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Microsoft 'Albany' subscription--this must be a hoax

Microsoft's subscription plan is yet another lame attempt at a market that the company has already missed out on.

Dave Rosenberg Co-founder, MuleSource
Dave Rosenberg has more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to startup IPOs to open-source and cloud software companies. He is CEO and founder of Nodeable, co-founder of MuleSoft, and managing director for Hardy Way. He is an adviser to DataStax, IT Database, and Puppet Labs.
Dave Rosenberg

I find it hard to believe that Microsoft is seriously considering this 'Albany' program as anything more than a PR stunt tied into a little market experimentation.

The 'Albany' offering as outlined by Mary Jo Foley on ZDNet.

Albany consists of 2007 version of Office Home and Student; Office Live Workspace, Microsoft's collaboration-service complement to Office; Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft's consumer security/backup service; and three Windows Live services - Live Mail, Live messenger and Photo Gallery. The bundle will be delivered via a single installer. When Microsoft releases new versions of any of these software or service components, Albany users will get the latest versions pushed to them automatically for as long as they are paying for the Albany subscription.

Seriously, this is pointless junk. The only real value is to Microsoft who get to see usage patterns and understand how on-demand software is consumed. The offering itself is junk and a bit embarrassing when you consider that you can get all that and more online, with no installer, for free.