Windows Live Is Dead
Microsoft power brokers either don't read this fine piece of work you have before you or simply don't care. Lately I've been complaining that it commonly changes product names, and even change what it calls test software -- all seemingly on a whim. And Microsoft doesn't strike me as a company usually driven by whim.
Apparently my views don't matter. Microsoft doesn't mind regularly confusing its customers by changing product names.
Now Windows Live, which I think sort of actually made sense, is being split into a bunch of different pieces -- and it is all, for some reason, because of Windows 8.
I guess the problem is that Windows Live has both online and offline content -- like Windows Live Essentials Movie Maker, which is good, old-fashioned hard drive-based software.
That just doesn't seem enough to throw the whole brand out.
One coming change is Windows Live ID, which used to be Passport, will now be just Windows Account. Hey, what was so wrong with Passport? That's what I still think of it as.
Windows Live Essentials, which are a bunch of add-ons (some Web, some not), will all be renamed for Windows 8 (and renamed again when Redmond marketers get bored).
Is this driving you as batty as it is me? Complain or set me straight at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/07/2012 at 1:19 PM