14 DAY TRIAL // Since the introduction of Live Mesh in April 2008, Microsoft has been hammering away at the platform, not only catalyzing the evolution of functionality, features and capabilities, but also expanding its reach. Although Live Mesh continues to linger in the Technology Preview stage, the Redmond giant is continually opening it up to testers, and in the most recent move in this sense, users in Canada, India and Ireland can now start test driving the platform. The promise from Amit Mital, General Manager Live Mesh & Developer Platform team, is that the Technology Preview is capable of nothing more than offering a taste of what Microsoft plans to deliver with the final version of Live Mesh.
"We are again increasing the number of available slots in the Live Mesh Technology Preview, and expanding the list of countries that will allow sign-up without a wait list to include Canada, India and Ireland! (although you still need to run with an English locale for now.) This is in addition to the availability we?ve previously announced for USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand," Mital stated.
There is a general consensus among those involved in building Live Mesh that there is still a great deal more to come. In this regard, Microsoft is indeed aiming to develop not another service under the Windows Live or the Live brand umbrellas, but a standalone cloud platform that can reach deep inside the Windows client operating system, per the company's Software + Services business vision fathered by Ray Ozzie, chief software architect.
"We said we?d tell you more about Live Mesh and give you access to the platform in the future, allowing you to build your own experiences on top of Live Mesh," Mital added. "En route to opening up the developer platform we?ve been systematically updating and expanding the tech preview to help us scale out the underlying technology (see behind the mesh). We?ve enjoyed watching our service handling the load, and we want more! (...) The experience you see today is just tip of the iceberg!"
Angus Logan, technical product manager for Windows Live Platform indicated that Live Mesh will indeed show all of its potential once the Redmond company will make available the Software Development Kit, and essentially permit developers to built third-party applications and services on top of the platform. However, for the time being, Live Mesh is still in pre-Beta (Technology Preview) stage, and as such, access is still limited, despite being expanded to users in additional countries.