Microsoft to Offer Free Online Storage

athloi writes "Microsoft Corp. is giving computer users up to 500 megabytes of online storage for their documents, music, photos and video. They're offering it to a select 5,000 test users for now, but will make it widely available later this summer. This move is the latest in a series by the previous large corporation we all loved to hate to compete with the newest large corporation we might hate and fear, Google."

Re:Too little...

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Exactly. Gmail offers a gig, and plenty of third party applications store documents there. 500 megabytes explains why Bill Gates is a billionaire- as if anybody needed to be hit over the head with the fact he's a cheap penny pincher.

Re:Too little...

[Anonymous Coward]

I imagine this is less of a GMail-killer, and more of a .Mac-killer. Some have speculated that the iPhone will have .Mac integration before long. Would be nice to have their Zune automatically sync with this service over wifi before they get there, no?

Interesting Combination of Apps Coming Up

[popo]

It should probably be noted that Microsoft also bought FolderShare.com (which is a very sweet little app).

The free-storage combined with FolderShare's file swapping is starting to paint an interesting picture... IMHO I wouldn't discount this as "trying to be like Gmail"...

Re:Google already done it... indirectly

[Yoooder]

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/E-mail/Mail- Utilities/GMail-Drive-shell-extension.shtml [softpedia.com]

Linky goodness :-) Yumm

What does it mean

[pembo13]

When I rather the evil Google corp have (some) of my data than Microsoft have any of my data?

I'd love to see the EULA

[RobertM1968]

The most relevant information to this whole thing (to me) is the EULA MS is foisting on people. Some of their previous EULAs for their online properties have included giving them the right to sell, market and/or redistribute any content you create and upload to those online properties. That, and other privacy issues (using the information to profile you in some manner and then sell ads to you via their LiveSearch stuff for instance - as referenced in a previous post regarding their work on obtaining as much private, identifying data on people as possible) are things I'd like to see clearly addressed and spelled out in their EULA.

I am also interested in how this all fits in with their current DRM schemes and related practices. Will they DRM any music I upload? Report me to the RIAA? Assume the program archives I upload are pirated and sue me?

All in all, I see this service as one for only the brain dead - based off MS's previous track record for trustability. (Yeah, it's probably not a real word, get over it).

Re:Hate what?

[Zeebs]

Google hasn't burned it's social credit with tech types, yet. I'm not claiming they will, and I'd like to think they won't.(Why yes I am interested in buying a bridge why do you ask?) I think the might hate and fear is a little strong but not far off in meaning.

Re:The same as everyone else

[DECS]

For all that can be complained of .Mac, it has no ads.

--


ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.

Re:Too little...

[DECS]

The iPhone already has .Mac integration, because iTunes already syncs it with Safari's bookmarks, email/contacts/calendars, and email settings. ITunes in turn, syncs with .Mac. Users don't have to do anything, and they don't even need to pay for .Mac unless they have various systems they all want to sync together.

Also, bookmarks, contacts, and email can be accessed from .Mac via the web, which the iPhone can do too. I suppose there would be further ways to integrate or expand .Mac, but it works as is already. I don't know what Microsoft offers that is comparable.

--

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync [roughlydrafted.com]
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.

Re:The same as everyone else

[DECS]

Yes, you do get what you pay for. I'd agree that .Mac needs a significant upgrade, but the baseline service is $99, for the same as what MS is offering. What .Mac really needs is a speed upgrade and far higher bandwidth limits, so it makes any sense as a hosting service.

When I had the chance to skewer Steve Jobs about it, it did.

-

Answers from Steve Jobs at Apple's Shareholder Meeting [roughlydrafted.com]
At Apple Inc.'s May 10 annual shareholder meeting, a series of proposals were presented for voting after which CEO Steve Jobs answered a series of questions from the audience.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync [roughlydrafted.com]
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.

Yes, but is it ssh(fs) accessible?

[macemoneta]

AOL gives everyone that signs up for an IM account 100MB of web space, but the interesting thing is it's ssh accessible. That means that you can mount it with sshfs or sftp, making it a handy place to keep (encrypted) data that you access from multiple machines. For example,

sshfs [e-mail]: /some/directory

The above (after responding to the password prompt) makes the 100MB available in your local "/some/directory/". The data is also web accessible at:

http://members.aol.com/userid/ [aol.com]

I find the space, even though small, very handy for storing small amounts of useful information. Using encfs on the sshfs mounted space allows remote access to things like server status/logs in a secure fashion, even when the machine is not directly SSH accessible.

Re:Too little...

[Bwana Geek]

A gig? Where have you been? My Gmail storage limit is currently 2869 MB, and tomorrow it'll be even higher. That's all beside the point, though. I love Gates-bashing as much as the next guy, but Microsoft is offering a site designed specifically for web storage. Using Gmail for file storage, last time I checked, was neither supported or even condoned -- hence the reason you need third party apps to do it.

A much better comparison would be to AOL's online storage service, as mentioned in the article.

A select 5000 Testers?

[Your.Master]

I'm confused at the summary. I just signed in at that site with my live ID to check it out and I could access it, upload and download. Unless I just happen to be one of the select 5000, and nobody told me.

Re:The same as everyone else

[suv4x4]

I pay 7.99 a month for dream host, and I have 246 GB of data storage. Ok, I haven't actually tried to upload that much.

Oh yea, those 246 GB on a shared host what a great example.

You get 246 GB of disk quota, and if you upload more than 5-6 GB, the FTP mystically gets slow. At ~10 GB, the support calls you to say "you seem to, uhh, be using too much resources on our server, get it? yea... resources. watch it".

At ~20GB they shut you down and mail you that you're a an effin abuser of their resources, and all the poor users on the same server had their sites down because of you. They forgot to mention that they managed to stuff 200 sites on a server with 100 GB disk and promise them all 246GB quota.

If you're a thick head and keep uploading, at around 40 GB upload they'll send a hitman in a black mercedes to circle your house and watch at you suggestively.

At around 60 GB, they call the hitman to hit you, your family and anyone who ever knew you hosted with them.

Truth is, most people upload their "page coming soon. LOL!" index, and forget about the rest, so get to live on.