dot.life

Given Microsoft's very poor record with regard to security of data, it will be interesting to see how they propose to ensure confidentiality in a fully networked environment like this.

I just can't bring myself to believe that M$ will allow genuine parity between the various versions of this service working on Mac, Linux and different flavours of Windoze.

I'd love to be proved wrong but I am expecting to see this service spiced up with 'extras' that only work on the latest version of Microsoft's own OS.

And let's not forget, thus far we only actually have the XP and Vista versions of this. Will they even support older versions of their own OS, or is this to be another means of persuading people to upgrade?

are you seriously suggesting people using pre-XP should still be supported?

Considering XP came out in 2001 I don't see why MS should be expected to spend money supporting systems over 7 years old!

C'mon, anyone still using 95, 98 or Me nowadays needs help

Perhaps we need to actually consider the wider issues here?

The biggest factor facing us all is that we exist as a large collection of email accounts, web pages, telephone and mobile numbers in multiple locations.

What is actually needed is a way of reducing these to just 1, so that the method of communication becomes irrelevent (i.e. so that all of these emails and phone numbers become a single identifier through which all communication can flow, whether it be voice, document, file or video).

Live Mesh is certainly a start, but all it is doing is linking existing physical and logical infrastructure together, rather than finding a way to overcome the underlying communication gap...

@Paul (3) Actually I am more concerned about modern versions of non-MS operating systems, rather than legacy versions of Windows, but seeing as you mentioned it, yes they should be offering this for 'pre-XP operating systems', because if they don't, they are falling short of the ideal of connecting a wide range of devices. This isn't about 'supporting' any particular operating system, it's about supporting users to get the most out of whichever digital technology they want to plug in to it.

Since posting above I've been off and read a few of the FAQs that are out there and, surprise surprise, there are features of this service that will only work in IE via an Activex plugin.

Darren's blog entry is clearly hopeful that MS is starting to treat the web as an 'Open platform' - well they aren't going to do that by forcing users into adopting their closed, proprietory technologies.

So Micro$oft are going to offer online net-applications, data syncing, storage and other such services, eh?

What an original and innovative idea!

Oh, no - hold on: Apple does that with it's .Mac service, Goggle with it's Gmail stuff, as well as loads of other company's in the world today.

Well, at least they're making an effort to diversify from their Windows XP/Vista/Office cash cows...

...but I don't think I'll be trusting them with my data.

This is just Dotmac.

Microsoft is a company becoming increasingly irrelevant. Software and operating systems in particular
are in certain aspects significantly different from consumer products like, say, a car. To sell a car, not only that you have to invest long research and development efforts but also have to buy the metals, plastic and lots of other raw materials which go into a car and also have to spend lots of manufacturing efforts to convert these raw materials into a car. Then you have to compete with dozens of other manufacturers to sell it. So the result is that the manufacturers really put in an earnest effort to add good value into their products to make a decent profit and it works well for the consumers.
Compare that with what the most dominant software maker does to make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$...... profit. Taking the example of one of their major products MS Office, how much can the development cost be at the most? Significant amount of labor is obtained at far cheaper rates by outsourcing to developing countries. Many companies developing software products of comparable complexity (functionality-wise) employ less than 100 people.
To sell each copy of the software, the additional expenditure will be that of making a CD, 10 cents at the most while mass producing. They sell hundreds of millions of copies. Earning a decent profit similar to what manufacturers of traditional products make calls for a retail price of less than $10. They sell it at
$299-$399. They call it success of their company. I call it sheer exploitation of the lack of vigilance of law makers to adapt laws to cover new kinds of products like software. The mountain of cash collected in this manner and the huge leverage from the widely deployed windows operating system are
time and again systematically employed to spread the business into other fields and the 'success' used
to be automatic because, several existing players can be bought and the market can be monopolized (or monotonized by stifling competition). It has been
going for far too long now. It is not going to work any longer. I think people are getting sick of the quality that they get from half-baked products bought (sometimes forced upon due to lack of choice) at $$$ .

Good luck
Arun


system a

Live Mesh means Microsoft making a grab for your data. Whoever sits on the biggest pile of data will be king.

Given the government's predilection for falling instep with the data mining schemes of multinational tech. corporations, I foresee a time when the sale of storage to private individuals will be banned and all our data will have to be stored remotely.

Personal control of private data versus the ability to show baby pictures to Aunt Mabel at the drop of a hat... hmmmm... difficult call.

There's as much substance, for the private individual, to Microsoft's latest wheeze as there is to cirrus cloud, never mind the computing cloud.

@cosmicronson

No, its not. It's .Mac with Google Apps bolted on. Interesting but not original.

TartanRhubard - it's copying Spotlight in Leopard, which allows searching in all devices you have registered with .Mac, via the web.

Previous OS Tiger just lets you search your own computer and .Mac space. With the extra, as you say, of Google Apps, or maybe a little more.

Though must say I would be very very reluctant to let micro$oft any where near my PCs! Unleashing the mess of viruses etc.........

Meh, it sounds like a pretty good idea. Some of you are complaining over putting 'personal' data up there, which is fine.

I think this should be useful for music and whatnot though. If you put business documents and credit card numbers up there and lose them, then that's your fault (Well, in a way).

Oh great, another concept that's barely past alpha stage from the champions of mediocrity.

Seriously, Microsoft are the ultimate 'me too' company. Zune (iPod), Surface (iPhone), Vista (Leopard), and so on and so on.

This is another unoriginal idea that once again is being billed by the BBC as proof that Microsoft is still relevant in 2008, when the reality is that they are a company without any leadership (imagine Steve Ballmer as a boss - no thank you) and trying to compete against anything and everything that other companies produce.

I'm amazed that I haven't seen Microsoft toasters, ovens, cars and trains, just so they can be seen to be 'competing' with Zanussi, Vauxhall and Virgin Trains.

So, if you dispense with all the marketing hype this Live Mesh thingy is just a pretty front end for accessing stuff on a server.

Or have I missed something?

Ok I get it mow. It's dotmac with picasa bolted on. I can do all this with my iPhone.

Twenty years to catch up with Nextstep. What took them so long?

I dont think you can really credit apple with the iPod, wasn't the first mp3 player. So they put it in a fancy box, made it nice to use (nice to use, play pause forward back) and did nothing for the sound quality.