It's no secret that you can get some crazy-good software for the sweet price of zero dollars, if you're a student. For novice developers looking for a step up in their coding game, JetBrains offers its entire range free, if you're currently studying.

Visual Studio is the go-to development environment when it comes to making .NET apps, but that doesn't mean we should ignore the alternatives. JetBrains of Resharper fame has its own IDE, called Rider, which is pretty feature packed -- and still being improved upon. Unfortunately it hit a speed bump a few months back, running afoul of licensing issues with .NET Core.

Last month JetBrains -- of ReSharper fame -- unveiled its plans for a C# integrated development environment that would effectively come with ReSharper and IntelliJ built-in. If you want to give it a try, JetBrains is now taking down details for its Early Access program.