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The Vanishing HailStorm
ElitusPrime writes ".NET My Services, Microsoft Corp's high-profile set of XML web services postponed eight months ago, seems to have dropped off the company's 2003 roadmap. .NET My Services, once codenamed Hailstorm, was to comprise 14 services including an electronic online address book and voice mail inbox and was once trumpeted as the vanguard of a .NET web services revolution by the company."
It will not be missed.
There was never really a killer app involved. Companies with a dedicated IT department understand the utility in newer technology, but to the average person, saying something like "This is a revolutionary new technology. It will let you check your email and voicemail! And let you keep an address book!" is hardly compelling. People can already do all of those things with regular HTTP and/or other technology.
In addition, I wonder how many people actually want to have a single online identity for everything? It might be safer then using the same username/password over and over again, but I don't really know if people want to have their every move tracked and databased... although it does seem like a lot of people don't care.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
How? Do you really think that many people use a different username and password for every login they have? The current situation is that your details are spread across a number of hosts, most of which have unknown security. Crack one, and it opens up access to the rest.
Here, for the average user, security is as strong as the weakest link - the most insecure website. Using the same username/password combination for your accounts, and giving that information out wherever you get a new account means that you are implicitly trusting each account granter with all your details. afaik, passport gives you the ability to authenticate somebody without people having to trust you with their password. Yes, you're still trusting microsoft, but it's better to trust a single organisation than many.
Don't be silly. Why should they have multiple authentication mechanisms across a number of sites, rather than a single authentication mechanism shared across them all? They are eating their own dog-food, that's all.
Remember: MS's MO when a product starts running horribly behind schedule (see: every version of Windows) to start dropping promised features left and right. I wouldn't read much more into it than that, unless somebody has some inside information that's provably not just more spin.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
I remember, Bill Gates said once, that .NET and all-stuff-around-it is the most important Microsoft project ever.
On the other hand, most of the MS success stories happend "just by case". Look on DOS and compare it with OS/2, where MS and IBM invested a HUGE amount of money and people resources. Compare Windows NT (which as "1st tier product" for MS) and Windows 3.1, 9x, ME line. If Microsoft would not drop that old DOS stuff, users never switched to anything NT-based.
So, when Bill said: "This is the most important project", I though: "...and MS have to fail it".
Nothing personal to MS, anyway...
does seem to be popular with the big boys though Liberty Alliance so I guess we will be landed with some form of it in the future.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Do you really think that many people use a different username and password for every login they have?
No, but at least now, if I find one username/password combination, i don't necessarily know where else i can try that combination. But if I find out your hotmail password, then I immediately know that I can also jack your ebay account, your MSN account, etc.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Umm, if you've been reading the latest Business magazines you'll realize MSN has taken over AOL. While MSN is growing at a rate of 30-40%, AOL is losing subscribers and losing revenue.
MSN might not be the best service out there, but it definately didn't get it's ass kicked. In fact, a lot of people are turning to MSN because a bunch of the Hailstorm technologies are being realized on that service.
MSN took a different approach than AOL - while AOL focused on one single client to get them through the internet, the modern (v7 and 8) MSN has always focues on just getting you an internet connection. (Yeah, you could always use another browser in the backend once connected.)
Once in, all of MSN's content is web-based, utilizing your MSN single-sign on passport to access it, so you can access you MSN benefits from anywhere, not just your dialed-in client, but also a hotel lobby internet connection, your friends house, etc. (Not just email folks, email, calender, news, customizations, voice communications, wallet, encarta enhanced, etc.)
If MSN keeps adding in more exclusive MSN-only content and material, AOL is really gonna be begging for mercy. Whats strange is that a lot of people on Broadband still pay the $9.95 a month for MSN since it allows them to filter their internet connection for the kids, and use some of the hailstorm services.
(As a side note, if you have a family with young children its nice to be able to have a very customized child content filter that also logs where your kids are visiting. If they find access to a site is blocked, they can IM, CELL PHONE MESSAGE, or EMAIL you where you can click a link to unblock the site. That's a great way to have a place in your child's internet use without always being at their shoulder.)
In short, MS got it's ass kicked. They quickly swept that defeat under the rug, and you rarely ever hear about it, which is I'm sure what will happen with this defeat.
You make it sound like that's a bad thing. There are very few organizations (especially of Microsoft's size) and CEOs in the world willing to say "OK, I was wrong, let's completely change direction". Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison are notorious for throwing money at doomed ventures (like NC) - their egos just won't let them admit to making a mistake. As for Richard Stallman, has he ever admitted to being wrong about anything?
Bill Gates put his ego to one side, and Microsoft's engineers (who'd just done a Death March to get Windows 95 out the door) got back to work, effectively redoing a lot of what they'd already done. Whatever you may think of Bill in particular and Microsoft in general, they deserve respect for their agility.
Hailstorm, I thought, was .NET's raison d'etre. All these information technology services, implemented under a Windows framework, and a totally redesigned operating system, built to seamlessly integrate them.
.NET server (basically Windows XP Server from everything I've heard), and a somewhat cross-platform (with Mono and all that) and network aware VisualBasic replacement in C#?
So what the hell is it now? Passport,
I'm shocked that more in the Linux community don't avoid this whole thing. Why Ximian is having anything to do with this is beyond me. I think any links with MS right now is a mistake. Linux has no reason to attempt to suckle any of the many teats of MS. Compatibility is one thing, but to think the lion is just going to let you sleep beside him forever is non-sense. When he get's hungry or pissed enough, it's your ass. Mono will eventually find this out. .Net is still largely only a reality in the programming world. Which means technically, it's still not a reality. It's all marketing hype at this point. Until a user can see it, and cyberly touch it it's useless. Frankly, I believe it's a means for MS to spread its code in an attempt to shackle competitors later with licensing. Unfortunately, Mono is just an example of how the bait is working.
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