That's odd, according to Andre this was the best thing since sliced bread. Should we still bet on Seven?

Andre Da Costa :

I think this is a great way for Microsoft to offer users a complete Software experience, security, and productivity tools to manage information in a seamless, end to end way that benefits the end user. Getting Office 2007 especially exposed to new users with its innovative Office Fluent user interface is also a great move. Real value here. Kudos to Microsoft on this one!

Posted by Andre Da Costa | July 2, 2008 1:18 PM

Andre Da Costa :

Sounds good. I see this being an asset for someone in education who needs Office, Live services and protection through OneCare, maybe at University doing a one year course on a budget, so instead of spending for the entire suite of products, they just pay for that year and at the end of their course they save.

Posted by Andre Da Costa | April 18, 2008 9:25 AM

Microsoft would have trouble marketing hot dogs at a baseball game. No clue up there in Redmond. Who the heck even heard of Equipt until today?

OneCare was not very well rated for effectiveness. It always seemed to be doing something mysterious to your computer but it has nearly impossible to tell what that "something" was.

Like a magician behind a cloud of smoke.

When I decided to cancel OneCare two years ago, there was no check box on the website. I had to make a PHONE CALL! Thats a cheap customer retention stunt.

Sure, they were polite and did not argue but now ask me how eager I am to try another MS scheme knowing that cancellation might be a hassle?

Gerardo:

Your point? Its obvious the product was not a success. But it had potential no doubt, but things don't work out the way we want them too. Still, I believe Microsoft has made a commitment and the announcement of 'Morro' exemplifies that Microsoft is committed to security and performance for its users. With a lot of software going to the web, especially from Microsoft for free, I think the Company believe it was best to go all out and really give consumers value through Windows Vista, Windows Live Wave 3 and Windows 7 in the future. Microsoft is presenting consistency and simplicity here for users.

To Joe:
Quote: "The new security product isn't a suite but malware engine for antivirus and spyware, and there is no firewall or backup functionality."

Ah, but we have these great things in this awesome OS called Windows Vista. I always felt there was too much of an overlap between Windows Vista and OneCare anyway. This move I believe simplifies things and makes it easier to acquire and focus on the essentials and use the superb utilities that already come with the OS.

@Andre
"in this awesome OS called Windows Vista".

You are either trying to provokate Goblin or you seriously do not see how an overboard remark like that would throw your intire comment from discussionpoint right into fanboyism.

If you like Microsoft that much I'd expect you to go less overboard to at least be able to discuss matters like these.

This is not a personal attack btw.. just a suggestion on how to get a point across. And soz for getting so far off topic

@Charlie
Lol. As I said on the other post, when he made a similar comment about Vista. It makes it easier for me when he does, people are not stupid. I would hope nobody here would take the word of any poster without doing their own research, as the best opinion is your own.
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"He who cannot be named" has lost any posting integrity and I believe his hope now is to start a flame war thus fudging the opinions people are putting forward and to also distract from the real message here which is that there are alternatives.
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The best advert for MS on here (IMO) is Jess (who is very open they work for MS). He/she provides sensible discussions and has many valid points to make (and they appear honest)
"He who cannot be named" has none of these traits, and his behaviour above shows the level of desperation he has reached.

After 2.5 update onecare was pretty decent, low on system resources and had good backup and tune-up support.I'm not sure why MS should ditch this product.
You would really appreciate onecare circle if you have more than one computer at home. I'm sure they'll integrate/use the functionality in some upcoming product.

@Andre, well isn't the point crystal clear? We are seeing in a short time frame an issue with Microsoft that usually takes 3 to 6 years to manifest. On the larger time frame its easier for our collective memory to forget, but in this short time span we can see how uncommitted Microsoft really is. Particularly in this new arena of web services.

This is one of the key issues I raised when talking about cloud services. If you own your own datacenters then you can upgrade when you want (I know people still running NT 4.x). If you're on the cloud you're pretty much on a balloon and going were the winds blow. Everything is on their turf, hardware, software and development tools for your own software.

A lot more than just simple license costs has to be considered before moving to the cloud. And this is one of the key issues that can have hidden costs or undelayable expenses(in the form of forced upgrades and software maintenance/refactoring due to Microsoft upgrade paths on Microsoft's timeline not your company's).

Clearly Morro is not Azure. Clearly OneCare is not a cloud environment, just a simple security service. Clearly you're not having any information stored on Morro (at least not the email/document type, I hope). But the principle remains and care should be placed on future hidden costs.

The consistency and simplicity you speak of has to be offered through product space (portfolio) and time as well. I agree with you when you say "Microsoft is presenting consistency and simplicity here for users." as long as you keep time out of the equation. Once you factor in time and look at the picture as it evolves, simplicity and consistency go down the drain.

@Goblin

Thank you for the compliment. I wasn't intending to be an advert for Microsoft (maybe I should hide those university photos if people are judging the company by me) but I just happen to have an opinion on some areas and don't feel shy about voicing it. I consider myself honest. My opinion is based on experience rather than what company signs my paychecks and I would probably be making the same comments had my job interview with Google been less of a disaster (I only applied to MS due to a conversation with a friend after I was utterly humiliated and disheartened by my interview with Google). My experience will probably be coloured by the fact my job will involved working with MS technologies on a daily basis but everyone else's experience will be coloured by whatever they use for their work/life so I don't think that will make me any less honest.

Since my comments are based on experience, I won't be joining in with this discussion thread due to not having any experience whatsoever with Equipt or OneCare. I'll stick to arguing about things I actually know something about.

And just to clear any confusion, I'm female.

"I was utterly humiliated and disheartened by my interview with Google"

Do no evil eh?

@Charlie
I can't speak for their corporate position or business policy, but the guy who interviewed me certainly seemed more evil than anyone I've met so far at Microsoft.

Joe Willcox says:
"Quick, rush out and buy Equipt now for 70 bucks; you could get most of your money back and a free copy of Office. What rebate could be better than a deal where Microsoft would, in all practical purposes, pay you to take Office Home and Student?"
-----------------------------------------------------
Joe, a home or student would be far better off just downloading the newest version of OpenOffice for FREE, than shelling out $70 to the further greed of Micro$oft, for its piece of spyware.

While I know that you, Joe, think the $70 is a great deal, you should have come up with that comparison yourself, instead of letting me, become the consumer advocate, that you, as the blogger should be.

For anyone else here is the download link that will keep your $70 to spend on something useful:
http://openoffice-3.org/