...the future is going to overloaded with great steaming piles of garbage, if Facebook manages to "be the dominant Web 2.0 force". Seriously, what do they have to offer except information stealing, zombie, pirate, ninja, "would you like to f**k me?" apps?

Oh, just one more thing...

How the hell is this going to work here in blighty? If ISPs get pissy with us for downloading more than 300Mb at peak rate (see comments on pretty much any BBC vs ISP article) how are we supposed to make serious use of our 5Gb of online storage?

Face it, the world is not ready for the online OS/filesystem/anything remotely useful!

> how are we supposed to make serious use of our 5Gb of online storage?

You've hit the nail on the head there. You aren't supposed to make serious use of it. This way, they can save cash by having insufficient storage for everyone!

>You aren't supposed to make serious use of it. This way, they can save cash by having insufficient storage for everyone!

Ahaa, so this will be the storage version of the ISP fiasco! "You mean you actually want to USE all the stoage space?! Well we hadn't planned on that, lets see who we can offset the cost to.."

Already got it (my coat)

Live Mesh?

Try Live Hell on Earth.

As in Like Hell ill allow that on my systems let alone my network.

And what kind of a name is Live "mesh"?

Microsoft is not telling ANYONE what its secret weapon is. I know what it is and it will be quite a surprise. I detest Microsoft as much as anyone but they have decided to do something that the Linux, free software and open source communties should have done a LONG time ago. That's all I dare say for now.

Live Mesh is another one of those josstick buring, whalesong listening marketing bollocks that means nothing and sounds moronic.

Its bound to be a hit then!

Mine the coat with the anti-suicide wrist guards

So this is what all those data centres are for.

I'd be willing to bet that the application servers will be under nuclear bunker grade security at Redmond while the other data centres will just contain shedloads of EMC/NetApp kit and the networking kit needed to link it back to HQ though I suspect they might have lower grade security than Redmond, still its got to be better than handing your data over to HMRC where it can be lost in the post, surely?

(On second thoughts I think I might have slightly more trust in HMRC but then I don't have much choice in that particular situation)

Nah don't think I'll make use of MS' services thanks.

This will be introduced as free and then the free version will become more and ,more limited and you'll be nagged to upgrade to the subscription version for £20 a month.

Next they'll be flogging Windows as a service (though to do that they'll have to flog you the data pipe too) I bet someone in Redmond is working hard on that one.

Sure, I'd want everything in sync, so even when a device gets nabbed it'll stay up to date. Failing that, I naturally want such data to be online, fully protected by the fearsome Microsoft security measures who carry a sterling reputation of brilliantly talking about it in presentations to clueless VIPs.

You moved the mouse, allow/deny?

Not in a gazillion years.

Unless Microsoft engineers have some sort of magic pill, their equipment/OS will be as flaky as any of their customers. This means we can expect a data-destroying crash scenario every couple of years, or less.

Not to mention what would happen should their MS servers get hacked ... a not-unlikely proposition.

I'm not a fan of any project that stores user data online, beyond encrypted login data and some other smallish items. 5GB of personal and/or business data is a lot to risk. That goes for Google Apps and RIM, too.

It's clearly just a Web 2.0 version of vendor lock-in. This "Live Mess" will only truly work with MS-centric software (e.g., Vista OS). But wait, that implies that Vista must actually work... :-)

Large and lumbering, but lacking teeth. Beached whale more than aggressive.

If they're going to play the big -chunk-of-storage-online card, then why pick 5GB when Google offers ove 6GB? Most people will not be using all their storage so this is really just a tick-in-the-box cpomparison number. Again, hardly aggressive.

Unless Ballmer has been to the furnature shop, there is no aggression in MS.

Im sorry, I have to bite, please - stop typing now.

>I detest Microsoft as much as anyone but they have decided to do something that the Linux, free software and open source communities should have done a LONG time ago

and that would be....o right you can't tell us. Is this from fear of Microsoft's legal dept. or just the fact you're spouting utter nonsense?

Im sorry for biting, but why post that...

Paris because she spouts nonsense, but I don't mind ;)

but it is utterly useless while a good proportion of people are still languishing on capped broadband plans. When you are forced to count every byte coming in and out of your network lest you hit the dreaded "your bandwidth has been slowed to 64kbs" wall then these "all your files are belong to us" schemes will be destined to fail.

If Google and Mickeysoft truly want the great unwashed masses to embrace their so-called cloud vision of the future then they are going to have to find a way to make isps play nice with consumers and let them have the unlimited bandwidth plans that are required to make this stuff useful.

Even then, it is highly debatable whether this stuff will ever be useful but that's one for another day.

To my fellow AC, "I detest Microsoft as much as anyone", oh, how it would have pained you to write those words.

I can confidently reveal to all now the secret weapon M$ holds.

It is called VAPORWARE-2.0.

Its not Microshaft for nothing....

1} we've (MS) got this great idea, everyone can store the data on our servers for free

2) when we've got enough of em hooked we'll hold their data to ransom while we turn em upside down and rape their wallets

3] All the while the punters will have to use our software interface which will typically be totally clutzzy, poorly laid out, sadly lacking in the features department and have more holes in it than swiss cheese.

Message to the B&S show, Fu#k orf.

Skull & X bones, because the world's biggest rippoff merchants are at it again

Ok, i know it's not quite the same, but Back to My Mac works brilliantly to keep your computers synchronised.

Sure it costs £65 per year, but it has other benefits too......

Oh and my ISP is completely uncapped and i get 21Mbps.... have a look at Be if they're in your area!

Microsoft are trying to hard to be Google and having a big online presence while their core products are becoming unpopular.

This sounds like a manifestation of Bill's MegaServer vision from about ten years ago - see here http://www.theregister.co.uk/1998/10/12/microsoft_leaks_its_own_memos/

Next to be announced.. Cairo?

Guys, get a grip. When did anybody else offer you a free 5 gig drive you can store anything you like on? How on earth could this be classed as being 'ripped off'?

I can see the concerns about them starting to charge for the service after a while but they have to provide some kind of notice period and that will allow you to get all your important stuff down before the pricing model comes in so your stuff will never be locked away forever.

They've been punting their SkyDrive for a while now but it offers you some amazingly high caps before any kind of pricing model is implemented. You can stream videos up to a million minutes per month for free right now and the content is delivered locally as is possible by means of distrubuted data centres.

If you're on a capped internet then the web obviously isn't that important to you anyway in my opinion. Anyone with half a NetBone in their body pays that extra couple of quid for unmetered access so download caps really shouldn't be the issue

@Giles Jones : Unpopular? proof or stfu please. one look on jobserve at all the .net jobs will show you how unpopular Microsoft Development really is. Go to some of the Flash fansites and see how majorly scared the Adobe guys are of SilverLight while you're at it :¬)

Saint Bill : For showing the rest of the world what is possible so maybe someone else can offer something even better!! Someone has to be first and at least Mr Gates has the guts to do so, and the money to back it up

If anything like this product had come out 15 years ago I would've had alot more interest.

As it is...I can only see it as a likely source of pushing on us even more advertising, requests for survey responses, and a load of hidden behavioural monitoring, memory sucking, useless applets.

I buy Windows because I want an OS I can do things with, including play games (sorry, Mac-lovers - your OS just doesn't have the support), and I sincerely REALLY hope that updates and the ability to communicate with others will not require signing up to a service that is pounding advertising across my desktop...

"Developers will probably be attracted to Microsoft's "open" platform offer to let them write code in a variety of flavours for Live Mesh..."

yeah, about as attracted as we all were to their "offer" of making their "open" XML a standard.

Its success will depend on how much money and undue influence they're prepared to throw at it, rather than whether it's "open" ot not.

All us M$ haters are still here, patiently waiting under our rocks to reply to you M$ lovers once you have gotten out from beneath your snakes belly and posted a comment.