contrary to what other definers have said, hotmail was not started by microsoft. it was started by an individual who had an idea of making a free email service available through the web. microsoft acquired it years later (1999, maybe). originally running on unix servers, it was moved to a windows architecture, which is why hotmail had less reliable service in the first year or two that microsoft owned it.
Alex: Dude, I keep receiving fresh spam all the time in my hotmail account
Ben: It's called Hot-Mail for a reason - it serves freshly cooked spam all day long.
Alex: My bad