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Microsoft to introduce free "Live Drive" online storage

Swad

By Swad

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Cupertino, start your photocopiers. Please.

 

Microsoft is planning to introduce "Live Drive," a .Mac-style solution for Windows in which users can store files, backups, and other items directly from their Windows Vista machines. Initial reports indicate that users may be given up to 2 GB for free, with the option to purchase more. No word on syncing capabilities or other features.

 

While the details are still sketchy at this point, Live Drive sounds like a very promising addition to Vista... and one of the first about which I'm genuinely excited (which may be the only Genuine thing about my Vista installation). While it's quite obvious that Microsoft is taking yet another page out of the Apple book - and I'm not sure there are many pages left - tight Microsoft "Live" integration could very well leave .Mac in the dust. Free Email, free storage, and free syncing will likely bring Apple users to question the value of a .Mac subscription when Redmond offers similar features for free.

 

So, Apple, let me be one of the many to implore you to make .Mac free. Today. You've done it before, let's do it again. Take a page from Vista's playbook and, as always, make it better. Then recycle that page to make Greenpeace happy.

 

(Just in case Apple needs a month or two to ponder my proposition, we'll have a list of free .Mac substitutions in a few days! Stay tuned.)

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brewno

Let's wait and see. But I'm not putting my hopes on M$. It's probably going to be slow, like Live Mail. And yes, lets hope Steve frees .Mac - and make it 5Gb while at it...

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kevin_4e

I personally believe an end to .Mac for is price is near. They're getting a lot of heat for all that they're lacking, and a lot of it is true. Hopefully MS will publish this, and as a counter, Mac will drop/eliminate the cost of .Mac. We'll see.

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Cain
Let's wait and see. But I'm not putting my hopes on M$. It's probably going to be slow, like Live Mail.

First of all, Live Mail is still in Beta - they're only using a fraction of the number of servers for it that they'll be using once it's out of beta, and they also have only a fraction of the number of users, so judging it's speed at the moment is pointless, it could get faster or slower or stay the same.

 

Secondly, Live Mail is actually pretty fast for me (faster than Gmail these days), so if you think it's slow maybe you haven't tried it for a while (it was slow when I first tried it).

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Mr. Bond

Well, considering many people are quickly becoming dissapointed with .Mac's worsening spam situation, in addition to the fact that you have to pay for .mac anyways, it could be possible that Vista could attract some new users from the mac side (for their Live Services at least). Seems like penetration could be better this time around, since Vista can easily be run through Boot Camp or parallels.

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bwhsh8r
Let's wait and see. But I'm not putting my hopes on M$. It's probably going to be slow, like Live Mail. And yes, lets hope Steve frees .Mac - and make it 5Gb while at it...

 

 

 

live is fast, and its had very good uptime lately, oh, and tehy boosted hotmail "live's" inbox to 2gb.... and if its part of "live ideas" then well know shortly, heres a list of all the changes for hotmail live:

 

• Previews of your messages you can read without leaving your inbox

• Drag-and-drop organization

 

• Easy importing of your Microsoft Outlook contacts

• One-click control over junk and scam e-mails

• Right-click power—reply, delete, and forward

• 2 GB of storage (2 GB = 2,000,000,000 bytes)

 

not much, but still better than hotmail, and i hope that the storage follows along these lines

max

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bwhsh8r
isn't better a private ftp site.. with an encryphted connection.. than those live drive or .mac? with cracked servers and opened to dogs+pigs?

 

 

meh, i run private ftp and its really not that secure (my fault) but they invest in security, so its probobly much more secure, its just that people might try and guess ur user/pass since more people would kno the address?

 

 

max

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lord_muad_dib

a note.. as private i'won't say on your pc but it could be any other host around :P

 

but they invest in security

 

you wish.. :D

 

i remenber the early times of gmail... some guys understood server's authentication method.. and they used gmail space as a trasparent remote filesystem...

 

anyway... even if you dunno how to protect your private space.. just a few peops will know your ip+user+pass.. so you're less exposed than those servers opened to the mass audience.. isn't it?

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bwhsh8r
a note.. as private i'won't say on your pc but it could be any other host around :D

you wish.. :D

 

i remenber the early times of gmail... some guys understood server's authentication method.. and they used gmail space as a trasparent remote filesystem...

 

anyway... even if you dunno how to protect your private space.. just a few peops will know your ip+user+pass.. so you're less exposed than those servers opened to the mass audience.. isn't it?

 

 

exactly how i keep mine secure, that and the address changes erry month + cause dynamic ip :P but yea, and i use gmail as a transparent remote file system :) afterthinking about it, my hotmail account probobly isnt at all secure, but thats why i dont keep ne thing important in there.... :) although on second thought i give ne one who asks for the address my ftps address and anon accounts have all permisions except delete :)

 

max

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Swad

We need someone to come up with an open source system that can be installed on a server that will just take over .mac stuff. I know there are a few things out there similar to this, but nothing 1) free and 2) all-encompassing.

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