On Sunday, Microsoft released new weblog editing software called Windows Live Writer. The blogosphere is abuzz, but your immediate reaction should be: Who cares?

Besides bloggers, though, the news has potentially broader implications for the software industry. In what has to be a first for a Microsoft Web product, most of the many early reviews for Live Writer are positive. Simply put, Microsoft's ability to design likeable Web tools shows that it may yet be able to extend its pre-Internet software dominance to a Web-centric world. "I think this really demonstrates that Microsoft gets the Web," writes Supr.c.ilio.us. "Even though they’re still building desktop applications, at least these applications allow them to publish stuff to the web. The way that they bridge the two really seems like magic."

Om Malik agrees. "It is not often I say good things about Microsoft products," he writes, "but with this free-blogging tool, I have to say: write on!"

Still, there are some detractors. Many complained that the new product was not Mac-compatible, while other critics felt it wasn't industrial strength: "Pleasant to look at," writes Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed, "but seemingly designed by people who have only seen photographs of real bloggers."