So you want to get into Programming?

I'm here to talk about free IDE and free software for students.

First the different free IDE. I'll only comment what I've used:

Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition
For anything .NET related. I'm a sold fan to VS.

Eclipse
I've used it for Java but it can handle other languages.

Netbeans
I find this one pretty convenient for anything web related (PHP, Javascript, HTML, etc.)

For a more extensive list, you can check here. I have nothing to suggest for languages such as Python or other ones since I've never coded in those.


Free student developer softwares

Three good resources to point for developers to get software and services:

Dreamspark (Microsoft)
Github Student Pack (various services)
Jet Brains (IDE & Extensions)

Licenses are usually good for 2-3 years or as long as you are a student. The Microsoft stuff is good as if you bought a life-long license.


Unreleated

Autodesk (free license on everything for students)

More can be found here: http://freestudentsoftware.com/

There's also discount that exists by companies like Adobe (all products), Mathematica, Matlab, Apple, Maple. In every case I've checked the discount was between 45% to 75% for students. Your university / college probably gives you licenses to download other software or have other discount on various stuff. Each school is different in that regard.