14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Live Installer is set to go against Google Pack this week. Back at the end of June Microsoft announced through the voice of Chris Jones, corporate vice president, Windows Live Experience Program Management, that its cloud operating system evolving under the Windows Live brand umbrella was moving into the new phase. Jones underlined that a new Windows Live product suite was cooking and that the company was revamping its focus on Software plus Services. Lagging well behind Internet rival Google in the area of serving web-based applications, Microsoft is of course leveraging its operating system monopoly in order to push the Windows Live set of online products and services.
"In the next couple of months you will see new releases from us that will really start to show the integrated experience I'm talking about that will truly be representative of where we're looking to go with Windows Live. Just as one small example, soon we'll begin to offer a single installer which will give customers the option of an all-in-one download for the full Windows Live suite of services instead of the separate installation experience you see today. It's going to be an exciting area to watch, and there's a lot more to come," Jones stated in June.
And according to the NY Times, Microsoft is getting ready to rain on Google's parade this very week. The Redmond company will unveil its Windows Live Installer, a product designed to be an equivalent of the Mountain View's search giant Google Pack. With the mention that while the Google Pack is a bundle of both proprietary and third-party online software and services, Microsoft's Windows Live Installer will deliver exclusively the company's collection of offerings.
Microsoft has failed to officially confirm the delivery of the Windows Live Installer, but it is clearly heading into a direction that will permit it to bridge the Windows operating system, forecasted to hit an install base of over one billion by mid-2008, with its Windows Live cloud operating system. Following the availability of the Windows Live Installer users will have a single point access to downloads such as Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery but also to services such as Windows Live Hotmail and SkyDrive.
In contrast, Google desktop is already offering for download a set of free applications including Google Earth, Google Desktop, Norton Security Scan, Firefox with Google Toolbar, Adobe Reader, Skype, Google Toolbar for IE, Spyware Doctor, Picasa, Google Talk and StarOffice, Sun's alternative to OpenOffice and Microsoft's Office System.