Yay! Ballmer learned a new buzzword!

I wonder if the "OS in the cloud" gets it as much as GMail did, you know, four and a half years ago...

I wonder what would happen if Microsoft made Windows like Seti@Home, by linking up unused CPU cycles across the Internet. With say 10 million machines chugging and exchanging data, they'd wipe the floor with Google in terms of CPU power.

Except that unused cycles don't work in production settings. Pharma companies tried doing that for discovery programs back in the day and found that getting a cluster was much more effective. Using spare desktop cycles is great for low-level data collection, but you need to analyze that data and when you have deadlines you need much more control of availability and capacity

Most overhyped word of 2008: 'The Cloud'

That's nothing. Just wait until "Cloud 2.0".

I know you're joking but I've actually seen "Cloud 3.0" in print somewhere.

There was demand and a chance to profit so they made a partnership. I wouldn't go as far as saying theres an underlying strategy behind it.

Does Microsoft really need a 3rd party data center to enter "the cloud"?

To some extent they are already in the cloud - they offer hosted services, Windows Live file hosting, hotmail, CRM Live; they have lots of hosted files so they must deal with CDNs.

So, why don't they avoid Amazon and do "hosted Windows servers" themselves?

Whence "Windows Silver Lining"?