Windows Live Mesh: Windows online for everyone

"The Redmond giant" has just launched a test of a new online service about its scope of operation and purpose: Windows Live Mesh, a service similar to the online operating system, users Can connect and synchronize data from many different devices.

" Live Mesh was developed in two years with the best efforts from the development team, " said Ray Ozzie, chief software engineer at Microsoft, " If successful, Live Mesh will change the way. computers and other devices interact with each other and with Internet services Microsoft wants data and applications to be accessed from anywhere, offline or online, using any device ".

To achieve this goal, Microsoft has created a core synchronization platform based on its FeedSync technology. Live Mesh takes the idea of ​​RSS news that is used to share news, extending to information and data used by web services and desktop applications.

Live Mesh is a plan to regain market share of online services from Google (Google Gears) and Yahoo! when Windows was quite old. Live Mesh solution is somewhat similar to Google's Android operating system solution for mobile phones. From a simple point of view, we will see Microsoft's idea of ​​creating a "Windows for the web" and engaging developers to build applications on this new platform.

More notably for developers is that the combination with the operating system will allow the application or function to be executed even when it is offline. Consumers will benefit from being in a location but accessing many of their different devices, including running web applications in a friendly environment similar to Windows' desktop.

In Live Mesh, Windows's My Computer will have a new name called My Mesh , which displays different devices, although it is currently limited to Windows XP and Vista computers. Live Desktop becomes one of these devices, the user's hard drive is called "cloud".

With the hope that Live Mesh will be the destination of all web users, Microsoft developed Live Mesh that works well on all three most popular browsers, Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari.

During the technology testing phase, test users will have a storage capacity of 5GB and two applications . This is an example of the Live Mesh platform capable of data sharing and access, remote management (Remote Desktop).

Files and folders are part of Live Mesh, which can be managed via Live Desktop as well as other devices on Live Mesh. In order for devices to connect to Live Mesh, users must install a 2MB software called the Mesh Operating Environment . It will install the Live Mesh Notifier application , notify you of problems in Live Mesh, and the Mesh Companion will be mounted to the Windows Explorer window. Live Mesh data sharing has been simplified and will be implemented in addition to Mac and mobile phones.

The success of Live Mesh depends on the number of applications for it. Microsoft understands this, so the REST API will be released to application developers. Applications for Live Mesh include offline and online operations, so changes made when offline will automatically be synchronized to the service when online. P2P technology will help minimize bandwidth usage to a minimum.

Live Mesh is also a "child" in Microsoft's Live family so it is possible that other Live siblings will be combined into Mesh such as Hotmail, Photos, Spaces . During the technology testing phase , Microsoft will conduct 10,000 selective test users, obtaining feedback on what is and what is not. Microsoft hopes to carry out important repairs and upgrades to Live Mesh in the next 9-12 months.

Combined into Windows Explorer