MS To Launch Internet Versions of Office And Windows

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."

and haven't I had bloody enough...

[Anonymous Coward]

of ads? This is crazy. Everything on the web is now driven by advertising. You just can't get away from it!

And now Microsoft wants to tie my desktop into online advertising? No, thank you! OSS begins to look better and better.

Re:Ripping off Google

[Otter]

Windows Live is a painfully bad rip off of Google's Personal Homepage. It all just Microsoft up to their old tricks: copy someone elses idea then try to extend it.

That's what used to be known as a "portal". About 10 years ago, anyone who could slap together a page like that could instantly IPO for a billion dollars. It's hardly something Google invented.

Re:Ripping off Google

[Chokolad]

Google personal homepage showed up waaay after Microsoft experiments in this kind of homepage under http://start.com./ [start.com.] Talk about revisionist history...

the point of windows live is...

[cryptoz]

what, exactly? since you seem to have to have the real windows to use it, what's the point of using a web based version of an operating system which you're already using?

I'm posting this in the context that live.com is COMPLETELY broken in opera and mostly broken in firefox on my linux machine, which is all I have access to right now.

worst. service. ever.

Re:That can't be Microsoft

[aussie_a]

don't know about you, but this beats Google IG in my opinion!

Really? I personally don't see how. Colors are a bit easier on the eyes, but that's it. There's no better features.

Like a JUNKIE

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

Are customers asking for this?

No. And, I don't think, as I'm sure will be said here, that it has anything at all to do with Google. It has to do with Microsoft wanting to figure out a way to develop an bottomless income stream. For example, many people where quite happy with Windows 95 untill they where forced to upgrade. Many people saw no particular reason to migrate from Windows 2000, untill they where forced. Many companies have built very expensive internal server applications around NT and Windows 2000 Server, but soon, they will be forced to upgrade. Over many of these platforms, people have stuck with Office 95 or Office 2000, because they sill functioned on the platforms and did what the users needed, not reason to upgrade. Microsoft sees revenue here, basically locking users into forced upgrades because once you buy into Subscription Office, you have to keep paying like a junkie if you want to access your documents.

What?

[Steven Reddie]

Your criticism doesn't make any sense. If a beta is a full product, that's good isn't it? If no showstoppers are found you'd expect it to quickly become a release candidate and then soon after that to be released. That sounds like a pretty good use of the beta cycle to me. So in what way has Microsoft not been honest in their use of the term "beta"?

Re:You know what this means?

[Anonymous Coward]

>I just went there in IE and it immediately tried to install a bunch of spyware crapola.

That's definitely not the case when I visited using IE.

Re:Yes microsoft is bad

[Idontpostmuch]

oligopoly

        A market in which a limited number of sellers follow the lead of a single major firm. For example, the domestic automobile market was long characterized as an oligopoly, with American Motors, Chrysler, and Ford following the pricing lead of industry giant General Motors. Compare monopoly, oligopsony.