment – check
    Operational postal system – check (is US so definition of operational may vary)

    Love the site!

  56. I’d like to try to make some Chinese battered fish πŸ™‚
    Thanks for the chance to win Long!!!

  60. Wow.. getting one of these would be a great help. Hope I win and best of luck to everyone else! ^_^

  64. Sweet! One thing, do the keys work with the Mac versions? Even if not, enter me!

    -Kyle

  65. A chance to show my appreciation of this blog, sometimes you are a bit too blinded by Microsofts PR, just be a bit more critical and keep up the good work.

  70. Owning Expression Studio would surely make my life (at least a little bit) better πŸ™‚

    Here’s why I should win:

    All of my friends will be super impressed and jealous. Everyone’s going to have an iPhone, but I’ll be one of the lucky few to be rocking the commemorative edition of Expression Studio. Think they make a belt clip for Expression studio?
    The packaging is oh so very pretty. After the software’s installed I can frame it. A true multi-purpose product: software & art
    I’m an aspiring web designer/ developer just starting to get my “feet wet.” I’d love the oppurtunity to ramp up on new technology right away. Silverlight looks to be the future. I want in.
    I want it, and owning it would make me very happy. Making others happy is good Karma. Make me happy, and good things will happen to you!
    I took the time to make an (admittedly poor) attempt at being humorous! Everyone else so far has only written a one or two liner!

    Seriously: I’d really like to get my hands on Expression Studio. I probably won’t buy it, since I’m not making money as a developer at this stage in my “career.” I’d use it, I’d learn it, I’d love it (I’m sure.)

    Anyway, thanks for helping folks out Long!

  75. This is great, I’ve been drooling over these ever since I heard about them. Thanks a bunch!

  76. Hi Long. I would really appreciate if you would give one of these commemorative editions, because I wanted to go to Las Vegas but unfortunately my parents told me to go to school during this time. But anyway, thanks for supporting us.

  77. What can I say, I love you, Long. I think I’d love a free copy of Expresion Studio more though. =P

    These boxes (and Vista) show Microsoft can be pretty damn good at design when they want to be. Now if they could get Windows Live’s site design up to the same standards…

  78. Hey this commenting thing is actually pretty easy, I should do it more often. Maybe if more folks offered freebies like this I’d make more time to express myself. Keep up the good work.

  81. WOW this is a wicked contest! I’d love to win this as im a indie developer and can’t afford it right now (especially with my budget LOL)

    This would definitly make my day! Hell my year! πŸ™‚

    Chris [email protected]

  87. Oh me oh my; my employer won’t purchase this for me but I want it desperately. With this software, I will finally develop that thing that will get me promoted. Long, help a brother out.

  88. My entry.

    While I can’t give you any internal docs about 7 or SP1, I suggest you ask your ‘sources’ for the (internal) google ppt that was making the rounds at Microsoft along with that “life at google” email. Unless you already have it. Which you probably do. Because you are god and everything. πŸ™‚

  98. I am having a seafood party and I need the copy of Expression Studio with the Chinese recipe for battered fish.

  104. Sign me up to win, please! [email protected]
    So, they were watching the Pussycat Doll and forgot to pick up their freebie. Wait, what am I entering to win again? I think I may have suffered the same fate!

  107. Hey so many comments, so many entries. If you are reading this no more comments please, my odds are getting worse!

    Thanks Long for a great blog and here’s my entry as a bit of an IT all rounder your blog seems to hit the spot – honestly I’m not sucking up.

    Good luck to everyone

  108. I’d love to win one of these, as my late father, the former finance minister of Nepal, died, leaving me with 8.2 million US dollars. I’ll trade you the money for the software.

  109. Let “The Early Bird Takes The Software” not apply…I’m currently in “vacation” for two more weeks in a hard-to-get-connected area and suffering serious web withdrawal.

  122. Right….. I can predict the future and I can see me winning a copy and on the day I receive it, Vista SP1 will be announced for a Winter 2008 release…. ok… that was stupid but who cares?!?!?!

  124. Happy to read about this ‘contest’.
    Would be fine to win one of this package.

    Good luck to all of us from germany!

  126. Nice giveaway Long. Keep up the great work as it seems you stirred the pot that shook the Ultimate Extras Team out of their slumber.

  127. *chuckle* .. there’s no better way to get some decent traffic to your website than to throw a massive competition like this one πŸ˜‰

  130. *Microsoft employees or their immediate family members are only allowed to enter by providing internal documents on Vista SP1 or Windows 7.

    XDXDXD
    It’s not affordable for a student like me… =]

    *kenny . sharp at hotmail.com

  132. Are we sure that each one of them is different? Let’s make a deep one-to-one comparison πŸ˜€

  136. This post was almost as exciting as the iPhone live line blog on engadget! πŸ™‚

  137. Great idea for a contest. I hope I win — I have lots of ideas for programming projects! Best of luck to everyone, though. And thanks for your wonderful blog. Keep up the great work.

  140. Howdy! Nice giveaway you’ve got going there. πŸ™‚ And congratulations on getting the Ultimate Extras team to speak up! (At least, I assume you have something to do with that…)

    tophtucker (at) gmail (dot) com

  147. Heck, since I have to pay for summer classes, rent and bad food and I don’t get paid for my internship…I might as well shoot for the stars with this bad boy! Wish me luck!

  151. I’ll swap you my copy of Expression Web that I got at ReMIX 2007 in Melbourne, for Expression Studio. πŸ™‚

  152. I played with the betas but haven’t found the cash to go with the release versions yet…

  153. I use have been using Expression Web regularly. But would like to be a part of history myself.

  155. Thanks for being a good blogger and stirring up trouble for the Ultimate Extras Design team, looks like things are rolling a bit better because of your harassment.

  159. Damn, I shouldn’t have slept in this morning…

    I wouldn’t have been so far down in the comment list if I hadn’t

  169. Ahh the fun I can have developing with this commemorative expression studio πŸ™‚

  172. As much as I like to think that I’m going to win this (look at the 169 comments above me and who knows how many below :() I’m still entering cos well, i can tell everyone i got an expesive thing for free…. yay.
    @Long: How are your bandwith figures now ?

  173. Wow!

    I just cant miss this man!

    but even if I don’t, thanks for the chance…

    more power to your blog!

  174. Although it might be cool to get a free iPhone, I’ll opt for a free copy of Expression because I’m not interested in paying the iPhone’s monthly operating costs.

  176. Hey long, This looks great. I really want to try out expression (as with any new Microsoft product) and this looks like my chance to do so…

  177. Hey long, I’ve been a long time graphic artiest. I wanted to try expression but I don’t have the money to do so. This contest is perfect for me πŸ™‚

  181. Lol here’s hoping that this time around this contest doesn’t reach the point where 800 chinese people are offering vital organs in exchange for winning like with the vista ultimate competition. πŸ˜›

    Fingers Crossed.

  187. hey, I’d use it to put on my desk at wok and taunt the developers. That’d teach them to have attitudes to us IT Pros… plus maybe a 64 character password to log on in the morning!

  188. This Microsoft “Fishta” fish batter recipe on the Expression packaging may be just the upgrade my Fish Fridays need! I hope my halibut is compliant…

    I really enjoy your blog, keep up the great work.

    Greetings from Poland’s Silicon Perogie – KrakΓ³w!

    Edi πŸ™‚

  189. Hey, I’m now way too far down the list… well better chances than a scratchy (even with the flash new 7 promo… :-))

  193. I have never won…oh wait…okay, I got a free Tag gift bag yesterday, oh…there was that free donut due to an under-ring (I truly enjoy apple fritters), um I suppose I should count that meal my friend paid for at Panera. I found 27 cents on the ground before mass but c’mon lets be honest I’m not about to tempt fate.

    I won an MP3 player two years ago, but it came shipped DOA.

    Now here I am sitting on the edge of contest greatness wondering…where were my winnings of substance? Where was that free date with Penelope Cruz or Eva Mendes? I don’t gamble, but how come I can’t win the lottery? And just where in the hell are my ‘extras’ with Windows Vista Ultimate?

    I know, that last one was a stupid question.

    Good news though, I just happen to be in the market for a Chinese recipe for battered fish and Microsoft Expression.

  195. Many a thanks to Miwa Mueller from Microsoft for finding/providing these 3 wonderful gifts, who actually coordinated the design efforts on this project.

    Also our sincere regrets to those 3 individuals who sacrificed their treasures by leaving it behind and allowing it to go to us.

  196. I would love to have Expression Studio. So I can dump Frontpage! And having my own part of history would be nice as well!

  197. I would absolutely love a copy of this, so i can make some awesome looking WPF and Silverlight applications.

    Thanks for giving away these copies!

  199. I feel a bit embaressed but what the heck. I would really love to get a hold of a copy. I am a .Net programmer and a web designer. I have only a demo version of the expression studio. I can’t afford to buy at least for the next 6 months. It would be of great use to me.

    Thanks
    Arpit jacob

  200. I’m limping along on the Trial version – i’d love to accelerate up with Expression Studio!!
    cheers!
    matt.

  201. sieht toll aus. just reducing the chance for everybody by a little πŸ˜‰

  204. With all these posted comments I’m not liking my odds. πŸ™‚
    The last version of Visual Studio I had installed was V5 πŸ™

  208. Wow what can i say to get a Microsoft Expression studio Commemorative Editions for free would be really cool. I would love to have one of this around my house, installed on my computer and then probably show it off to my sister about this wonderful new software from Microsoft.

  209. Nice lottery πŸ˜€ Count me in! Who needs an iPhone if he can get this? πŸ˜‰

  213. Every time you have these “contests”, many more than regular posters seems to post. Any filter for those crazy Chinese people? πŸ˜‰

  216. # Microsoft employees or their immediate family members are only allowed to enter by providing internal documents on Vista SP1 or Windows 7.

    πŸ˜€ Lol, just lol

    BTW, its amazing how much comments this topic has.. just reminds you of how greedy people are πŸ˜› [which very well includes myself]

  221. What a wonderful gift !!!

    I would like to make beautiful application using the power of AERO Glass. It should be so great to get one of these.

    Thank you Long Zheng for these opportunities πŸ™‚

  222. This would be a great change to play around with this new technology. I hope i’m gonna win a package.

    Regards,

    Rene

  239. I’d like to win. I never win in contests, so I hope I’ll have more luck this time.
    I’d like to have a unique copy firstly because I am a huge Microsoft fan and love their products, secondly because I think this new range of software has a big potential in future. Finally I’d love to have the programs. πŸ™‚

  247. Dear Mr Long Zheng,

    Look, don’t tell my dad about this, right? He won’t let me have an iPhone so I thought I’d enter your competition. If I’m lucky enough to win PLEASE send me an iPhone. Put it inside the package for the software and then he won’t see. Careful now – you have nooo idea what sort of expression he puts on when he’s mad!

    Now you want something about the releases of Microsoft products? All I could find was this note. I do hope its what you want. I’d really, really like an iPhone.

    ———————-
    MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL

    Circulation: Software Development Vice Presidents

    Guys – should we adopt this new standard or submit an alternative, as we have done for OOXML? Comments by 2010 please.

    Steve

    *********************
    IEEE Standard 8267493: Draft Proposal for Software Release Pass Criteria.

    ALPHA: the vendor has partially designed the features he thinks should be in the product and they may work for a few nanoseconds on a single tier 1 vendors hardware configuration (say DELL desktop PC + NVIDIA 7900GS +…).

    BETA: the vendor has added some of the minor features in his marketing hype and they may work for a few microseconds on one configuration from each tier 1 OEM.

    GAMMA: the vendor has included some of the features requested by the entire user base and they may work for a few milliseconds on all new configurations of all tier 1 OEMs.

    DELTA: the vendor has included all features in his marketing hype, some innovative ones as a surprise, all features requested by the majority of the user base – and they may work for a few seconds in a Fortune 500 company’s ecosystem and with the top 100 software applications.

    EPSILON: all features fully implemented, tested on all OEM configurations back to the stated retrospective compatibility point, with uptime of a few weeks, by all Fortune 500 company’s ecosystems using the top 500 software applications.

    PHI: all features, all OEMs, configurations thru retrospective period, …, uptime in months, by 10 major companies in each of the 249 countries outside the USA (Wow! Are there that many? Steve.)

    PUBLIC BETA: does this work at least twice as fast, without crashing at all, on your PC?

    RTM: (in Jobs accent) we’ve got lots of versions … but they all cost $129 at the prevailing interest rate anywhere in the world.

    SP1 (max. 3 months later): we thought of a few innovations since DELTA, here are all your extras … and there are these two bug fixes (not critical).

    ———————

    Love and kisses,
    Natalie Ballmer

  250. Have been reading your blog for a long time now, it just gets better all the time. Viva la Freebies! πŸ™‚

  251. I want 1,but the sheer number of these comments are making me loose hope πŸ™

  252. As a web designer and a college student, this would be a great piece of software to have at my disposal. πŸ™‚

  253. Internal SP1 & Windows 7 Documents!!! CLASSIC!!!

    Giving it a shot… hope to get my grubby mitts on one of them wonderful/necessary pieces (or would it be pieces??? hmmm) of software. πŸ™‚

  254. I’m pretty sure Canada’s mail system passes the “functional” requirement, so count me in, too! πŸ™‚

  257. I will drop my name into hat… thanks Long Zheng (or is this his secret editor we met a few post back :))

  258. Jason D – I live in Canada, but do not have the same faith in the postal system …

    But count me in!

    thanks.

  259. Wow very cool promotion, thanks much! I really like the effort they made to personalize the packaging. Great details.

  261. Hi, all we have to do is send a comment? Seems a bit easy. Do you choose the one you like the best, or just pick at random? Either way, it’s my birthday on the 5th! Might be a nice gift… he he.

  262. Really looking forward seeing the final products and the upcoming second wave πŸ˜‰ Thanx Long πŸ˜‰

  265. I’m from Microsoft Vista team and I have some good information on SP1!! πŸ™‚

  268. Wow! With so many comments (this is #268), I doubt I have much of a chance. But what the hey?

  269. Nice thing you got going….part of the reason why I love reading this blog.

  275. Even if the chances are weak, it’s definitely worth a try.
    It would be awesome to get one ! πŸ™‚

  279. Sucks for those who missed getting their copies. Hopefully someone can put them to good use.

  285. Wow.. So happy that MS is finally coming up with a good competitor to Adobe/Macromedia!

  286. Funny thing is, I got here from a Google search looking for Photoshop tips on recreating the Office 2007 orb, now I’m entering a contest for a Photoshop replacement tool (and the other good applictions of course). Fantastically enough, I’m still running Photoshop 6, so an updated software package would sure help out this household.

  287. I don’t know how I found this website, and I don’t know where the exit is? I think I might be stuck in here forever …… ahhhhhh!

  291. Eyecandy boxes! I hope Microsoft started putting more effort on the development of these products…

  292. I am new to this blog, and an finding it a great source of information. I am not into developing, nor am I that technically minded anymore (since brain damage from strokes. This would be an ideal prize which I could use to raise money for a home blood test machine for another patient with Antiphospholipid Syndrome (see my site at http://apls.tk ) which could potentailly save their life on one or more occasions. I hope I am lucky, for their sake.
    Regards
    Eddie

  295. Dear Mr. Long Zheng,

    Natalie here again – got more, got more!

    ———————-
    MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL
    Circulation: Software Development Vice Presidents

    Guys – where is my reply to the Software Release Standard I sent you 5 years ago? To maximise our global revenue and deliver on our shareholder promise I think we should propose an alternative standard. Also the corporate and home user bases will find it much simpler with fewer check points. My proposal will also reduce our testing budget significantly. Comments by 29th January 2007 please, or we go with this.

    Steve

    *********************
    Microsoft Software Release Pass Criteria. Issue 1.

    ALPHA: the vendor has partially designed the simplest features he thinks should be in the product. You want it to work, already?

    BETA: the vendor has added a random selection of features from his marketing hype and because “Our goal is to provide the highest-quality, most secure and reliable offerings” ceased developing all others. Features requested by the entire user base do not form a legally binding contract. The software worked pretty well for a while there on the CEO’s PC in a top NASDAQ company: ticker symbol MSFT. Smoke – prepared; mirrors – prepared; commemorative editions – distributed; test results from interface developers – that’s their problem.

    RTM: the vendor has completed his pricing review “offering customers worldwide the maximum choice of editions to suit their individual needs” and to flex their credit cards upon. Β£100-$400: double outside the USA. The final feature list is available in two of the vendors proprietary formats necessitating software installation to view. Any major test results missing? No – only NVIDIA, ATI, HP, EPSON, CREATIVE, ADOBE, … APPLE.
    Wow, sales look good! They fell for the old smoke and mirrors trick AGAIN.

    SP1: OK, the home customers have done a bunch of debugging – time you corporates did a bit of work. Better release those ultimate language packs I guess.

    SP2: Wow! Everyone is mad at us? Throw the dogs a bone … put in some of that security stuff they wanted and lock them in to the update mechanism so we can patch up our errors to achieve “Our goal of providing the highest-quality, most secure and reliable offerings”.

    SP3: Cancelled. Hey, if its pretty much tested in the home and office then its time for a new version and revenue stream, right?

    —————————

    Any good?

    Look – you know I can’t give you my real email. But if I had a new phone … then you would have my number πŸ˜‰

    Remember: I am sooo busted if dad finds out.

    Hope you had a happy July 4th πŸ™‚

    Love and kisses,
    Natalie Ballmer

  296. Wonderful idea, count me in please.
    I spent some much time submitting reports for Design and Blend, it would be a formidable reward!
    Thanks

  298. …and I don’t expect that trend to change in the next 24 hours. Even still, I look forward to putting all of those FP versions I own into the proper repository. FWIW, you have a nice daily read here and I see that 297 other people think so, too. (At least when you are offering free stuph)

  299. Regular reader, never commenter, but while I’m entering, thanks for all your time and effort in these posts, I get a lot out of them.

  302. Operational may be a stretch, but the United States has a postal system. Plus our postal employees have been inspiration for the phrase “Going Postal”. So this should make me a shoo-in to win.

  304. “Natalie Ballmer” “John F Jackson”, hes not giving out free iphones. You need to RE READ the main post. Also, I doubt you work for Microsoft, given the fact you keep mentioning your dad will freak out if he knew.

  308. Give me, give me πŸ˜› This gonna be better than itsnotcheating! A big thank to you!

  313. I couldn’t understand some parts of this article in 3 copies of Microsoft Expression Studio Commemorative Editions – istartedsomething, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

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