Web hosted, ad-supported Windows: streaming to your PC | The Register

Web hosted, ad-supported Windows: streaming to your PC | The Register: "Microsoft patted itself on the back for completing .NET, while announcing 'live' Windows and Office offerings today. With these offerings, Microsoft hopes it can counter Google and tap into the trend for 'software as a service.'
Bill Gates, Microsoft's chief software architect, said Tuesday that planned versions of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 are 'the full realization of the dream around XML and web services that were part of an architectural direction the company bet on five years ago.' The trio are due next week while the 'dream' was called .NET, and announced by Gates at the Professional Developers' Conference (PDC) in Orlando in 2000.
Having delivered on .NET, Gates on Tuesday announced Windows Live and Office Live - Microsoft's take on software as a service that it is calling 'live software.' Live software, Windows Live and Office Live will derive revenue from advertising and subscriptions."