Windows 7 Microsoft kills Windows Live OneCare and

My ZDNet blogging colleague Ryan Naraine includes a post explaining how/when/why Microsoft is discontinuing its compensated Windows Live OneCare subscription safety service. Microsoft is touting a brand new, free of charge security company, codenamed “Morro,Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010,” and due in the second half of 2009, as OneCare;s successor.The Microsoft press release and statements on Morro offer some other interesting tidbits. Microsoft is positioning Morro as targeted at “smaller PC form factors” and “emerging markets” (sounds like netbooks/OLPCs). The Morro safety services “will have a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs,” the Softies say.“Windows Reside OneCare will continue to be sold for Windows XP and Windows Vista at retail through June 30,Office Pro 2010 Key, 2009.” Looks like Microsoft is pretty confident Morro will be done by the start of the second half of next year, at the latest.Morro will be a standalone download for XP, Vista and Windows 7,Windows 7 32 Bit, according to Microsoft. If Windows 7 does RTM by Q2/Q3 of 2009, as many are expecting, Morro should be perfectly timed to coincide Win 7;s arrival.Microsoft;s Equipt — which Microsoft launched in July of this year — is dead and Microsoft is having to go back and pull copies of Equipt from the channel (Circuit City in the U.S. and DSGI in the U.K.). Microsoft is offering customers a pro-rated refund for the service and allowing purchasers to keep Office Home & Student edition for cost-free forever, Microsoft officials said.Windows Reside OneCare for Server — which Microsoft began shipping on November 12,Office Home And Business 2010 Key, also is dead. A corporate spokesperson confirmed this with the following statement: “Microsoft will continue to support Windows Live OneCare for Server on SBS 2008 through June 30,Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate, 2009. Windows Reside OneCare for Server subscribers will be supported for the duration of their subscription.” I am really curious what happened here. Microsoft just disrupted a lot of its businesses in order to pull its compensated Reside OneCare services and replace it with a no cost Morro one. I asked Microsoft when the decision was made to kill OneCare and got back a no comment.Anyone have any theories as to why Microsoft made this change?Update: In case you were wondering what a “morro” is, according to Wikipedia, it;s a “rocky outcrop in the shallow waters of a harbor, often round in shape and sometimes very high.” “Rocky” may be the operative word here….