Re: [DotGNU](slashdot) Microsoft dumps hailstorm ?

[Norbert Bollow]

> Gopal V wrote:
> 
> > http://slashdot.org/articles/02/04/11/023259.shtml?tid=109
> >
> > says that MS is quitting Hailstorm (aka Microsoft
> > Persona) .

Rhys Weatherley <address@hidden> replied:

> *shrug*

It's pretty significant news for me.  The threat of Hailstorm
was one of the major reasons that prompted me to commit to the
DotGNU project in the beginning.

> Microsoft has thrown a lot of things at the wall lately
> and called them ".NET".  Some of these were bound to
> stick (e.g. CLI, C#) and some not (Hailstorm, and
> hopefully Passport).

Note that from Microsoft's perspective, there's a hug difference
between the failure of Hailstorm, and a potential failure of
Passport.

The failure of Hailstorm doesn't cost Microsoft much.  Its
success would have given them a terrible weapon against all
competitors (including my little mailing list business), but
they'll not be terribly concerned that this miracle weapon
won't be available to them.  They have lots of other weapons
in their arsenal.

A failure of "Passport" would/will(?) be a much more serious blow
to them.  Unless Microsoft succeeds with that, all their current
cash cows will die a slow and painful death through competition
from Free Software.  I would predict that if they have to, they
will use up to half of the money that they have in the bank on
trying to make "Passport" stick.  (The other half would be spent
on expanding into areas of business which are not so vulnerable
to competition from Free Software, such as all kinds of
entertainment.)

Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
A founder of the http://DotGNU.org project and Steering Committee member
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet   (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59       Fax +41 1 972 20 69      http://thinkcoach.com
List hosting with GNU Mailman on your own domain name   http://cisto.com












> 
> When the rubber hit the road, the question "What the
> heck is Hailstorm anyway?" never had a good technical
> answer.  It seemed to be little more than marketroid
> flim-flammery.  "Give us control over your service and
> it will be ... like ... uh ... cool and stuff!".
> 
> This isn't to say that Web services and authentication
> infrastructure aren't required.  They are.  Just not in the
> form the MS has been pushing them.  It needs more
> technical substance, and less marketroid nonsense.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Rhys.
> 
> 
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