Get Sharepoint 2013 for private use

Question

I was working until recently at a big company. I worked mainly with SharePoint 2013 and started to really like the environment. Now that I changed the city for my studies, I finished the job. Is there any way to get SharePoint 2013 running on a normal laptop? Is there any option to host the system online without the need to have Windows server installed on my PC? Or what would you recommend? I now about SharePoint 2016 but as I want to learn how to develop web parts for SharePoint 2013, I don't think it would be the best option for me.

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

The way I see it, you have 3 options:

- Request a 30-day Office 365 trial

With Office 365, you can have access to the latest SharePoint version without needing your own infrastructure. You can also email O365Dev at microsoft.com and ask for a developer subscription and they may give you a one-year Enterprise edition of Office 365.

- Setup and/or download an existing SharePoint 2010/2013/2016 Virtual Machine

2013 is the last version to have a free edition, SharePoint Foundation. You can grab this, or find a Server VM online. There used to be a couple but now most of them are broken links. There is also a 2016 trial available.

You can also look for free software (e.g. Windows Server) through MSDN/DreamSpark programs, specially if you are a student.

- Try installing SP in Windows

There are a couple of hacks to allow you to install and develop on a non-server windows operating system, but it could be a bit complicated and involves editing the registry, etc., so I would think of this only on a worse case scenario.

More:

Are there any SharePoint virtual machines available from Microsoft?

Installing Sharepoint 2013 Windows 7

Is there a free version available in SharePoint 2016?