Jessica Mintz of The Associated Press (via The Cleveland Plain Dealer) reports:

“After a trickle of updates and “betas” bearing the Windows Live moniker, Microsoft Corp. is ready to start promoting its official package of free desktop programs for e-mail, instant messaging, bogging and sharing photos. The package includes Windows Live Mail, which can grab messages from multiple free Web-based e-Mail accounts, including Microsoft’s Hotmail, Google Inc.’s Gmail and AOL e-mail. The new package, which Microsoft formally announced Tuesday, allows PC users to read and respond to mail even when they’re not online, just as Outlook Express, which Microsoft has phased out did.” it goes on to say “the package also includes Live Writer, for writing blog posts, the Live Messenger instant-messaging program and Live Family Safety, parental controls for Web surfing at home. For more information, go to windowslive.com.”

After reading this article, I had to laugh a little. When I read the headline I was excited, hoping that something useful would be released; and from what I’ve read, I wasn’t that impressed. Don’t get me wrong, these programs are some what useful like Gmail for Windows Mail, but doesn’t Vista already come with Windows Mail?

I do suppose that this is revolutionary for Microsoft. These “free” programs may lead to open source programs in the future. But one question remains… will it be compatible with XP?

[tags]microsoft, free, applications, open source, desktop programs, programs, windows, windows live, gmail[/tags]