Microsoft Ties Windows Live Services to OS

narramissic writes "Microsoft is tying its Windows Live services directly to Vista — a move that should sound vaguely familiar, as it is precisely what the company did to make IE ubiquitous among Internet users. 'A new unified installer for Windows Live services will help users download Wednesday's updates of photo-sharing, mail, instant messaging, online safety and other services, the company said on its Windows Live Wire blog. The new installer also will automatically update those services on Windows Vista and XP going forward.'"

Comments

THIS is what I call a complete OS

[dws90]

Not only does it contain IM, photo-sharing and other similar applications, but it also comes preinstalled with the funeral services for when the applications die.
Hopefully, they will release a Windows Live mortuary sometime soon to make the package even more complete.

good choice of words

[kallisti]

"This new suite of applications is a new way that we can make connecting, communicating and sharing anywhere a terrific experience on your Windows PC"

When reading this quote, I couldn't help but be reminded that the root of the word "terrific" is terrify. Which makes it pretty accurate.

Not only IE, but MSN Messenger too

[vivaoporto]

what the company did to make IE ubiquitous among Internet users

Not only IE, but MSN Messenger too. Before Microsoft tied MSN Messenger to Windows XP, as the infamous Windows Messenger, ICQ ruled the IM world, and Yahoo Messenger was gaining a lot of traction. Months later, and every newcomer was using MSN, because "that is what comes with the computer", and everybody else had to get an account too, in order to stay in touch. Have in mind that I only know Latin America and Europe, so that may differs in other parts of the world, but at least in Brasil and Portugal, "MSN" is a valid substitute for "Computer Instant Messaging", the same for "give me your MSN".

oh well

[kwabbles]

wget http://download.microsoft.com/WLinstaller.exe ./WLinstaller.exe

err:module:import_dll Library WINHTTP.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\kwabbles\\Desktop\\WLinstaller.exe") not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"Z:\\home\\kwabbles\\Desktop\\WLinstaller.exe" failed, status c0000135

No worky. Oh well. Back to reading slashdot.

Not Vista ... to Windows

[Jim Hall]

Microsoft is tying its Windows Live services directly to Vista -- a move that should sound vaguely familiar, as it is precisely what the company did to make IE ubiquitous among Internet users. 'A new unified installer for Windows Live services will help users download Wednesday's updates of photo-sharing, mail, instant messaging, online safety and other services, the company said on its Windows Live Wire blog. The new installer also will automatically update those services on Windows Vista and XP going forward.

I hope I'm not misreading the article, but the summary appears to be incorrect. As I understand the article, Microsoft is integrating Windows Live more within Windows ... but I didn't see that it was being tied specifically to Vista. In fact, the article says "The new installer also will automatically update those services on Windows Vista and XP going forward."

Call me confused, but I think Windows Live will still install on XP. You don't need to upgrade to Vista to run Windows Live, if you already have XP.

Re:Not Vista ... to Windows

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is integrating various pieces of their software into one downloadable installer. The 'Live Suite' can be installed on both XP and Vista. Think of it as Microsoft's version of the 'Google Pack'.

The title of this Slashdot thread is FUD.

How does this help Microsoft?

[stoicfaux]

I understand that making something easy to use makes it more likely to be used. But unless MS force feeds it to you when you boot or install Vista and XP, why would people choose Live over the more established brand names such as MySpace and YouTube?

MS would need a big marketing push to gain mind share, and I don't think an optional web install will do it.

Windows Live - obsolete

[Ethanol-fueled]

I've been using Hotmail since '99, before M$ bought them out. After that, Hotmail (like other M$ products) became slower and more bloated with every "update". Now they can't(or don't want to because of backroom deals) filter out junk mail which goes directly into my inbox because spammers are spoofing my own e-mail address( how irritating )! Then there's the constant "legit" M$ spam which gets into my inbox at least 3-4 times a week no matter what my filter settings are. Fuck that. My primary account is now a Gmail one.

A Public Service Announcement From Microsoft

[MightyMartian]

We at Microsoft are committed to improving the user experience by (I'm going to fucking kill Google....) encroaching our monopoly into every facet of computer usage (I'm going to fucking kill ISO...). The latest in our long-term plan to completely undermine the capacity for any other software company to influence you is our integration of our software update mechanism with our Windows Live Service (I'm going to fucking kill Sweden.... At Microsoft we believe that competition is more unhealthy than AIDS or swallowing plutonium, and we always seek to find new and inventive ways to completely fuck over any potential competitor. (I'm going to fucking kill Firefox... Another important strategy is planting our arrogant, brain-dead employees on such evil forums as Slashdot, to defend our market-crushing actions. (I'm going to fucking kill Richard Stallman...). We have already submitted the Department of Justice to our terrifying (and patented) Microsoft Bob Rays, which have rendered them simpering, inept and blind half-wits. (I'm going to fucking kill Ubuntu...). We at Microsoft value you, the consumer, for your deep level of mental retardation which allows you to continue funneling billions of dollars to us (I'm going to fucking kill Linus Torvalds...). Thank you for being perhaps the dumbest generation of idiots that the world has ever known (I'm going to fucking kill OpenOffice...).

Re:Another reason..

[RobertM1968]

Actually, this is for Vista and XP from what the article seems to infer/state.

Regardless of what the other guy who responded to you said, Yeah, it is optional now... but it is also still in beta. Only time will tell whether this becomes another "Automatic Update" item... ah well...

Re:Not unusual

[Adambomb]

And which of your counter-examples has been convicted of being illegal monopolies?

Theres a difference between unethically leveraging a product and illegally leveraging a product.

Both suck, but both are completely different beasts.

Well in messenger's defense

[Sycraft-fu]

It was a lot better than ICQ or AIM, which were the other big two. ICQ started really going down hill especially when spammers started to figure it out. I pretty much stopped using it in late 1998/early 1999. AIM is, well, AOL. While I've not doubt the packaging helped it, I think it was also that you were getting ICQ expats looking for something new that didn't bite. MSN may not have been perfect, but it was the best I found.

these tools are nice

[icepick72]

From the perspective of using Windows Vista, I just installed the beta of this optional software, and it's very welcome providing a centralized desktop environment to manage my Live services. Makes life easier and faster. In the end isn't that what software should strive to do?

Re:Depends on the region and age group

[JediLow]

Heh, well... the number thing did work - I still remember my number from... 11 years ago.

The Slash-FUD rolls on....

[Jon.Laslow]

Common, people, actually go and look at what they are doing for a change. This isn't something that is being bundled with Windows (Vista or otherwise), it's a download, just like the Google Pack. You can still get the programs seperately, or you can use this new installer to pick and choose. This isn't something that will come in the form of an Automatic Update, because not only is it from different product group ("Windows Live... is branding and nothing more), but things like Live OneCare require a Paid Subscription past the trial period. Rant over. Karam down the drain. I'm just sick of seeing so much FUD on Slashdot, anti-Microsoft or otherwise. I know it's not going to stop, but can we at least calm it down a little?

Re:The Slash-FUD rolls on....

[RobertM1968]

Puleeez! Stop, relax, then get a clue... there was no FUD involved in my speculation - just simple track record, and plenty of facts that I go into below.

MS has OFTEN tied their services together (MSN, IE, components of Office, etc). Almost every part of their new little package is something they are trying to tie to Vista.

It currently isn't part of "Automatic Update" - but it IS still beta. That it ISNT a part now, doesnt mean that it WONT be... kinda like the whole Messenger thing for a while. Oh wait, I thought you said they dont do things like that since it's a different product group. Just like how their original intention with other parts of Windows Live (from different product groups) was to tie them into Vista. And how they have filed patents to tie them all together - and into the OS - for the purpose of gathering demographics and other info on users of any of their products.

While my post was speculation; they've already filed patents that support it, they've already done similar things with products from other groups in the past (and antitrust pressure seemed to be the only thing slowing it), and the software can easily (as they mention) update the applicable components - of which, numerous are not subscription based (and some of those, like Passport used to be in order to use many services, can become required subscriptions).

Your only supporting speculations seems to be:

• This isn't something that is being bundled with Windows (Vista or otherwise), it's a download, just like the Google Pack. You can still get the programs seperately, or you can use this new installer to pick and choose. You probably meant "Until they change that... and after all it's a beta - and they better not be FORCING it on anyone at this point."?
• This isn't something that will come in the form of an Automatic Update, because not only is it from different product group ("Windows Live... is branding and nothing more), You probably meant "Oh, that's really irrelevant, what was I thinking? They've done that in the past with products from different groups - especially if it extends them into another area in a monopolistic way."
• but things like Live OneCare require a Paid Subscription past the trial period. You probably meant "Since the program updates and changes services that are installed, I dont know why I wrote this - it's a moot point"

Sorry, that's what I read in your post...

-Robert

Re:The Slash-FUD rolls on....

[RobertM1968]

For the idiot mod who thinks the above post was trolling...

MS Advertising Patent

In order for this to work, MS needs to tie together all their diverse products from all their product groups... This was the patent that was previously discussed on /. that I was referring to.

Please feel free to point me to where I am wrong...

And no, I am not going to quote the specifics of the patent any farther than I have discussed them. If you don't have a clue about a topic, don't moderate it.

Huh?

[Gavin Scott]

Sorry, I RTFA and it was the worst heap of rubbish I've read all day.

It's author seems to be utterly and completely clueless about everything mentioned.

There's not a single thing that justifies the word "tying" that I can see. Microsoft have some OPTIONAL add-on set of services that you can install if you feel like it. It's not mandatory and they're not saying it will be. It's no more "tied" to Windows than any other piece of software.

I think I'm going to start a blog where I too post nonsensical tech stories with headlines solely designed to push the buttons of reactionary Slashdot readers, then clean up on the Google ad income.

G.

Re:Another reason..

[ozmanjusri]

having to compete with yourself in order to not be a monopoly seems a bit stupid.

It's actually the clearest evidence of Microsoft's monopoly we have.

In a competitive market, producers are forced to continually improve their products so customers will buy them in preference to anyone else's.

In the computer OS market, Microsoft is having to coerce people into "upgrading" to their newer versions because there's no improvements their customers actually want.