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Microsoft Launches Virtual Desktop

  • Reuters , Wednesday, April 23, 2008 11 AM
Microsoft's lofty "cloud" talk finally became a reality on Tuesday as the software giant unveiled "Live Mesh," a Web-based virtual desktop that allows users to seamlessly link their digital devices through a single desktop stored on the Web. Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others refer to this always-on land of networked computers hosting your data as the "cloud," and Live Mesh is Microsoft's first significant consumer facing cloud development, following years of talking about it.

"We may be seeing signs of a Microsoft that is newly focused," Jonathan Yarmis, a vice president and analyst at AMR Research, told Reuters. "This is exciting because it has as much to do with who is doing it as what Microsoft is doing." Indeed, Live Mesh could undermine Microsoft's Windows XP and Vista operating systems, the company's chief moneymaker, in offering similar desktop services over the Web, but Live Mesh also opens Microsoft up to a large potential user base, such as Apple Mac owners.

The bigger idea behind Live Mesh is to keep us connected to our personal resources at all times through any device. As such, users can effectively create their own online network of devices. Live Mesh users will receive 5GB of personal online storage and unlimited peer-to-peer data.

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