Wednesday, February 19, 2014

SkyDrive to OneDrive: Do you think the rename was fair?

Today was an important day for the history of SkyDrive -- the official rename to OneDrive rolled out today. However Outlook.com's linking appears to not be up to date though when I was writing this article. Additionally, direct links from docs.live.net still point to SkyDrive so I hope they get that patched up soon. Overall, I would say that Microsoft was very successful in the launch of OneDrive so I won't rag on them so much because there is always room for error if you are are not careful with what you are doing.

The more important thing I wanted to ask is Do you think that the rename of SkyDrive to OneDrive was fair? Some people still don't know this but the actual reason why the SkyDrive name was dropped was because of a lawsuit between BSkyB and Microsoft. Instead of trying to explain the whole deal, a quick search is most likely faster.

I personally think that the rename should have never happened. If you think about it, the SkyDrive name has been attached to the product for a long time. If you don't know what I am talking about, then take a glimpse at this real quick. SkyDrive launched as Windows Live Folders, but renamed a little while after. That SkyDrive name, even if other parts of the actual full product name changed, still had the word "SkyDrive" in it. I do not think it is fair after all of these years that BSkyB decides to take Microsoft to court over something Microsoft has been using for years. I actually suspect that BSkyB's profits are down so to gain extra money they tried to leech money from Microsoft. Of course there's not telling if that is true but that's my assumption on what happened.

Microsoft decided to just change the name of SkyDrive and settle with BSkyB out of court, but if I was Microsoft I'd keep fighting. A company as big as Microsoft looks very foolish being bullied by something like BSkyB and deciding to avoid "confrontation" because some kid wants to whine to their government.

Of course, I am pretty sure you can take what I just said to flip it around to argue a case against the US and some of the big companies located there. I don't care if people flip around what I say.