This is a great opportunity. Not just for the companies, but also for users. Think of it this way:

Best of Y! + Best of  WinLive/MSN = 1 great cohesive web platform

There's always been some features and goodies that one company might NOT have had on their site/service that the other DID, and the same vice versa.

With this acquisition, the best of things will merge, instead of more separate sites with their small competing features.

And not everything in Microsoft's internet offerings are so bad. WinLive has been improving in many areas that the competition still doesn't do as well, and some of the services are really actually good. With a little fixing, it would be great.

Some great things that Microsoft has shown are things like: PhotoSynth, Live Maps/VE, Popfly, Silverlight, Image & Video Search, Deepfish, among other small things.

Microsoft and every other tech companies know that the internet and the web is not only just the future, but NOW, and getting into it now is the only way to be sure there's such an opportunity to still be there.

I think most of the hate, has been directed to MS as a company. I think that's ridiculous. Google has their own users' privacy issues, Y! has been known to censor and get in trouble Chinese citizens, and that's just some of the small stuff.

And for those who think great things from Y! like Mail, IM, Flickr (especially), and pretty great web design is going to go away, it won't. They might get a rebrand, but I think that the sites themselves will still operate practically the same, and maybe even BETTER, with more new and great things to KEEP users there.

So stop being pessimistic, and look at the good sides to such an acquisistion.