MS To Launch Internet Versions of Office And Windows 530
daria42 writes "In a press conference this morning, Bill Gates said Microsoft plans to launch Internet-based complements to its core products, dubbed 'Windows Live' and 'Office Live'. Windows Live is a set of Internet-based personal services, such as e-mail, blogging and instant messaging. It will be primarily supported by advertising and be separate from the operating system itself. Office Live will come in both ad-based and subscription versions that augment MS' Office suite. The programs won't replace the paid software but instead seem aimed at diminishing Google's ad revenue. Windows Live already appears to have 'gone live' in a preview format on the web."
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
Go for it, Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
All I can say is "Microsoft, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE 'bet the farm' on this".
The scary thing about this is.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Ripping off Google (Score:3, Insightful)
I expect this to be a flop.
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't (Score:4, Insightful)
Ha! It's fun to watch ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bill Gates was quoted as saying (Score:2, Insightful)
Riding the Bear (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Go for it, Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
The market has repeatedly shown that there is no interest in the concept of remote software or slimmed down computers. People really do like their personal computers. I had thought Microsoft understood this well, though it looks as if I've now been proven wrong. Are customers asking for this?
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, did I just say that
Re:I was more impressed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
Are we looking at some new, cuddly Microsoft? A fracking emoticon?
Weird. Let's just hope this doesn't turn out to be "we'll support you...by helping you go back and open this webpage with IE."
Re:Desperate times... (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, isn't this MS leveraging their existing monopoly to gain an edge in a new market? Anti-competitive?
Re:They just don't get it. (Score:3, Insightful)
How long will it take until a Linux or Mac version of Google Earth comes out? Google Desktop Search?
Almost 90% of the market uses both Windows and IE. It should come as no surprise that they're the first priority. That Microsoft intends to support Firefox at all is a step forward.
Indeed... (Score:4, Insightful)
===
From the POV I think Google is looking from...
It's a lot easier not to look like a bad guy when you are letting other people do your work for you, I think... Google's got a good edge on that... the open source community is large and just needs money to help it along... it'll edge in on Microsoft's turf while being respectful towards Google for helping it originally.
They don't need to branch into these areas because they are basically paying other people to possibly do it for them... putting them in a better position to indirectly influence that part of the market...
It's a good long term strategy... very sneaky
Re:Desperate times... (Score:5, Insightful)
All that this says is, "All of these years, the reason that I've hated MS is because they were successful. All of that bitching and moaning was because MS made money. I have never had anything objective to say about Microsoft. It's all been lies."
Seriosuly. What did Google do? All that anyone has accused them of is 1) Stealing all of the talent in software (damn, people want to work there, sounds evil) and 2) Raising the prices of software engineers (shit, and now I make more money).
News flash, the only people who complain about Google are the evil corporate masters that you're also supposedly railing against. Really. If their company was all that good, people would want to work their anyway. Amazon.com is not having any problems hiring talented people. Trust me. I've met some of their people.
What you're saying is that nobody can succeed and not be evil. I disbelieve that. I believe that honest people can make an honest living and still, at the end of the day, be honest. Call me old fashioned like that, but believe it or not, one day I'd like to be successful too. Also, I'd appreciate it if you don't call me a tyrant when I am.
Preparation for making XBOX Live more versatile? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Desperate times... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Desperate times... (Score:1, Insightful)
There are no desparate billionaires (Score:2, Insightful)
Google has done their job, just like Lotus, Word Perfect, Novell, Borland and Netscape before them. Their job was to show Microsoft where the money is, and then get the hell out of the way.
Hate them all you want, but if BillG knows one thing, it is how to crush the enemy. Google is smarter, faster and more aware of history than the others, but Microsoft has the desktop, still most of the browser space, and a shitload of money to throw any direction they please.
Google wont die, they might make a fine adversary, but we are talkin about Office here. Google and nobody else, is going to make a better Office than Microsoft, whether on the web, desktop or anywhere else.
Re:and haven't I had bloody enough... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Desperate times... (Score:2, Insightful)
As an aside not I am a capitalist and I support the work that google is doing...but lets get real on the honest living....no one making a billion dollars while people are starving is making an honest living. If you believe otherwise you should have a long hard look at yourself tommorrow in the Mirror.
Cheers
Re:Desperate times... (Score:3, Insightful)
And if you think that throwing money at a problem solves it, you're a fool.
Re:You know what this means? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is that why they made more income in Q2-2005 than they have ever made before?
"They are downright paranoid about us slashdotters, as well they should be."
No, they aren't. Slashdot isn't even 0.1% of their userbase. Firefox, on the other hand, represents 8-10% of web users - a significant enough potion that it's only logical to support them.
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ripping off Google (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you even tried using Live.com? Sure, it's superficially like Google's personalized home page, but it does more than that. First off, Live.com is from the Start.com project, which has been around longer than Google's personal page (as others have already pointed out), and thus Google is copying Microsoft. BWAHAHAHA. Ahem. Second, Live.com is more "slick", for lack of a better word. You can change the number of columns (want 2 columns instead of 3? only 1 long column?), and the interface just feels "smoother" than Google's (not sure if it's the colors, fonts, icons, or what, and I'll agree that this is really personal preference).
Third, and probably most importantly, Live.com is much more customizable than Google's page. Sure, you can add or remove certain canned items or create a new "section" from a search or a feed on Google's page. You can do that on Live.com as well. However, you can also write [microsoftgadgets.com] your own "gadgets" [microsoftgadgets.com] to add on to the page that are not just RSS feeds. I'm sure Google has the knowledge and talent to be able to do something like that, but you can't deny that Live.com does things Google Personal doesn't.
As for the name "Windows Live", the Slashdot article title is just completely stupid. This is not an "Internet Version of Windows", but a companion. The "Live" naming obviously comes from Xbox Live, which is not an "Internet Version of Xbox" but a companion service that allows you to communicate and interact in new and interesting ways with your Xbox ("new" and "interesting" as applied to Xbox, as online gaming, voice chat, and friends lists have all obviously been done elsewhere before Xbox Live). "Windows Live" is obviously aiming at that same idea. Whether they get there or not is still yet to be seen, but at least they're trying. That the beginning looks like stuff we've already seen (though to be fair, we did see it from Microsoft before Google) isn't the point. Go to Windows Live Ideas [live.com] and look at some of the stuff that's coming. Live Mail is just parity, but Windows Live Safety Center looks pretty cool, as does Windows Live Favorites (okay, so it only imports from IE and not Firefox, but a) it is Beta, and b) it is still Microsoft ...). And it sounds like this is just the beginning. Maybe the whole Windows Live thing will fizzle out with nothing more than a neat portal and a modern web mail client, but it could also turn into something really cool.
Re:Anti-Competitive? (Score:3, Insightful)
First, there's no online office product yet, and Microsoft hasn't been crushing anything like that.
Second, live.com is, as everyone else has been saying, another web portal (albeit with some interesting features and probably Windows integration). Nothing prevents anyone else from implementing all the same ideas.
If you're the first to make something, that makes you a monopoly by default. So should we punish all inventors?
Re:No, NO. (Score:2, Insightful)
Limited success because of same old goals (Score:2, Insightful)
It is pretty clear that the top brass at Microsoft have a very specific vision about their software. I think they really do have good intentions, and it's probably not bad, with a nice looking Windows interface, and solid
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:1, Insightful)
People should only be dissatisfied when the above happens. They should be happy when the new application is on time, bug free, and helps them improve their process.
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
Naw, hell no! That's why Microsoft has to be defended every ten minutes by one of you Whack-moles poking your head out of the hole to chatter Microsoft-isn't-really-evil-and-get-that-Bill-Gate s-as-Borg-icon-outta-here-already and then disappear one hair's breadth ahead of the hammers. The day I have to go around trying to bash it into people's heads that Linux, Unix, BSD, Macintosh, OS X, BeOS, Novell, and Sun Microsystems don't deserve their Evil Overlord reputations, then we'll be even.
Know what quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and goes steady with ducks? Ducks!
Re:I saw some versions of this when I worked there (Score:3, Insightful)
Most likely you're thinking about NetDocs [eweek.com], which, though it never shipped as a single product, did actually contribute many pieces to Office (InfoPath in particular), MSN (parts of their billing and support system, Messenger, pieces of MSN Explorer), and other Microsoft products that did ship. Alternatively, you might have seen pieces of Hailstorm [coverpages.org], which was later named ".NET My Services" before being killed. Again, much of Hailstorm's knowledge made its way into .NET (Hailstorm was all about Web Services right when the whole .NET thing was starting up, and it's no coincidence that .NET has very robust support for SOAP-based web services).
This is not all that different from what other companies do, with the exception of Microsoft publicizing projects that are eventually killed or integrated into something else. This is not even unusual for Microsoft. For example, where do you think the Office Assistant (Microsoft Agent) stuff came from? Microsoft Bob (especially the dog and cat). While it was patronizing and simplistic, it was also way ahead of its time -- task-based interface, scaleable vector graphics, "interactive" help (say what you will about Clippy and the Office Assistant crap, but many people liked them and you can't really argue with the cuteness factor), etc. This is how companies grow and innovate. What Microsoft learned from Hailstorm surely has a direct effect on Windows Live, just as what they learned from NetDocs affected Office and what they learned from Bob affected Windows and Office. For example, they've learned to use open betas to their advantage, and to incubate fresh ideas with little intervention (Start.com, the origin of Live.com and arguably the cornerstone to the whole project, was developed, shipped, and supported by a team of only two or three developers with no management overhead or other BS, and who were allowed to be open about the process through blogging and customer interaction -- they were even allowed to support Firefox!).
People scoffed at the first couple versions of Internet Explorer, but when Microsoft got fired up they really blew everybody away. Hopefully this time they've learned that follow-through is just as important as shipping, and Windows Live doesn't stagnate the way IE did.
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft Revenues Grow 6 Percent, Profit Soars to $3.1 Billion [itjungle.com] Back-to-school sales were good. Server sales are strong. Windows MCE looks to be a big winner.
Re:No, they are not (Score:1, Insightful)
The reason that I'm such a strong proponent of OSS is that it, by definition, forces fair competition in the software space--because it's about as far as you can get from presenting a lock-in situation.
I totally agree with you in that I'm: (a) anti-monopoly and (b) (by implication) pro-coexistence; and that's why I want Microsoft to be gone. Now, the second that Microsoft begins altering its business model to be more like OSS (in the sense that it isn't a business built on lock-ins), I'll fully support their presence in the business world--because then they'll be competing fairly, and driving their success through strength-of-product and not strength-of-massive-business-deals. And, as a matter of fact, I really hope that they do some day convert to that sort of company, because I'd love to see what good they could churn out with their immense resources.
Re:No, they are not (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately what you want doesn't matter at all.
What Microsoft wants is to kill all competitors by 'cutting off their oxygen supply'. BTW, every other IT company is seen as a competitor. This is ingrained in the corporate culture, and starts at the very top with Gates/Balmer. That is why no one trusts them, not because they love Linux and hate MS (or whatever), but because they hate the things Microsoft has done and wants to do.
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Desperate times... (Score:3, Insightful)
Intelligence is how you fix problems. Money is the tool that lets you leverage that intelligence to fix problems. Just thinking wisely at the problem rarely works.
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:1, Insightful)
sleep 60*24*365; print "Please update to IE, we rely on its bugs for our software to work, sorry\n".
Re:That can't be Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
IF that's what you really want then MS is your enemy. They don't want the same thing that you do. In fact they are spending millions of dollars trying to make sure you don't get what you want. They are bribing politicians to make sure you don't get what you want. They are rigging their products to make sure you don't get what you want. They are hiring astro-turfers and so called journalists to make sure you don't get what you want.
If you really want that then you should spend your time fighting MS not defending them. MS thinks people like you are communists.
Microsoft feeling threatened? (Score:2, Insightful)
It seem Microsoft are doing whatever they can to hit out at Google, MSN really stepped up their game, started trying their own 'AdSense', and now they've gone for what I thought was the more likly thing google was going to branch into: WebApplications. Are Microsoft feeling threatened by Google? Well, Google hasn't encroached onto Microsofts market space (yet!), Desktop Products and OSs etc, But they are 'surrounding' Microsoft. They have a VERY diverse set of products, all for free (as in beer) and soon we'll see base.google.com (Going to KILL ebay) coming out of the box, and perhaps Microsoft are feeling scared
Re:No, NO. (Score:3, Insightful)
Heck, on Linux you can go one step further and bind a key combo to pop-up a text box [sourceforge.net], then have a shell script use the text to launch Google in Firefox, or Beagle on your documents, or IM someone.
I'd say the "live" desktop is already here. Of course, integration is still a nice thing, but frankly if I can get quality results from the same unified text box, I can live without a unified interface for the results.