"Information without intelligence is just dumb data. Microsoft will await the next killer internet app patiently, and then improve upon it and release it under their name."

You mean the way the improved upon the ipod? Or made a web browser better than firefox? Sure, can wait to see it! Maybe the tooth fairy could write the code for it!

Chris M, Saint Paul, Minnesota

are we certain that microsoft didnt' fire this guy. If he was so displeased why was he there for 3 years. Hard to find a job maybe.
I have switched to live since about a year ago and i am very satisfied, pointed noted i have been fortunate enough to have broadband all along. But aren't a lot of companies betting on broadband. try nike.com

MS, test/test, MN

Google is the Butt end joke of all search engines!!!

They are so incompetent all the way around!

They are wothless on both ends! They are worthless to merchants and to the general public who use them for searching!

I no longer use Google because they always come up with irrelevant crap!!

When searching, Yahoo and MSN are always rite on target!

kelly golden, alsip, il usa

‘Microsoft sucks’, says top blogger

There are comments about the massager. I think this is a very small sucking of the HUGE Corporation. Massager only carries the smiles and the cries and the smiley and DEAR JOHN letters most of the time. There no divorce letters or messages. I like this part. The messenger also informs you miles away that wait she is tying,, blimy it is smart, it knows the other party like the traffic lights that it is her way of right,, then the messier allows three or four to cheat, chat, and waste the day. I like this. But my company is losing lots of money with this. The Microsoft sucks not because of the delayed Windows ver 3 the 3.1, the, 3.3 the 4. The.5 the 95 them 98, the ME, XP (no idea what XP or HP stands for) 2000, Vista. All delayed products. Then Bill comes to Kenya and Tanzania to UNVEIL the delayed products. Gives us sweets and flags and badges of Microsoft and small token like The USE CDs labelled MICROSOFT ENCARTA 1945.

Firozali A.Mulla MBA PhD, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania

apoc, Lisbon, Portugal,:

good point,
i hav friends who are travelling and used Hotmail just for emails home to friends/family.

ive had ewvery one of them email me since Xmas saying that Windows Live is nearly impossible to use outside of high speed broadband areas, i.e: most of the world

they all changed to gmail or yahoo

windowsdontwork, london,

If Blizzard would just get its act together and come up with a Linux versions of World of Warcraft/Burning Crusade, there would be absolutely no reason to waste a penny or a second on any Microsoft Buggy Bloatware(tm). Winblows is crap. Office is mostly proprietary hype -- anything a businessperson really needs to do can be done with OpenOffice or other FOSS.

Windows Live is Dead. Unlike Microsoft, Google is actually innovative. About the only thing I have not been able to find using Google's search engine is a decent search engine from Microsoft, so I can only assume such a thing does not exist.

Regards,
FractalZone

FZ, NYC, USA

microsoft sucks!

and this is news???

windowsdontwork, london,

One of Microsoft's problem on the web front is their technology.

What they use for web development is incredibly awful, asp.net web application development cannot compete with open source technologies that google uses which allows them to release new services much faster than MS and improve & maintain them with less effort than MS.

Take for example Windows Live Mail, you have to download 1MB of html+css+javascript to view your email( you can check it for youself using firebug extension for firefox ), it isn't compatible with all browsers, even after the 1MB download the UI is slow compared to google's GMail and the integration with Live Messenger is worse than GMail+GTalk.

apoc, Lisbon, Portugal,

if linux had the game's compatability windows would be out the window.

william ian marshall, glasgow, scotland

“Microsoft: stop the talk. Ship a better search, a better advertising system than Google, a better hosting service than Amazon, a better cross-platform web development ecosystem than Adobe, and get some services out there that are innovative.”

“What Windows Live lacks, specifically, is an identity. No one can describe it, no one from Microsoft has even tried.”
Reverse psychology? The way I see it, MS are making a laughing stock of themselves if this is just another big attention-drawing technique.
Seems like this guy's opinion on MS is dangling. Looks like he still hopes MS could do something great. I think most people already know MS sucks, since they've been using their products :). If you look at it that way, his comments mean nothing. He's just drawing attention to himself and maybe to his stupid blog.

Gabriel, Alba Iulia, Romania

Poor test results for Windows Vista security software
He is right.
This is from another news clip.
There goes my PC 1 GB RAM, thousands of valves, TFT screen and USD2000.00.
Where is Bill? I know ha is a gentleman. He will listen to me from Africa. Yohuu Bill Where are you. You are helping us with Aids thank you. Can you send me please a BUG FREE PC virus free Vista and cheap at usd100. You know we depend on the windows and doors. There you. I blew another window and door too.

Firozali A.Mulla MBA PhD, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania

Microsoft bashing may be geek-cool, but if other operatibg systems and office products are so great, why not just use them? Jurisdictions that squander tax-payers money litigating against Microsoft (unaccountable bureauthugs at the EU being a primary example) should be barred from using Microsoft products. Let's see all of the EU staff spending their time struggling with Unix instead. They might do less damage to productive enterprises.

Nick, Seattle, USA

Windows Live? I swear, I've "heard" of it, but other than using having my MSN messenger become Live Messenger, I haven't noticed anything. I refuse to update my hotmail because of the horror stories....
I stopped using IE a long time ago, Firefox is better.....
What the heck is Live Search anyway, is that the lame search engine you get at the top on MSN.com???

Anthony, Misawa, Japan

Windows Live is simply a seperation of MSN and its services. MSN is now just a portal, and everything else is Windows Live.
Windows Live doesn't have an identity among the general public, no. But to say no-one can desrcibe it is rubbish.

MarkKB, Auckland, New Zealand

Microsoft was in the right place at the right time. Nothing more. If IBM hadn't been in the market for an operating system then MS would be just another software company.

Today, MS is in the same position that IBM was then. Way too big and way too expensive to run. Hence Vista and Office 07, the search for more revenue.
If enough people move to Linux or OSX instead of Vista, Microsoft is in deep trouble. It doesn't have to be an overnight slaughter, just a few percentage points at a time is enough to shake the stock price of MS and once it starts to slide, it will be hard to stop.

John Bailey, London, UK

After many months of inexplicable delay, web developers are still waiting on sitemap support on Live.com. This is a symptom of the illness Scoble describes.

Steve Magruder, Louisville, Kentucky

Tough on Spam and the causes of Spam?,..in Microsofts world NOT THE CASE.
Quote:--
Microsoft has stopped accepting mail at its abuse@ email address, in violation of one of the fundamental standards which applies to the internet, according to a post to the Spam Kings blog. With the internet being built on a loose set of protocols, the founders have set down certain standards in documents, known as an RFC or a request for comment. Realising that reporting spam is a thankless job, in RFC 2142 it is specified that users could report abuse originating from a given domain name to abuse@domain.com.
RFC 2142 lays down mailbox names for common services, roles and functions.
The address, abuse@, is assumed to be active at any domain. But this is no longer the case with Microsoft.
Email sent to abuse@microsoft.com results in the following form reply:
"Thank you for contacting Microsoft. Your e-mail will be handled by a Customer Service Representative within approximately 24 hour

ab, Wye,

Will someone hear me!?
If the right games came out Linux, there would be no need for most people to have MS at home. !

Computers are for internet, email, games, right?
The Linux desktops are fine for day to day stuff: Firefox is still firefox, and yahoo mail is yahoo mail. BTW have you seen OpenOffice lately?
So that leaves games. This is the only reason I have a windows box. I am trying to get away from it. So expensive - almost a third the cost of the hardware in the cheapest machines. And the ongoing costs: a resource-hog like Vista?? I was looking forward to adding another gig of memory to use for myself, not for the OS.
There then is the strategy for Linux Home: compatibility.
Games compatibility, device compatibility - improvement on driver support. Network compatibility pretty good already.

Verst Mittal, Zephyr Cove, NV

TC, London,>

LMAO ... you actually fell for the GM Analogy? Thats's an urban legend. Go google it :)'

... btw ... I hardly am a microsoft supporter, I am a Java developer with a Mac. But in fairness they are the big dog. What do you expect them to do? Say yeah google is ahead of us and going to beat us. No they are dominant (even if its not this area)) they are going to project that attitude no matter how insane it may be.

Joseph, Columbus / OH, USA

The timesonline use "Windows Live" for their search engine - it can't be all that bad surely!

Jon, Manchester,

Most of the commentaters have seemingly mis-read the article (which is about Microsoft's internet service, Windows Live, NOT its OS) to the point that one comment criticises Windows Live for 'redisigning a successful OS'. Perhaps this indicates what is really wrong with Windows Live: the brand name. MS can't do anything without 'experts' such as the chap who cant open a 1 kb text file in less than five seconds (what are you using, an abacus?) slating them, while massive corporations like Apple, Adobe and Google are revered as gods. Apparantly it's cool to wail on MS while worshipping companies whose business practices are just as bad. So what has ignited this hatred? The fact MS *hasn't* marketed Live well enough? If they had and it was the web's number 1 search wouldn't you criticise that? These people need to wake up, the choice to use whatever software you like is there but you type your MS-hating post on your XP machine ignoring that fact. MS's Live marketing has sucked. So what?

Jim, London,

"Microsoft will await the next killer internet app patiently, and then improve upon it and release it under their name."

With all of the resources available to Microsoft, why do they consistently miss the boat on innovative products and ideas? It's exactly like you stated above, they wait until someone else develops a product and then attempt to "improve" it. I think Microsoft has long since lost touch with the users, viewing them strickly as consumers (money spenders)

Keith, Dallas,

AS A LINUX LOVER, I THINK THAT MICROSOFT IS WONDERFUL!!.

It provides a nice , easy to use environment for viruses to run. It's friendly, cartoon-like interface attracts plenty of gullible, technophobes to keep every last phisher happily fed and watered.

Let Microsoft grow, grow and grow - It keeps Linux in a nice position where good developers are challenged to make their applications better than best. Everything stays free and everyone likes to share and cooperate against the evil empire. The profiteers that can feed off the technophobes while linux lovers live in freedom.

Thanks Microsoft!

Adam Caine, San Diego, USA

Too many fanboys.

TheBear, Guelph, Ontario

It's pretty simple. MS=proprietary. The web isn't. The live site is proprietary with tons of features that are Windows only features. They make the site way too slow unless you have a rocketship for a computer. Look at google. For the most part lean, simple, fast. No matter who's system you run and what kind of system you have

Jimmi, reno,

First, Vista runs much better on new hardware. The consumer is never happy. Windows is one of the easiest OS's to install and use. People complain because hackers attack (btw, they attack MS because MS has the largest consumer base.. ) so MS tries to make their OS more secure, twice. First with Windows XP SP2, second with Vista, while also offering some under the hood new features that, quite frankly, are above most of the heads posting here...

Everyone is talking about how great the Mac is, but Mac just took Unix and built a shell on top of it. What did they do that was innovative, exactly? From what I recall, you couldn't even upgrade to it. Windows has tried to make upgrades as easy as possible. Many of the so called 'problems' Windows has are actually caused by lazy software developers at other companies.

I can't believe how many people hate Microsoft. You would think they killed babies or something. The person who called you all hypocrites is right.

Diane, Seattle,

Steve Ballmer is nothing but arrogant, and I think that now that Vista has been released and has turned out to be an absolute piece of crap that Microsoft charges you an arm and a leg for, I think we're beginning to see the proverbial doo-doo hitting the fan. I was a longtime Windows user until I switched to Linux in January of 2005 due to some problems I was having with Windows at the time. And guess what -- I don't miss Windows one little bit. Steve Ballmer, put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

Fred McKinney, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Seems like Scooby Doo has got to big for his boots.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

TC, London,

@Scotty: Nice strawman. You might want to actually read the article, which is limited in scope to web presence and applications, not the desktop market.

As far as acquiring "killer internet app"s and improving on them, I'm curious if you can cite examples of how many times they've pulled that off successfully in the last 15 years. Internet Explorer (as an example), is really a low-activation-energy, lowest-common-denominator product, neither improving nor innovating on anything that doesn't already exist.

Chris C, Boston, MA

It is really hilarious how worked-up everybody gets over all this. Say something negative about Microsoft and the trolls come out of the woodwork!

If you don't like Microsoft stuff, then go use Linux or Apple. No one has you tied to a tree - just take your pick!

BTW ... MS-DOS was originated by Seattle Computer, not IBM.

Max Peck, Orlando,

Microsoft should stop trying to compete with google - to be the king on the net you can't run your apps like there products, microsoft need to stop gunning for profit it seems like every thing with a microsoft stamp has a way of either getting information from you or charging you for a full version - we want free stuff that does it's job not frilly looking bits of software that fail to fufill any needs.

George, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear

Microsoft is swirling down the toilet. Microsoft has two kinds of customers, those who use Windows because of its compatibility with specific programs, and those who just don't know any better. I've used Windows since MSDOS with Windows (Windows 3.x). Simply put, the programming/development teams at MS just plain suck now. They just try to put a bunch of stuff together with no effort and get big bucks out of it. Well it's showing. The new vista virus-blocker came in LAST PLACE out of all other popular anti-virus (NOD32, McAffee, Norton, etc.) Why should people pay $200-$600 for an OS that does the same stuff they can download for free from Linux or BSD. UNIX is a much cleaner OS.

MS is too strung up on "user friendly" and all that "easy to use" garbage. Unfortunately for them, it's the "user friendly" people that never buy PCs or software. It's the powerusers and programmers, and gamers that buy this stuff. Without them, microsoft IS NOTHING.

DarkFox, Wichita, Ks, USA

I know people are upset but ... switch to Mac??? Come on ... What's next? A trip to Mecca?

I love XP - no bugs, no invasion, few problems and all easily fixed. I've heard bad things about Vista, so will stay clear of that until it's fully functioning. I know these things are never simple, but better pre-release testing would be a good idea.

Jerry Hart, Cambridge, UK

Robert Scooble does not commentate on Microsoft's future search plans at all.

Infact, Microsoft is doing very well with Windows Mobile which is by far the most flexible and powerful mobile OS. Microsoft is doing very well in mobile search, which is greatly praised amongst many tech journalists.

Microsoft is currently doing many projects for search which integrate into Windows Mobile including "Lincoln" which is a beta download available now. With Lincoln, you take a picture of almost anything with your camera phone and Live.com will pull down information for you and it actually works very well.

For example, you can take a picture of a poster for a movie. Live will recognise it and bring down reviews, and any relative information including local cinema listings through GPRS tracking if you so wish to use that.

With GPS becoming a must have feature, it is readily available for many Windows Mobile handsets and there will be photo and GPS tagging coming very shortly.

Liam Billington, Manchester, UK

I produce business apps on MS-based machines using MS software and services - no problem. Most of the recent breakdowns in devices and 3rd party tools are due to programmers trying, as usual, to take short cuts - like most of the device divers that failed on XP SP2 release because the designers had broken the rules and fell victim when the hacker loopholes were closed off to them.
As for viruses - who is going to waste time trying to stop Apples and Linux boxes - no-one would notice if every one of them stopped dead tomorrow. Wait until their market share rises and the hackers set out to get them in earnest and we'll see if they can stop real problems.

KR, Stockport,

There seems to be no strategic plan at MS. They just keep launching initiatives in all directions. They also seem to have an institutional inability to say "We were wrong". They need to get some leadership in there who will
first find out what the users have been saying for thirty years ("Simple, reliable, minimal retraining"), decide which of two or three project make sense to pursue, and junk the rest. May I suggest a line of Fat Free Diet Microsoft products? Minimal graphics, mouse optional, a spreadsheet with only three or four fonts and no hyperbolic trig functions. A word processor with the dozen or so features people actually use. Charge a fortune for it, because it won't ever need upgrading and wont require service calls. Also, you can run it on some of those older PCs.

Prowness, Boston, MA

Google is terrific...NOTHING can replace it.....the new Microsoft Vista is offering the same (copying) as Google does since several years!!

kaj, brussels, belgium

Take a look at the MSFT share price over the last ten years. There was a relentless rise until Jan 2000. On 13 Jan 2000 Ballmer took over from Gates. From that point onwards for at least three years the MSFT price has fallen and has been more or less flat (with a few small changes) since 2003. In the last seven years the share price has shown no sign of ever approaching the Jan 2000 high. That says it all, Ballmer has been the worst thing that has happened to Microsoft.

Richard, Birmingham, UK

The feverish anti-Windows sentiments expressed here are quite amusing and misguided. The freshly-minted billionaires at Google have taken their pot-shots at Microsoft as well. Like it or not, Windows dominates the desktop. And Microsoft is not the only company who doesn't offer customization, personalization, and development tools that are easy enough for everyone to use. However, Microsoft could likely be the first company to succeed where everyone is currently failing.

Information without intelligence is just dumb data. Microsoft will await the next killer internet app patiently, and then improve upon it and release it under their name.

Scotty, Belleair, FL

Guess wat ? If windows is not been here, there could be some other OS. It was not bcoz of them we have raised, its bcoz OS was offered to run on x86 and vendor independent. MS will not be dominant , ppl are already looking for alternatives.... I

Santash, Singapore,

I tried Vista, and ended going back to XP. Vista was unusable. Worse than a waste of time.

Glenn , Buena Park, CA

Windows may have won the battle of OS, but not for good reasons. If it was really good it would by now fit us as comfortably as an old sweater. Instead it makes a good living for millions of geeks who fix and fix and fix the bunglings of the rest of us. A whole industry is based on teaching this 'orrible monstrosity.

Reg Brissenden, Dorchester, Dorset UK

let me see, Apple's stock is $90ish and Micro$oft is $27-ish. Tiger O/S is awesome and Microsoft's Vista O/S is crap,but I have to say if Microsoft made a great product, I would not have a business.So MS keep making your crappy software..

bob, miami, fl

Yes, Adrian. First there was DOS, by IBM, which was then, er, purchased by Microsoft, and lo, it became MS-DOS. Then, some time later, IBM sort of retrieved it, and it became IBM-DOS, which did not replace MS-DOS completely, IIRC, but was just put on IBM PCs. And then things got confusing. At least, that's what IBM told me when I worked there (apart from the confusing bit).

Starling, Lancaster,

Windows Live is really ridiculous. Sorry, they can't beat Google, and I never use Live. Microsoft does suck. All those intelligent people and this is what pops out. Too many bandaids, too much poop to wade through. If only I wasn't scared to install Linux.

Amy, winston-salem, North Carolina, USA

MS took 5 years to repackage the same old OS (not completely true, my bad, ditched the new OS after 2 1/2 years and took another 3 years for re-packaging the old OS without any of the features announced). That is a sure-fire way of winning.

Ballmer surely has a very very liberal dictionary entry in "win, v", or maybe he was using it in an etymological way for the Old English winnan (struggle) or even the Sanskrit vanas (desire).

Ferhat Y. Savcı, Ankara, Turkey

Let's see if Microsoft, ANYONE from MicroSOFT, can respond to this in any way AT ALL, other than personal attacks on Scoble or Google. If there's anything they have, anything of value or anything of substance, now's the time to roll it out and show their cards. More likely, we'll see personal attacks and shows of bravado. A small dog barking loudly...

Keithlowry, Arlington, USA/TX

If MS hadn't made DOS for IBM and had the money to create Windows, all of us would likely not have the ability to comment on blogs such as this one. I have run every Windows release since 3.1. It's been a painful experience on many days. XP has finally matured and my 9 PCs don't crash (what do you folks do to crash your PCs all the time??). Yeah, they'd like to sell me a new copy of Office each year--one that is slower than the previous version and requires a class to learn how to use it... But I don't have to buy an upgrade to type text and make slides or pictures. Vista seems to be a bloated OS and of little value, except to help Dell, HP, etc. sell more "new" PCs. I believe that Vista is just a placeholder to keep some momentum going until the follow-on version comes out in 2-3 years. I do enjoy the fact that I can do many things with XP that I couldn't do a few years ago with any OS. Yeah, MS is a big company and an easy target for all those who have an opinion. That's life.

jow blowe, Columbus, OH

Windows Live ???? Never heard of it. Better Google it.

Tony , Burnaby, Canada

If you have a technical issue with Microsoft, it's faster to search their database with Google rather than their own search engine.

Rob, Windsor,

MS is arrogant, unable to respond effectively to market forces, and completely devoid of creativity. Their products stink. Their leadership stinks. Competitors are beginning to eat away at their monopoly on all fronts. Thank goodness!

I moved to Apple's Mac last November after spending another $400 to repair and restore my PC that was infected horribly by viruses despite all the current MS software patches and anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-this, anti-that software. People that trust MS are IT people who fear losing work and want to maintain their little empires.

I've also owned a lot of expensive, fancy phones with features that were difficult or impossible to use effectively. Am looking forward to replacing my current "smart" phone with an iPhone.

Be more effective! Enjoy life! Have fun! Live a little! Start using non-Microsoft products!

Jay, Atlanta, GA

Steve Gilmour - its the fact it doesn't work properly, never has and never will. Like when Gates tried the GM analogy. I buy a car, it works every day when I get in and start it (if I buy the right brand) and if its doesn't I have a warranty for 100k miles or 3 years. I don't have to tweak it, uninstall stuff, take a copy of it etc etc just to ensure that I can get to work each day. I just put the key in and go. Can't do that with a Win PC. 3 years working every day without a crash - I think not.

TC, London,

I used Microsoft for years and never realised how painful using microsoft was untill I had looked at SuSE, FreeBSD and Unbuntu. I liked all of them and would be happy to use them except that somethings are just not supported and sometimes things go wrong and it's kinda annoying when it takes hours to fix. In saying that I would still choose them over Windows. What I seem to have settled on is Apple. I bought an Intel macbook and I love it. it dose all that I want and there is none of the "crap" that gose with windows. I'm also thinking of dulebooting my book with Unbuntu, but never windows again.

Duirmuid Jones, Dublin, IRL,

Mircrosoft ucks. Why did it take some people so long to figure this out?

Go into any coffee shop. 8 of 10 laptops are Apple. User friendly Apple. Always was, is, and always will be.

End of story.

Adam Young, Madison, Wisconsin

It's actually very simple, and the fact that all the incredibly smart people at Microsoft can't figure it out is proof that ego by the person at the top plus bureaucracy trumps intelligence. Microsoft could have spent ALL of the time, energy, money and smarts that they have sunk into all those other areas (doomed to failure in all of them, by the way) making the Windows operating system as close to error-free as it is humanly possible to make any software error-free (and easy to use as well). Instead all they have accomplished over the last few years is to pump out a half-baked, buggy, hard to use and expensive Vista that itself will add momentum to the movement by people to switch to other platforms/OSs like Mac and Linux. Therefore causing Microsoft to fail even in the core business that made them successful in the first place. When will they ("they" meaning mostly Bill Gates) give up their Borg gobble-up-every-new-technology/must-be-the-master-of-every-new-technology mindset?

Still Rocking, Denver, CO

Scoble never said MS "sucks". He just made a critical remark about the comapny and Ballmer. The comments were fair ,and hit the mark squarley on the chin. MS needs a wake-up-slap or two.

vanni, vancouver, canada

Maybe Microsoft shouldn't try to dance at all weddings.
It would be better if they concentrate on a few topics and do this well (can you really call Windows a god running OS?) and for the remain, let the best win!!

Eric, Herisau, Switzerland

Microsoft makes a web search that is so bad they have to tie a bone around it to get anyone to play with it!!!

They are now offering people money to use it instead of making it better so people will want to use it.

Manuel , Medford, Oregon

One ought not to corporatize human creativity.

Period.

paindeer, greensburg, pa

I recently switched to a Mac because of a few things:
1) I agree with Apple's future vision of entertainment integration and they seem to be more focused on that part. Mark my words, Sony, Hitachi, MS, and the movie industries are in trouble.
2) Whatever interoperability barriers exist now can easily be overcome with a Mac. Even proprietary stuff that can only operate in Windows is overcome by the fact that I could get Windows for my Mac (thanks to Intel processors). Google will probably try to develop a cross-platform suite of tools to rival Office.
3) In terms of peripheral interoperability, I think in a few years it won't matter whether you are Mac or Windows oriented... the market would have decided that third party peripherals will work everywhere, essentially rendering the gaming system and other things obsolete.

So, I just chose which company's product offers better interoperability and IMO, better future for entertainment.

Patrick, Seattle, WA

Microsoft suffers from trying to please everyone all the time rather than doing something really well and impressing some.

I'm involved in web development and I've not heard of Windows Live until I read this article - so that goes some way to explaining their lack of market penetration. It's just not making an impact on anyone enough to be sampled let alone take market share away from Google.

Google does cute stuff that people tell others about and then go back and keep using it. MS could do with making some cool stuff that makes us want to use it rather than trying to 'Wow' us with something that isn't really new at all.

Google and Mac - the way forward.

Dan, Edinburgh, UK

what he said is perfect..

hB, Dubai,

Integration is the key to this Live thing. Recently the showcased the Games for Windows brand for Vista, and party of it is the pay service. Now nobody is paying for games on the PC, but if they are already paying for games on the Xbox, they already subscribed to the service. I want to see more of this. If I could get Virus protection, Xbox Live, and all that jazz for a paltry $50 to $60 a month, then Microsoft has already won.
Good luck integrating.

Yert, Tucson, Arizona

Think of how much time & grief could have been saved in the world so far if Mac's had won the marketing war.

Kev, weybridge,

A lot of these comments seem to confirm the issue: "Windows LIve does not have an identity." They confirm it in the sense they are referring to the Operating System and are oblivious to the fact Windows Live is the Internet initiative at http://www.live.com.

Peter, Bellevue, WA

I hate the Microsoft computer I am on now. Every year is more bugs, viruses etc that I have absolutely and permanent problems. Running MS is like walking blind with one leg with a sign that says "Kick Me, I'm Stupid" pinned on my back!!

Hello.... APPLE!!! I am going to buy a Apple. Happy Microstuffed?

Tim Johnson, Des Plaines, IL

MikeAq from Pittsburg is right to point out that alternatives to MS and Windows specifically exist......but he flogs another proprietary OS......Macintosh. What about Linux and BSD?

Give something like Ubuntu Linux a try.....and you will see that life without MS or Mac is highly doable!

Mark, Chesley, Ontario, Canada

How ironic that the search on this site is sponsored by "Windows Live."

Really smooth guys.

Bob Jenkins, Urbana, IL

The substance of Mr. Balmer's "cute" comment is the same thing IBM said about Microsoft back in the mid 1980s. Maybe companies just get so large that it becomes impossible to keep their finger on the market pulse? When your samll, and poor, you can talk to people and they tell you what they think because, who are you? But when you are Bill gates or Steve Balmer people are deferential to the point of telling you what you want to hear and haveing been at the top so long, I doubt they even recognize the flatery for what it is at this late stage. I bet that they honestly think what thier consultants and others tell them is the way it is out here. Oh no Mr. Balmer, nobody minds needing an entire processor just ot run your incredibly bloated new operating system. Oh no Mr. Balmer no one thinks that an OS measured in many gigabytes is too large. Eyeryone thinks big bloated and slow is all the rage.

Paul Bogdanich, Portland, Oregon,

Microsoft is ranked 140th on the Fortune global list of largest companies. Their influence ranges far and wide , , , for now.

Google did not make the top 500 . . .

Vaporland, Richmond, Virginia, USA

microsoft bashing is good for people who think they are geeks......they might havpe typed this same comment on a Windows XP computer. It is now fashionable to say ...I hate microsoft.....I love MAC OS....Microsoft is a monopoly....( matter of fact APPLE unbelievably protective. )

VISTA is a new product with a lots of new option, But it will not accept lots of old devices, everybody started complaining....ha it is not working with my old devices....microsoft is bad....... When APPLE stoped supporting some devices , I never seen people crying about it, I man you all guys are the real the followers of hypocrats....I am really tired of this...you guys are the people who bite the hand it feeds.

By the way... I mostly work on AIX , I am not a microsoft Administrator, but I use their products to connect and use it

sudhir pattalil, Edison,

I'm not 100% aware of all "Live" features, and I admit it's not as intuitive as I might like to see it, and it is a little slow on occasion,but it's terrific anyway! Where else can you get free website hosting with a non-brand affiliated url, with quite adequate tools to develop it, stats to measure hits, et al. Live Mail is occasionally a little slow loading, but I have dial-up, so everything is a little slow loading. It does offfer a "classic" version of mail that loads faster, but I prefer to wait a bit for the features live mail offers. Microsofts customizable home page is quite serviceable. Destop live mail with the ability to check all your mail accounts is useful too. Emai forwarding is helpful. Storage space is more than adequate. So far Google search does win as a search engine, and it's on-line apps and news are nice, but GMail is not that impressive. I think both MS and Google have strengths, but in different areas. Microsoft is enormously useful for me.

CGrosky, Portsmouth, USA NH

98% of visitors driven by search engines to my website arrive via Google with the rest from Yahoo and only the occasional one visitor a month from Microsoft. Atleast in the group of people from the UK who read about medical IT, Google rules the market.

S. A, London, UK

It seems to me that the difference here is that MS no longer has as much control over the computing environment than it has in the past during its bouts with novell, netscape, etc. In addition, they seem to be rather spread out as they're now fighting against google, open source, apple, nintendo/sony, and even AT&T. I realize that Microsoft is the largest company in the world, but don't look much further than Sony to see what happens when you try to tackle that many tech industries at once (though I suppose some would say that they've been successful). What microsoft has leveraged in the past that it is having trouble doing now is mastering compatibility/integration between products competitors cannot match. If my xbox, PCs, and zunes can all be networked together wireless so I can conveniently access my data or live search on any of those platforms, that'd be pretty cool. All this while remembering from their fight vs netscape is that simple/fast beats features.

mike, Cambridge, MA

The main distinction between the Mac and the MS approach to software is Respect For The User. MS software takes officious charge of both computer and user to serve MS, whereas Apple software enables the user to take charge of the computer. The many confusing and expensive Vista options make my point - they serve MS, not the user. There is but one MAC OS release for all.

Anyone who has been using MS software for lo these many years, constantly complaining about the software, has little right to complain when a viable alternative has been available since Day 1. That behavior smacks of the famous definition of insanity we have all heard; doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results, like poor PC User Charlie Brown's yearly attempt to kick a Lucy-held (MS) football.

I suggest that anyone who doesn't feel MS software is serving his or her interests at least try an Apple. The Internet and Google have made it far easier to be a Mac user in a PC world.

MikeAq, Pittsburgh, PA

I tried Windows Live Search last night for the first time. To make it choke, I entered some Google-specific (I thought) stuff. In all 5 cases I tried, Microsoft at least equaled Google, in 3 of the five it clearly did better, providing more comprehensive, faster responses.

Al Peabody, Livingston, TX

Ahh more fodder for the critics. I agree Ballmer is an embarassment for the company, yet his remarks aren´t completely wrong. Google´s business model stagnates around advertising. Google Search and Gmail, that´s about all I use.

And what a great comment from a top blogger: "Microsoft sucks!" ... wow, such vibrant use of the english language is sure to make an impact... bah

Paul, Aveiro, Portugal

I have Ubuntu Linux and I won't turn back. Windows always tends to crash and loose my tons of music, photos and document files and I'm just sick of the viruses. Windows is a pricey piece of crap. Ubuntu rocks!

mandititito, tally, Fl

1) Windows Live alientates it's client base by completely redesigning a successful operating system. Regardless of my feelings about the Mac interface (which I hate), everybody knows Mac is better for internet and offers a more stable runtime environment. Windows Live seems like an attempt to make a flashy operating system like Mac. And all that flashy crap makes the thing work more slowly. Personally I choose PC's because I like the OS better than Mac. I like a computer to be exactly what it's supposed to be... a big calculator. Microsoft needs to focus on COMPUTING. Not entertainment. We have plenty of other choises for entertainment. Make the thing work smoothly without all the cutesy added crap.

2) Windows Media Audio sucks. Its code breaks down over time, leaving files fragmented and skippy. It isn't supported by anything. It's a useless file format that MS has tried to cram down our throats. Forget it. Everyone is using MP3. Just let it be.

Seth Asa, Boise, Idaho

To Brian, London, UK and Howard Leventhal, Somerset, USA

1. I just fopund a 48KB Test file, and with my MacPro's 'Text Edit' application nor launched, opened it. Effectively instant.

2. Not sure if I feel sorry for Howard or not. If you got a Mac like mine, and stuck it on your network, you'd find it would 'just work' with your Windows machines seeing it, and vice versa. Seriously, while there'd always be a need for IT support staff and System Administrators, there's be employment for less of them (per number of computers used) . . . but there'd be more computers!

3. Why do I say that? because Mac users actually love their Macs! There's a good reason for it - OS X is brilliant; they are exceptionally well-designed - and attractive to the eye. On reflection, I DO feel sorry for Howard - what a way to have to start a working day!

Keith Dixon, Calgary, Canada

Yeah..MS Sucks..

Pushkar, Kharagpur, India

Microsoft will shoot themselves in the foot with anti-piracy. Everyone wants standard software that works with everyone else. When they were selling Office for several hundred pounds to companies, employees, unable to afford that, would run illegal copies on their home PCs. Eliminate the illegal copies and the employees will run open source instead, because they can't afford £100 for a wordprocessor. Then companies, wanting to be compatible with employees, will steadily abandon Microsoft as well. Unfortunately once having decided to eliminate the pirated copies, there is no way back for MS,

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

It seems to me that the difference here is that microsoft no longer has as much control over the computing environment than it has in the past during its bouts with novell, netscape, etc. In addition, they seem to be rather spread out as they're now fighting against google, open source, apple, nintendo/sony, and even AT&T. I realize that Microsoft is the largest company in the world, but don't look much further than Sony to see what happens when you try to tackle that many tech industries at once (though I suppose some would say that they've been successful). What microsoft has leveraged in the past that it is having trouble doing now is mastering compatibility/integration between products competitors cannot match. If my xbox, PCs, and zunes can all be networked together wireless so I can conveniently access my data or live search on any of those platforms, that'd be pretty cool. All this while remembering from their fight vs netscape is that simple/fast beats features.

Mike, Orange, MA

There is an interesting initiative in France where a consumers group has sued a few large distributors to force them to sell bare computers, without any software on.
I think only then shall we gain independence from MS and will they understand that they need to give better products to their core customers. Forget about spreading, dominating and imposing.

Jea-Pierre, London, UK

Each new version of Windows uses more resources to run slower than the last. Why does it take a 3GHz PC FIVE SECONDS or 15,000,000,000 clock cycles to open a 1kb text file? Each new version of Windows just adds another tier to a creaking house of cards. If Microsoft designed bridges or aircraft they would have been out of business and in jail years ago. Every day I dread having to start my Windows PC at work, and I am the IT manager... What is needed is for someone to start with a clean sheet of paper and design an operating system from the ground up to use the power of modern hardware sensibly. It would be awesome. If AMD could do it with the processor, why can't someone tackle the operating system?

Brian, London, UK

DOS ??? IBM ???? I was of the understanding that Bill Gates sourced and provided DOS for IBM (I could be wrong) IBM is known for the first "home" PC and the still superior today OS2 operating system, come on IBM bring OS2 into the modern days huh.

adrian, Broken Hill, Australia

Hey, restaurants have McDonalds, software has Microsoft.

Nick, Studio City, CA

I guess that this is a case where Microsoft's usual marketing technique won't work. That is, of course, offering inferior , bug infested software (that duplicates a competitors software) for free and then bundling it into the next OS upgrade for financial harvesting. I don't think their technique can work against Google or,indeed, any free service.

Peter, Sarnia , Ontario

Microsoft's OneCare really sucks! It is sticky and slows down your PC. They even removed the registry mechanic tune-up function from it and are now over-charging for a subscription. The only good thing they have EVER done is to have a free anti-spyware download - Windows Defender.

FreedomLand, A town like Alice!,

Windows what?

Frank, Prince George,

This is the first I've heard of Windows Live. The first question that comes into my mind is "why?" Why would Windows enter an arena populated with very sophisticated and established players when it would be better off just focussing on it's core software family, which people actually NEED. I don't get this need to have a presence -let alone dominate - in every field.

Chris Wren, Vancouver, Canada

Microsoft is protected by a variety of government granted patents and that with its huge profits mean that it simply will not go away no matter how poorly it serves its customers. By producing operating systems that do everything, including much one does NOT want to do, the product is sluggish, annoying and under-performs for tasks one has to do. The products, e.g., music and TV, seem to be targeted at teen agers not the professional user who needs a fast system, an effective browser for information search (e.g., Mozilla) and an effective way of organizing hundreds of folders (again there organizing program is an utter joke). But we are trapped: University and business computer systems require compatability so we are locked in. I have held off buying new computers for home and lab as we do not want to switch to VISTA and Macs and other Unix platforms are simply frowned upon as systems managers are overloaded and cannot deal with multiple platforms. Only one solution; break MS up!

Howard Leventhal, Somerset, New Jersey

I agree w/Scoble; when you have to pay someone to use your product, you got a problem. Maybe Mr. Ballmer should look in the mirror and see the problem

-Don

Don, Omaha, NE

IBM is to blame for DOS. MS bought it from them. Yes, "blame", since DOS basically killed the PC. Before DOS, PCs were fast. After DOS, they could no longer multitask.

P.S., why does "remember me" not work?

Starling, Lancaster,

I tried to buy a copy of Office online from MS direct. Took them a week to tell me my credit card was frozen - how come every other webstore can tell me there's a problem in about 5 seconds? Still waiting a month later for it as everything done in Germany by email, with no telephone helpline. If they can't run a simple webstore selling their own stuff they must be in real trouble!

Richard, London,

Interesting that the search box on this page is sponsored by Windows Live.

Dave, Toronto, Canada

I agree. Microsoft sucks. I've been a loyal Linux user since the early 90's. Linux is more stable and more secure than Microsoft. Its Open Source and best of all...... it's free.

It's true Vista has ripped off many components of the Mac OS Tiger. But what can you expect from a company that never invented anything new in the first place. Keep in mind how this company began. Bill gates didn't invent DOS. He bought it from another developer and claimed it as his own creation. That is their M.O. if you look at all of their products.

What they need to do for packaging for all of it's software is to put a big bullseye on it. Lets face it, Microsoft is a big target for all hackers. A little truth in advertising. Microsoft , do us all a favor and go away.

Jeff, Chicago, Illinois

Symptomatic for MS bloatware is Office and what better way to illustrate this :

Scott McNealy ( Sun ) famously declared to the San Jose Mercury, 3 August 1997: "We had 12.9 gigabytes of PowerPoint slides on our network. And I thought, 'What a huge waste of corporate productivity'. So we banned it. And we've had three unbelievable record-breaking fiscal quarters since. Now I would argue that every company in the world, if it would just ban PowerPoint, would see its earnings skyrocket.

McNealy, always quotable on the topic, takes issue with other aspects of the software: "Why did we ban it? Let me put it this way: If I want to tell my 40,000 employees to attack, the word 'attack' in ASCII is 48 bits. As a Microsoft Word document, it's 90,112 bits. Put that same word in a PowerPoint slide and it becomes 458,048 bits. That's a pig through the python when you try to send it over the Net."

Peter, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Micorsoft overall has always "sucked". From unstable operating systems to the web browsers. I have always been unimpressed by Windows OS. Now they are playing catch up w/ everyone else that have released better browsers (Firefox), better OS and better web tools as well. Down w/ the king (by default).

B., louisville, ky

I am a dj....So I Google my dj name and my myspace comes up first and my dj website is second.....When I do a Live Search for my dj name I get a magazine and a ton of ads on the first page.....my myspace and dj website dont show up until the second page!!....It may be vanity but that was the last time I used Live Search!..

ola kennedy, Los Angeles,

MS surfaced over 2 decades ago because that had some experience in writing an OS (operating system) for the micro computers of the day. An OS then and now sits between the very low level BIOS (Basic Input Output System) of all computers and the application programs that users run such as Word. There is nothing magic about an OS as essentially its an application loader and provides a defined interface for different software. Bill Gates got lucky by holding onto distribution rights for DOS from IBM when the first Intel based PC appeared and the rest is history. But, in spite of the 10 versions of Windows that have appeared after DOS, we are still waiting for the 'finished' version that doesn't crash, doesn't let hackers in and is a resonable price. If this happened Microsoft would be almost out of business so it aint going to happen any time soon. Hence the MS anti-trust stunts to hold onto market share by locking their applications into their OS and keeping competitors at bay.

Mike, Denia, Spain

The Live version of Hotmail has been in Beta for ages now and it's so damn slow, takes forever to load

Big mistake on my part!

Ziad, Kuwait,

Until I read this news bit I didn't even know that it existed. I have been using FreeBSD and KDE for more than 2 years and there is only one program my wife uses that requires Microsoft and that is software from Husqvarna Viking. StarOffice does everything I want it to do and mail comes from Thunderbird and Web Pages comes from Firefox. I have not tried Open Office. Google and Gigablast works quite well.

Mick, Denver, Colorado

i switched to suse linux on two of our 6 computers and wouldnt switch back to any of the microsoft products. i use google and adblock plus and have no ads or pop ups. am testing mandriva linux on one of the other machines.

ed, central, kansas usa

Sony new playstation with blue ray techno players , is much better then xbox texhnologi

A item where Microsoft losses the game with Sony I think.

Johan

Wagenaar johan , Wormerveer, Netherland

Gates is a petulant predatory geek who almost missed the Internet entirely. His company has held product development hostage too long. Let's hope the Chinese do better.

Ralph Mouchoir, Dataville, Ohio

Mac Users have been saying MicroSoft sucks for over a decade now...
OSX rules!!!

GSS, Katy , Texas

Okay.
Please note that since Evil is a nice anagram of Live (I didn't make it that way -- I'm just saying), maybe Microsoft has put its head inside a subliminal noose? And anyone dislexic (like me) just might see:
Please let Evil Windows rule the web.
AHEH!

Xgenei, Santa Maria,, CA

Scoble doesn't get it. How many times have I read this same dribble about MSFT?

Where are all the companies that MSFT was "inferior" to?
Where is Novel? Where is Borland? They used to have a better products? Where is Netscape?

Microsoft capitalizes on its competition's mistakes. Google right now has a business model that can easily fall apart.

In 10 years from now we will be reading about the "next" competitior that Microsoft cannot beat... while Google will be a shell of its former self.

Dennis, Whtehouse, NJ

Upgraded my Live account from free to pay & got an error that some parts of my subscription are not yet activated - "please wait a few minutes" . Soon it will be a FEW MONTHS and I still get this message. MS support says they are still researching the problem, but have no fix.
I don't even use my account anymore I get so sick of seeing this error in my face every time I log in to it!!
*** What's with the site layout - it's so WHITE! Everything seems too tiny and surrounded by way too much empty white space. "Coming UP Empty" should be their theme!

Rich Ledford, Chicgo, IL

Having grown up since Commodores - I've seen Microsoft explode into an empire, and now I get to watch it now implode. MS is too large to support it's own weight. Microsoft is the Ancient Rome of Today, ready to crumble from the onslaught of Barbarian Open Source tribes constantly eating away from the Microsoft blubber. And just like Rome - Microsoft can't move fast enough to block each new thrust by the Open Source guerrilla armies. Ballmer may or may not be a good leader [never met the man, so I won't comment], but since he took over the company profile has declined. The leaders hatching the ideas on the Microsoft farm need some new fertilizer, because their produce is stinking. The tech race has no forgiveness for a lack of ingenuity or failures to execute new technology, but if MS doesn't experience their version of a renaissance soon, the whole company will eventually implode. Kaput...boom...bang...they will get sliced and diced hard and each time lose thousands of folks .

BakeNutz, Louisville, USA / KY

MS has to re-invent itself. Vista is a flop, because it doesn't bring anything worthwhile to users. Windows Live has the same problem. MS doesn't innovate, they just copy or absorb. They copied Mac, Netscape and Unix. MS has many very smart employees, but upper management seems to be living in the early nineties. If upper management drops the ball, the employees (no matter how smart they are) share the same fate.
I stopped using MS products in 2001 because I saw the lack of innovation and callous attitude toward their user base.

Ballmer shoud be fired.


Cheers,

Alex Chejlyk, North Port, USA/Florida

lol well put microslave is doomed its only a matter of time b4 other os's catch up to some and i use the term some of its features loosely because lets face it microslut sux at most of its os although it thrives in other parts dont get me wrong i use windows xp i have a laptop with vista wich is about to be turned into xp machine shortly mostly because vista is horrid crapfest of a operating system reminds me of osx and lets not go there the zealots will come out of the woodworks

I HATE EVERYTHING, your town, utah

Soo... what exactly IS Windows Live?

Travis, Peoria, AZ, USA

just turned beryl on. Ubuntu rocks. Why would I want this evil software. No. 1 is about privacy. really. Who can see my files when I use this thing? I don't mean government looking at my files, but stupid MS selling information on me or something.

fonss, sd, usa

Tried Vista...sucked, went back to XP

JT, San Francisco,

Microsoft should first give everyone a menu so that they can pick what services they want and not be told that the services they do not want are interdependent with other services. People are tired of that argument. I am running many MS programmes that I wil never use and which are eating up my hard drive.

Lewis B. Sckolnick, Leverett, MA/USA

Scoble's has simply made comments that have been known for a long time, not only about WindowsLive but about Microsoft (MS). They are beaten at every corner by competitors. You only have to look at iTunes or Firefox, their only real grasp is the business world and the fact that all offices use their products. They are only market leaders because they won the GUI race, it does not mean their software is superior by any means. Any one that uses an Apple can see just how bad they are.

Jon Hull, Bath, UK

That's right. Something's really wrong in Redmond. It really smells. It's smelt for a while to me. I am trying to figure out what the hell is wrong, and all I have are theories and guesses.

It came across to me that, in watching Ballmer in that Stanford video, Ballmer was looking for new work, sort of advertising how he views business. I tend to agree with him, by the way, in his statements about how to make money and build a business. Google does a lot of things that are impressive, or simply "cute," but they don't exhibit the potential to be cash cows. To me, Ballmer wasn't talking about making just money. He was talking about making big money off of big ideas. In that way he accredited Google with the big idea of a great search engine which they are milking successfully, but noted that they have since failed to cycle the step 4 into a new step 1 for another cash cow idea. He didn't say they were uncompetitive. I also agree with his analysis of their growth strategy.

Brian Croner, Santa Ana, USA / CA

"Microsoft Sucks"? What's new? Unix did not require a reboot for a year when Win95 was crashing daily. Thus the real embarasment is why they have not been obliterated long time ago ...

DdC, SJ, CA,

Scoble is right, and Vista is the proff on which the defense can rest. MS makes open source so attractive.

Penny, East Boogie,

Microsoft has no business trying to be better than Google, Adobe or others. Microsoft's business is making an operating system. They don't have any business making Office. If we want innovation, Microsoft should be prevented to go anywhere in a business that depends on an OS.

Tim Rowe, Montreal, Canada

Just type the word search into www.live.com and see the first (non-advertising) site that comes up! Tells the complete story... LOL

A B C, Reading, UK

Microsoft is focusing on techies who are fed up with 100 new ways to do the same thing with the latest MS tools. The users do not see many benefits when they upgrade.
Their market is saturated.

Any attempt to seize the internet would fail, they need to reinvent themselves if they want to make Microsoft look like a new media giant.

MS is a rich and expensive technology company that wins in the long term when it copies others and stays the course.

Alan Sky, NY,

And yet at the top right hand corner of this page I see
"Sponsored by Windows Live"

Poetic Justice !

falcon, Volini,

windows should change it's name to PROGRAM NOT RESPONDING. Using XP is thrilling since you never know when or where you end up with PROGRAM NOT RESPONDING in the middle of a document. Boy that is really great fun !

Steve Balmerhead, Phoenix , Arizona

I think the real problem is that MS is so large in all aspects of computing that they forgot what makes a great company greater! They fail to take the Internet and its users into serious consideration. That's where they fail. They focus more on cornering markets that they already "own"... And forget that “innovation” is what really drives companies to be more successful. But then again... what do I know... I'm just regular schmo still trying to come up with his own "Internet Home Run"... : ) Aren’t we all!!!!!!!! Yeahhhhh

Alain, Ottawa, Ontario

I tried the Windows Live mail Beta a while back, it was so hopelessly bad I got out of it within a few days.

It's now taken over my msn space blog, where it has slowed everything down to distraction. All the Live things seem to have cumbersome, bloatware interfaces where everything Google, by comparison, always seems to run efficiently.

I think Microsoft have missed the point.

Alex Pritchard, Bristol,

Don Shelman - I don't know how you could have been working with MS software since the early 70s because the company's first 'software' was released in '75 and that was merely one of many implementations of BASIC on the Altair 8800. Anyway, it wasn't even software as such.

Peter, London,

this macho crap from ballmer makes me so mad. winning is something you do when stealing a dead mammoth from a rival bunch of stone-age hunters, and is not appropriate for any modern situation apart from an episode of "top gear",where stone-age audience man has to stand to avoid soiling the chairs.
rich fool opens nerd macho mouth too often!

andy ofield, oadby, uk

I Agree that in fact ms have a rigid view of what users are capable of. a more user friendly type of operation system, where basic programs are provided that help understand the principles of computing and computing languages, allowing any user to become master of his environment.

Internet is there for information, why would anyone want to waste bandwidth with an operating system that drains resources such as MSWin does? maybe the operator isn't aware of how to operate a system with mswin so that the full potential of the cpu is free for users desires. If os should be simple for users, to create customizations to the os also needs to be simple for users But who ever heard of simplicity in computing/?

but why would computer product and component companies chose to throw away money by having informed and content consumers?

Art, wellington,

Of course there is an alternative online strategy for Microsoft. If I can think of it, maybe one of their 100,000 brains can do so to, BUT when it smacks MS in the face will they drop-the-ball.

I think so.

Joel, Birmingham, UK

well it's hard to believe he would say such things towards MS....I personally like Windows Live as well as Google....Both get the job done....I say, give it some time Microsoft has surely got some tricks up it's sleeve.....

Jordan, Kingston NS Canada ,

Tell us some thing we don't know!

Anthony, San Fran, California

Before Micrsoft brought out Windows the vast majority didn't and couldn't operate a computor with out a pHd. Now anyone can with ease. After working for Microsoft for three years in a privilaged job, you wounder what is really behind the comments made by Mr Scobil?!

Steve Gilmour, Cambrige, Cambs.

“What Windows Live lacks, specifically, is an identity. No one can describe it, no one from Microsoft has even tried.”

It's because they didn't make the product to serve the market; instead they want to make a market to serve the product.

Or at least they're trying to... Its more like an ADD kid yelling "Hey! Look at Me! Me!!"

Ferdi Zebua, Jakarta, Indonesia

I am glad Scoble’s has dared to speakup against its Godfather(MS). I think Mr. Schoble is acting in the larger interests of Microsoft by actually letting them know that they should now get out of this illusions they assume sitting in their historic ivory towers and resting upon their laurels. They are overconfident of their products, infact Google is certainly better. Even gmail is so much better than hotmail. The next century belongs to Google and there is a general hatred about MS in the people. They dont like it because it somehow is anti competitive. Good Job Mr. Scoble, you are indeed doing a favor on Microsoft!

Jay, leicester, uk

I've been working with Microsoft software since the early 70's. I have to agree that Windows Live hasn't energized the market in any way. I also believe that they haven't gotten their message out to those of use who are MS-oriented, much less those who are clueless. That makes us ALL clueless about their "Live" effort.

Don Shelman, Aliso Viejo, Ca

Microsoft search. Bleh! Have you ever tried a search on Microsoft's site for something? Being a computer consultant, I have to search on Microsoft products all the time, and I tell you, I can't find anything on Microsoft's site using their "search engine". I have to go to Google to find articles on Microsoft's web site!
I wish they had a good search engine, it would make my job easier...maybe that's the problem.

Fred, SAN FRANSISCO,