First Look at Live Mesh and Live Framework -- Campus Technology

LAN, WLAN, WAN, Intranets and Internet

First Look at Live Mesh and Live Framework

By Kathleen Richards
11/03/08

David Treadwell, Microsoft's corporate vice president of the Live Services Platform, announced the new Live Framework during a keynote address at last week's Professional Developers Conference that addressed Windows 7 and other tools and technologies that will make up the front-end infrastructure of the company's unfolding Software plus Services strategy.

The Live Framework is described as a "uniform" way for developers to program against Live Services, which are integrated with Microsoft's Live Mesh platform. The new framework, released as a community technology preview (CTP) last Monday, is designed to support multiple programming languages, devices, and platforms.

Announced in April, Live Mesh is downloadable PC software that extends Windows to the Web to enable synchronization and sharing of data, apps, people and devices. Microsoft is releasing the first open beta of Live Mesh this week. It will offer limited availability to Mac and Windows Mobile 6 clients, according to the company.

"The Live Mesh application is built completely on top of Live Framework," said Ori Amiga, group program manager of the Live Developer Platform at Microsoft.

The Live Framework is composed of the Live operating environment -- similar to the .NET CLR -- and a programming architecture that includes a resource model and managed libraries, specifically, the Silverlight Kit, the .NET Kit and the AtomPub .NET Library. The CTP is supported on Windows XP, Vista, Internet Explorer 7, IE 8 and Firefox.

Live Services, which are designed to handle user data and app resources (Live ID, Live Messenger, etc.), are part of the newly announced Azure Services Platform for Microsoft's Web tier. The Azure Services Platform sits on top of Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud operating system, which was unveiled at PDC on Monday.

Developers can sign up for Live Mesh provisioning here, and go here for the Live Framework CTP, which requires Visual Studio 2008, .NET 3.5, and Silverlight 2.

About the Author

Kathleen Richards is the senior editor of Redmond Developer News and Application Development Trends, online at ADTmag.com. You can contact Kathleen at [email protected].

E-Mail this page

Printable Format

Featured

Microsoft Rolls Out AI-Focused Windows 11 24H2

Windows 11 version 24H2, the latest major Windows 11 update, is here with a host of AI-focused enhancements.
Campus Technology Announces 2024 Product of the Year Winners

Thirteen companies were selected as winners for their product achievements.
Reports Note Increasing Threat of Nation-State-Sponsored Cyber Attacks

A bevy of new cybersecurity reports point to the continuing problem of nation-state-sponsored threat actors. The primary culprits have long been Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, which all show up in recently published reports from Microsoft, IBM, Tenable, and Fortinet.
Copilot Gains Actions Feature, New Agents in Latest Update

Microsoft has announced new and enhanced features for Microsoft 365 Copilot, including Copilot Actions, new AI "agents," and a Copilot Control System.