I had to lookup skydrive to find out what it was. DropBox is known, skydrive isn't. Even though it is a Microsoft product that doesn't guarantee success. What's the user experience? How is it growing? Are people recommending it?

You're right, competition does matter. It matters because it pushes people to constantly create improvements and better products.

However, the point of the article is to not fear competition to the point where you don't take action.

Also, even just thinking about using Skydrive on my Ubuntu netbook is painful. Dropbox is truly cross-platform and painless.

I should explain further. I started out with Dropbox and am almost at the limit. I don't have disposable income (startup founder). So I started looking for alternatives - that's when I discovered Skydrive.

PS. Have you tried Zumodrive - it's almost exactly like Dropbox.

Is $10/month disposable income? I spend more than that on coffee.

"I spend more than that on coffee."

LOL. Every web service is pitched to me at "less than the price of a cup of coffee a day"

Here are a few - 1) LinkedIn Business account 2) Emusic subscription 3) Adobe PDF writer 4) Freshbooks and the list goes on...