Live Mesh is one of the key components of Microsoft’s cloud computing initiative, providing the management functions necessary to fully synchronize data and settings across multiple devices.Â
Until recently, accessing the technical preview of Live Mesh has required submitting your name at Microsoft Connect, Microsoft’s beta community site, and crossing your fingers that you might be selected to join in the meshing fun. Now word comes from Liveside.net that the doors have been flung open, at least a bit.Â
If you are interested in trying out Live Mesh, head over to www.mesh.com.Â
A few caveats do await. This is still a technical preview and will be for some time. Anything you set up or use in this technical preview may be lost when Live Mesh enters its next iteration. You must have a valid Windows Live ID. At the moment, anyone in the US can join. International users will have to change their Windows region and language settings EN-US to join in. Finally, space is limited.The Live Mesh team is using this change to the sign-up process to double the number of people accessing the preview.
I have been looking forward to having a crack at Live Mesh and will post my thoughts after I have had a chance to really try it out. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Live Mesh and how you are putting it to use.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I’ve been on the beta for a while but haven’t used it for one simple reason - no mobile support yet. This is a real deal breaker for me. When they get that sorted I’ll be there like a shot but until then I have no use for it.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Ditto. I’m not sure how this differs from SkyDrive yet.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:42 am
@ Matthew
Live Mesh and Skydrive are simply two different approaches to the idea of cloud storage. Microsoft has often used a competitive development model, assigning two or three teams to each take their own stab at developing a new product or technology. We are likely seeing a similar situation with SkyDrive, Office Workspace, and Live Mesh. SkyDrive is a more traditional cloud storage platform with a folder-centric UI and minimal colaboration tools. Office Workspace pushs collaboration more, building its UI and collaboration principles upon workflow and project management paradigms. Live Mesh builds upon ideas that Ray Ozzie developed in Lotus Notes and Groove, approaching cloud storage with the assumption that the user works on a variety of discrete devices and focusing on data synchronization, presenting collaboration in a manner more akin to a social network. Odds are that Ozzie expects SyDrive, if it continues to exist at all, to become the storage platform for Live Mesh. Office Workspace seems to have carved out its own niche and may better serve specific markets and is more likely to continue to exist alongside Live Mesh.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:51 am
So when can we expect to get Live Mesh to work with my Windows Home Server?
July 17th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Just signed up to Mesh last night and it looks interesting. I am in the UK so you do not need to be in the US to use this.
I am looking forward to using it on me home servers and Mobiles as well, does anyone know when this is likely.
July 17th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I’m looking forward to the big feature missing so far. sync without hacing to sync it online. For example, syncing the Documents folder on my desktop with my laptop. This is well over 5GB and dont need a copy in the cloud as it’s backed up on WHS. I know there’s sync toy and others but it seems like a feature thats missing. Although I read on the live mesh forums that this is something their going to include.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I’d love that idea! Syncing some important documents with mesh via my home server. When MS has included that into Mesh I’m going to take a look at that. 5GB of space is a bit small IMO, but at least it’s a start.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:44 am
@Chris
This is there now. You can sync content between computers without using the 5gb of online desktop. From the live mesh online destop (the webpage) you can say not to sync the online folder. For some reason you can’t do this from the local live mesh folder settings, but only online. I just did this and the folders are syncing.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:44 am
I signed up today - primarily because of some user comments I read on the Lifehacker top 5 sync programs story. It seems like a useful service - but unfortunately because it’s activex it won’t play with Firefox. This isn’t a dealbreaker for me but it means I have to start/run/iexplore each time I want to run it since I long ago wiped all visible references to ie from my computing landscape. can’t comment as to whether uk/us thing is a problem - I’m a Brit living in LA. One thing I would note though - my wife was very surprised when I took over her computer with the remote desktop function and started typing in her end of an existing IM session we were conducting… Very simple to set up and seems to work well - perhaps a bit better on XP than Vista so far. Anyone know if you can ftp files to the live desktop from a computer on which you have not enabled mesh - e.g. a friend’s computer or work machine that you don’t want to add to your network? And if so, how?
July 18th, 2008 at 5:53 am
If you don’t need the cloud storage and just want to sync folders on various computers why not try Windows Live FolderShare. I have been using it for several weeks and am quite happy with it.