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Microsoft to Offer Free Online Storage

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the the-first-500-megs-are-free dept.

athloi writes "Microsoft Corp. is giving computer users up to 500 megabytes of online storage for their documents, music, photos and video. They're offering it to a select 5,000 test users for now, but will make it widely available later this summer. This move is the latest in a series by the previous large corporation we all loved to hate to compete with the newest large corporation we might hate and fear, Google."

22 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Too little... by A+Nun+Must+Cow+Herd · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... too late, and too Microsoft.

    1. Re:Too little... by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Informative

      AOL's XDrive.com has been offering 5 GB for free about 6 months now.

    2. Re:Too little... by L.+VeGas · · Score: 4, Funny

      Too little...too late, and too Microsoft. No kidding. I've seen MySpace pages bigger than that.
      --
      Best Windows Freeware
    3. Re:Too little... by Thwomp · · Score: 5, Funny

      //TODO: Insert obligatory '500MB should be enough for anyone' comment here.

  2. Google already done it... indirectly by Yoooder · · Score: 5, Informative

    GMail storage anyone? It lets you use your GMails many GB's of storage as a network drive. 500 fixed MB is pretty paltry in comparison...

  3. Love for... by ajenteks · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're offering it to a select 5,000 test users for now ... each and every one of the Zune adopters?
    1. Re:Love for... by whiteranger99x · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sure, but where do the other 4995 test users come from?

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      Join the TWIT army now!
  4. Hate what? by jshriverWVU · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This move is the latest in a series by the previous large corporation we all loved to hate to compete with the newest large corporation we might hate and fear, Google.

    Wait what? We hate who... I can guess we all dislike MS, but I dont think fear or hate should be in the same sentence with Google.

    1. Re:Hate what? by Zeebs · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Google hasn't burned it's social credit with tech types, yet. I'm not claiming they will, and I'd like to think they won't.(Why yes I am interested in buying a bridge why do you ask?) I think the might hate and fear is a little strong but not far off in meaning.

      --

      Happy Noodle Boy says "F###ing doughnut! Mock me? You fried cyclops!!"
    2. Re:Hate what? by russotto · · Score: 4, Funny

      Lately, some Slashdotters have been posting about how they fear Google is going to know everything and abuse this knowledge.
      Yeah. The difference is that while it's fear and caution with Google, it's the next best thing to certain knowledge with Microsoft. Entrusting your data to Microsoft is like entrusting your hand to the garbage disposal.
  5. No problem, I one for one welcome... by 605dave · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if that enough disk space for all my most sensitive documents.

    Because if there is one company I trust not to abuse their power...

    --
    Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
  6. Re:Google already done it... indirectly by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 4, Informative

    And will be doing it for real shortly with Gdrive, which is apparently no longer a rumor.

    --
    My blog
  7. Interesting Combination of Apps Coming Up by popo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It should probably be noted that Microsoft also bought FolderShare.com (which is a very sweet little app).

    The free-storage combined with FolderShare's file swapping is starting to paint an interesting picture... IMHO I wouldn't discount this as "trying to be like Gmail"...

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
  8. Omnidrive by Simon+Garlick · · Score: 4, Informative

    www.omnidrive.com

    Users get 1Gb free, and up to 50Gb is available if you want to pay.

    Disclaimer: not a shill, just a happy beta tester.

    --

    -----
    PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
  9. I'd love to see the EULA by RobertM1968 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The most relevant information to this whole thing (to me) is the EULA MS is foisting on people. Some of their previous EULAs for their online properties have included giving them the right to sell, market and/or redistribute any content you create and upload to those online properties. That, and other privacy issues (using the information to profile you in some manner and then sell ads to you via their LiveSearch stuff for instance - as referenced in a previous post regarding their work on obtaining as much private, identifying data on people as possible) are things I'd like to see clearly addressed and spelled out in their EULA.

    I am also interested in how this all fits in with their current DRM schemes and related practices. Will they DRM any music I upload? Report me to the RIAA? Assume the program archives I upload are pirated and sue me?

    All in all, I see this service as one for only the brain dead - based off MS's previous track record for trustability. (Yeah, it's probably not a real word, get over it).

    --
    StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
  10. Re:Google already done it... indirectly by Utopia · · Score: 5, Informative

    Its against Goog policies to use file storage software and your can can be suspended.
    http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answe r=43692

  11. Re:"We"? Speak for yourself. by AchiIIe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Meh, I spoke too fast.

    I tried it. It sucks.
    Nothing innovative, plain old technologies. You go to a page with 5 filename inputs, you select each file, you put them in folders, you share certain folders.

    Screenshots:
    * http://tinyurl.com/2vaa7e (main page)
    * http://tinyurl.com/38fsb9 (uploading screen )
    * http://tinyurl.com/2j53kp (folder with files)

    It does not seem to be "mountable" either.

    --
    Nature journal lied in Britannica vs Wikipedia Ask to retrac
  12. Re:Google already done it... indirectly by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, but you can only send emails that are a maximum of 20MB. I'd love to have to split up a bunch of archives in 20MB chunks...

    That aside, the mere fact that nobody can be held liable for the lost of data and that backups are likely not made, I wouldn't feel bery comfortable with the data being there as a means of recovery.

    --
    We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
  13. I've got it covered by Statecraftsman · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm perfectly capable of losing my files and documents all by myself. Thanks anyway.

  14. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  15. Yes, but is it ssh(fs) accessible? by macemoneta · · Score: 4, Interesting

    AOL gives everyone that signs up for an IM account 100MB of web space, but the interesting thing is it's ssh accessible. That means that you can mount it with sshfs or sftp, making it a handy place to keep (encrypted) data that you access from multiple machines. For example,

    sshfs userid@members.aol.com: /some/directory

    The above (after responding to the password prompt) makes the 100MB available in your local "/some/directory/". The data is also web accessible at:

    http://members.aol.com/userid/

    I find the space, even though small, very handy for storing small amounts of useful information. Using encfs on the sshfs mounted space allows remote access to things like server status/logs in a secure fashion, even when the machine is not directly SSH accessible.

    --

    Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.

  16. Re:The same as everyone else by maztuhblastah · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bullshit.

    Again, I call bullshit. Yes, Dreamhost does oversell like crazy. They even admit to it!. But they actually will let you use all the bandwidth and disk you're given. All of it.

    Right now, a quick look at my panel shows that I'm using 64.1GB of space (as of last measurement). This month, I've moved over 1TB of HTTP traffic alone (I've used another 20GB or so of FTP traffic). No black mercedes. No phonecalls. Not even a damn e-mail from Dreamhost.

    As Dreamhost points out, the only usage-related issue they'll cut you off for is CPU usage. For serving static content (i.e. not PHP pages), Dreamhost actually kicks ass. They really will let you hit both your quotas. Sure, you won't be able to run the next iTunes Movie Store off one of their shared hosts, but you can actually use all the space and not get so much as an e-mailed warning.

    --
    The real litigious bastards...