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First look at the Live Mesh client on Mac OS X

Jul. 21, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

jkOnTheRun offers up a first look at the Live Mesh client for Mac OS X:

This app is still in a pre-beta state, so there's bound to be changes, but from what I've seen, most of the functions are there and working. With the client on my Intel-based MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.4, I was able to add my Mac as a device to my Mesh and all of my files and folders within my Mesh are in sync. Files and folders on my Vista-based UMPC are appearing on my Mac and vice versa.

For the moment, the largest bit of functionality I don't see working in the Mac version is the Remote Desktop function.

So what is there and working? I have my Live Desktop, News, files, folders, etc... the Mac version inserts itself in the Menu bar, where you can navigate to files and folders as needed. Here, you can see the three folders I have in my Live Mesh. Obviously, clicking the New Folder option creates a new folder in the Mesh, while clicking Add Existing Folder lets you browse and choose a folder that's on the local machine.

All in all, this client is looking to be similar (if not nearly identical) to the Windows client. And that makes sense.

Right. This looks exactly as we'd expect. Which is great. Can't wait to see it in action live.

Thanks to Mitchel for the tip.

Discuss this Article 18

weedmonk
on Jul 21, 2008
Can't wait to sync my Hackintosh installations.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Jul 21, 2008
Cool. Now we need the mobile client and we can really get things moving ahead.
johnpapola
on Jul 21, 2008
Bravo Microsoft! I can't wait to try this out. If they fully embrace the platform and iPhone, this could be a really great solution... just as Mac Office is an excellent suite.
Dipsh t Admin
on Jul 21, 2008
And bravo MS for conforming to the OS X style guide when designing applications so that they look native, instead of the way a certain other company does when porting their apps to Windows... ;) <-wink, wink
Snakedoctor1
on Jul 21, 2008
Looking good. I agree with the guy as well www.logmein.com is the shiznitz for remote control software, and its free. @johnpapola, Office 2008 is horrible to be honest. It so slow its pathetic. Lets hope this client is nothing like it.
johnpapola
on Jul 21, 2008
@Snake, Yeah, 2008 is pretty horribly slow. But I do like the UI design improvement with 2008. Much more modern mac-like. That team seems to be trying their best.
BrightrevCarl
on Jul 21, 2008
Groove works well for file synchronization on Windows and it's great they're extending it to the Mac in the form of Live Mesh. File synchronization is great, but it isn't enough. I would really like to see the platform extended to sync mail, contacts, favorites and calendars on both platforms and on mobile devices. It'll be interesting to see whether Live Mesh or MobileMe gets *all* of these things working on both platforms first.
Snakedoctor1
on Jul 21, 2008
Yes I agree its much nicer looking and its universal. I hope it gets better, as I need to use it daily. That team is a great bunch of people.
johnpapola
on Jul 21, 2008
@Bright, I must say, that .mac/mobileme sync in leopard already delivers all of this except the selective folder sync, which I'd love to see built in. MobileMe keeps my work MacBook and home tower feeling like the same machine. Add in the ability to sync folders other than the iDisk and you've really got the whole deal. Plus, MobileMe sync services allows third party apps to sync their preferences and data. I'm not sure what else mesh brings to the table that's wildly different than this. Paul, could you illuminate me?
mikegalos@msn.com
on Jul 21, 2008
@BrightrevCarl The difference is that Live Mesh is a platform and the folder sync and remote are just the sample apps. The word given out by their team is that the PDC in October will have a lot more info for developers who want to write Mesh apps. In the meantime, there's some preliminary dev based stuff on Channel 9. Paul covered it well (unlike almost all industry "pundits") when it came out. He did a good 2-part intro starting at http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/live_mesh_preview.asp back in April when the initial beta shipped.
DRWAM
on Jul 21, 2008
Guys, what's the cost difference, or presumed cost difference?
mikegalos@msn.com
on Jul 21, 2008
@DrWam Right now Live Mesh is free. Since it's a platform and not an app it may stay that way but I'd expect to see either fees or advertising for specific apps built on top of it.
bennish
on Jul 21, 2008
well said dipsh t admin... nice to see at least one of the companies showing a bit of maturity.
DRWAM
on Jul 22, 2008
I agree Mike. My guess is that it will be free and maybe have some add involved. I will be using exchange, but the free product may prevail for 'the rest of them', especially if it goes to many mobile phones.
AlanRR
on Jul 22, 2008
Nice to see that the Windows based Mesh client now installs on Windows Home Server. Coupled with the new ability to bypass the cloud and sync machine to machine this makes for some cool in-house syncing solutions (eg syncing my photos from my WHS to my laptop)
subzerohitman721
on Jul 22, 2008
Finally, at least for another blog, we have peace in our time. Mesh unites the warring Windows and Mac factions. (Sorry, I find the love fest in this one extremely hilarious.) Great product, lots of potential. I'll be keeping an eye on both versions of Mesh.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Jul 22, 2008
Subzerohitman721 (Can I just call you Subzero for short?) Don't forget the mobile device implementation as well.
anonymous
on Jul 23, 2008

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