Some people, notably Mac and Linux users, cannot bear to say or hear anything nice about Microsoft and Windows – just as some people cannot find a good word for Sky.

This is daft. Microsoft has created huge market opportunities for selling PC software and hardware. Windows 7 will eventually be a good solid operating system, although it has clearly been rushed to market because Vista was so duff.

In six months or a year, I may even be able to do things like syncing a Palm Treo contacts list, using AOL mail, connecting an M-Audio piano keyboard and using a TV tuner. Things I used to be able to do with good old XP.

Sky’s digital satellite receiver design was astonishingly far-sighted. Even old boxes can be taught a seemingly never-ending range of new tricks. Sky News is a superb news channel.

But when Microsoft and Sky get together, something goes horribly wrong.

It happened when Sky first offered an online TV download service several years ago. Microsoft supplied a system that was a pig to use and was soon so heavily hacked that Sky had to suspend the service while Microsoft redesigned the software.

At the Windows 7 launch, the man from Sky was publicly roasted because Microsoft failed three times to provide the working internet connection needed to demonstrate the new Sky Player for Windows 7.

Then came the promise of Sky Player on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 games box. It looked like an exciting new way to sell Sky to people who either don’t want or can’t have a Sky dish – flat or basement dwellers, for instance.

A week after the Windows 7 fiasco on October 27, the press were invited to a London hotel at 11.45am for a 12 noon “prompt” demo of Sky Player on the Xbox. We were kept waiting and wondering until 12.35 pm, when the unfortunate man from Sky again had to admit that the system was not working, this time because something had gone wrong at the internet transmission end. Like the Windows 7 launch, it was a curiously amateur affair, with Skycrosoft people speaking without any clear name and job title.

Later that day, Skycrosoft put out a statement admitting a launch delay, but only sent it to people who had asked for it. Which reminds of the CIA’s standard line: “It wasn’t a secret, we would have told you if you’d asked.”

But Skycrosoft kindly loaned me an Xbox 360 to try with Sky Player. But, as of November 3, it still isn’t working.

As instructed, I went to the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, but could not find the option to download the Sky Player application. When I queried this, Skycrosoft came over all CIA again and admitted that “due to the technical issues... a phased roll-out is now taking place”.

Quite how the service can be rolled out piecemeal, rather than simply delayed until ready, hasn’t been explained. When I get Sky Player working on the Xbox, I will report in ERT magazine, but for now, here is a holding report.

The user first has to set up an Xbox Live account by giving an existing email address and choosing a screen name and an avatar animated character icon.

Setting up the account involves entering name and address information with thumb and cursor play, because the control pad has no letter and number keys. Paying for services by entering 25-digit codes from pre-pay cards will be second nature for gamers, but a tedious obstacle course for people who just want to use Sky Player or download movies and music.

All the avatars are trendy young kids or youths, which can be pretty embarrassing for us more mature users. If you can be bothered to find out how, it is possible to add white hair and wrinkles. There is nothing to stop an old man being a young girl. Yuk!

In the meantime, the system had sent me several emails asking me to confirm my email address for a Windows Live ID, then welcoming me to Window Live and asking me for a password. This puzzles Skycrosoft as much as it puzzles me, because Windows Live is the online service for Windows PCs and Xbox Live is supposedly completely separate.

The most worrying discovery is that although Xbox Live Silver membership is free, Xbox Live Gold membership is needed to access anything more than free Sky News. This adds a hidden charge of £40 a year to the Sky subscription (starting at £15 a month) for Sky Player viewing.

Sorry, but this is not yet looking like a simple way to get Sky without a dish.

Barry Fox