For those of you following along at home, here’s a comparison of Microsoft’s overlapping services for sharing and syncing files and storing files online, taken from this forum post. This is rapidly evolving – in an ideal world, these will be consolidated in the next year or two.
SkyDrive:
- Private and contacts & public sharable online file storage (5GB)
- Integrated within Live Spaces
- Permissions:
- Anyone on the internet (public)
- Contacts, by entering email manually, or selecting from messenger contacts
- Private
Pros:
- Ability to share with public
- Thumbnail views
FolderShare:
- Private & contacts shareable folder/file syncing
- Remote file access
- Permissions:
- Contacts, by entering email manually
Cons:
- Cant view files in folders online
- Permissions limited, folders/files not able to be made available to public, only individual contacts
Live Mesh
- Private & contacts shareable online file storage (5GB)
- Folder/file syncing (automatically compulsory sync to online storage as well as intended device/s)
- Remote Desktop
- Platform
- Permissions:
- Contacts, by entering email manually
Cons:
- Permissions limited, folders/files not able to be made available to public, only individual contacts
- Syncing between devices requires syncing to Live Desktop, which may not be desired, or have enough space (5GB)
- Cannot browse drives/folders/files of connected devices without going into Remote Desktop
- Adding contacts is tedious via manually entering emails 1 by 1, should have ability to add via messenger contact list, and public in general
