More On Live Mesh: The Sync Nirvana? [Archive]

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Jason Dunn

05-07-2008, 03:00 AM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9929034-80.html?tag=blog.promos' target='_blank'>http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-99...tag=blog.promos</a><br /><br /></div><em>"Live Mesh is trying to solve a key user problem--how to mesh the desktop, mobile, and the Web for consumers and developers. For example, Live Mesh can provide core underlying infrastructure for synchronization, collaboration, and other services. "This does represent a pretty significant advance for Microsoft, bringing the Web to Windows and Windows to the Web and connecting them super-well," Treadwell said. I asked Treadwell if Live Mesh is designed as a core and pervasive layer for the Web, as Windows is for the desktop. "I don't think Live Mesh should be a required piece of technology, but we do view it as something that would enhance the user experience, with protocols that make it easy to connect with other services, such as Twitter." He went on to say that Live Mesh will enable a broad variety of usage scenarios, taking advantage of the standard Internet protocols."</em><br /><br /><img border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1210118872.usr1.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />Live Mesh fascinates me - but what fascinates me the most is how Microsoft can have a service in place such as <a href="http://www.foldershare.com" target="_blank">FolderShare</a>, yet still go ahead with developing Live Mesh. Although it's certainly obvious that Live Mesh is broader and deeper than FolderShare - or so I hear, because they're not giving out beta invites to anyone outside the USA (sheesh!). Live Mesh seems to touch on all aspects of sync - device to device, device to cloud, cloud to device, etc. If all the pieces come together, this could be an impressive solution.

altden

05-07-2008, 05:26 AM

What fascinates me is that I still can't figure out what mesh is.
I can see a lot of words like "soltion" and "sync".
But what does it do for me? Sigh.

unxmully

05-07-2008, 11:00 AM

Joel Spolsky has an interesting take on this http://www.joelonsoftware.com/

DaveSadler

05-07-2008, 04:43 PM

Mesh as it exists right now is just FolderShare and RemoteDesktop rolled in to one package. I've been using it now for a couple of weeks. I've also used FolderShare and getDropbox.com

The thing that interests me most about mesh as it exists right now is the ability to remote into one of my machines, drag a file into one of the mesh enabled folders and within seconds, that file is available to me anywhere.

Is it groundbreaking? Not in its current state; but there is a lot of promise. Imagine being able to remotely sync back to outlook for those of you without Exchange servers. Or imagine a PocketPC app whose data is stored on a shared mesh folder.

For example, anyone who has used any of the diet logging apps knows the pain of entering every new food's nutritional information. With a mesh back end, if I entered the info for a Wendy's double stack with cheese (mmmmmm wendy's) it would be available to any other Mesh subscribers.

Jason Dunn

05-07-2008, 05:39 PM

Joel Spolsky has an interesting take on this http://www.joelonsoftware.com/

I have a lot of respect for Joel, but he's very wrong with this statement:

"Jeez, we've had that forever. When did the first sync web sites start coming out? 1999? There were a million versions. xdrive, mydrive, idrive, youdrive, wealldrive for ice cream. Nobody cared then and nobody cares now, because synchronizing files is just not a killer application. I'm sorry. It seems like it should be. But it's not."

He's so incredibly wrong about this. Anyone with more than one computer, and I'm counting smartphones as computers here, has a fundamental problem of wanting to have their "stuff" on both computers - but it's so mind-bogglingly complex that most people don't even try, or give up trying to articulate what it is they need. Most people have just accepted that they have one computer that has most of their stuff, and if they have another computer, it will have some of their stuff, but if they want to access all their stuff, they have to go back to the "real" computer. This is how most average people think. And then their hard drive fails, they lost most of their stuff, and they're very angry about it.

The web-based hard drive services he's talked about were mostly lame because all they did was give people a place to store a limited amount of their stuff. And getting it uploaded was a slow, painful process that was so hard most people never did it. Hell, I had half a dozen accounts with those web-based storage services and I never could figure out what to do with it because they didn't offer me enough storage space for all my stuff, and what's the point of having only some of my stuff up there? I didn't want to have to manage another process.

When I show someone FolderShare (http://www.foldershare.com)and set it up for them, they're stunned - the concept of having all their digital photos and music on multiple computers, mirroring each other, is almost magical to them. Throw hosted Exchange into the mix, and you have a multi-device nirvana. Multi-device sync is a hard problem though, and there's a reason why it hasn't caught on with the masses - because no one has done it right yet.

As I said, I respect Joel, but I think he's out of lunch on this particular point. If Live Mesh can be the platform that allows people to use any computer or phone they want, and have all their stuff right there, then it's going to be a huge success.

phoenixag

05-07-2008, 09:48 PM

Ever since I have heard of Live Mesh, I have been very excited about the service. I too tried to get a beta invite but couldn't. Anyway, saw the product demo video and it looks pretty cool. If they can get everything to sync together, I think we are looking at quite a (r)evolutionary product here. I would say revolutionary if only for the fact that no one has been able to get desktop, cloud and mobile device all sync up together very well, as Jason says above.

altden

05-07-2008, 10:08 PM

Multi-device sync is a hard problem though, and there's a reason why it hasn't caught on with the masses - because no one has done it right yet.

***long quote trimmed by mod JD***

I think you did better job at explaining what is Mesh than then Microsoft itself did. Maybe you should sell this post to them.

Rocco Augusto

05-08-2008, 04:12 AM

I have been using Live Mesh for a day or so and so far I like it. Since I work from home and spend most of my time on one computer, the service hasn't really been totally useful, but I am excited at the thought of being able to sync files from my computer with my phone on the go. Especially if all I want to do is grab a small ringtone or file and don't feel like digging out the old USB cord of microSD card reader to do so :)

Jason Dunn

05-09-2008, 12:30 AM

I think you did better job at explaining what is Mesh than then Microsoft itself did. Maybe you should sell this post to them.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. I'll contact Steve Ballmer right away and ask if he wants to buy my writing. :D

Jason Dunn

05-09-2008, 12:31 AM

...but I am excited at the thought of being able to sync files from my computer with my phone on the go.

Yeah, once they get the Windows Mobile client set up, it's going to rock...but only for those people with unlimited data plans. :rolleyes: Although firing up WiFi to do a sync isn't too bad...

ionen

05-10-2008, 03:50 PM