Passport is Rediculous

Mike Sax and Chris Kinsman think Passport pricing is lame. This isn't the first time a blogger has commented on this, and once again, I'm going to have to agree. I would use Passport for authentication all the time if it didn't cost $10,000+ to get up and running. What the hell were they thinking? I can implement my own single sign on service in a few hours, why in the world would I pay 10k+ to use someone else's? Like it is really a plus that my customers can seamlessly sign into their hotmail account from my web site. Give me a break.

[1] http://www.sax.net/live/?date=3/2/2004#at7:33AM

[2] http://www.vergentsoftware.com/blogs/ckinsman/PermaLink.aspx?guid=7370e02c-5aff-4505-8e41-51660fe1b79e

6 Comments

  • John: Using your hotmail account to log in to your enterprise system? That's hilarious. Who would take that idea seriously?

  • I agree with Shannon that I would be suprised if that were the case. Enterprises using MS software for their authentication services already have AD servers with LDAP support. Passport has always been billed as a consumer service (just look at passport.com). Even the developer docs make this pretty clear: "Microsoft .NET Passport is a suite of Web-based services that help make using the Internet and purchasing online easier and faster. Microsoft .NET Passport provides users with single sign-in (SSI) capability at a growing number of participating sites, reducing the amount of information that users must remember or retype." Doesn't sound too much like enterprise stuff to me.

  • Shannon, you can use any e-mail address (and a random password, not the one associated with it) with Passport. Where did you get the idea you can only use Hotmail? Oh yeah, you're a consultant, now I get it :)

  • As someone who's actually implemented Passport on a couple of sites now...I actually like the idea, and so do the site's users - everyone has a passport nowadays. Also rememeber that with WIndows 2003 you can tie in your Passport to AD (not sure why you'd want this, but you can...). Passport is pretty cool in lots of ways but the cost is a killer - WAY too expensive and the SDK just blows, it doesn't really even work properly in Windows Server 2003 (SDK 2.5 just does not install properly, you're stuck with the old admin client which means you can't change it to not use SSL...)

  • I'm really impressed!

  • Hello to all :) I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Help me, please

Comments have been disabled for this content.