Dive summary: 

• Microsoft has announced that it will officially begin winding down Hotmail, one of the first web-based email services, and moving users' accounts to its Outlook.com site.
• Hotmail will transition users seamlessly by allowing users to keep the @hotmail address, passwords, contacts, and everything else while being upgraded to a much less cluttered interface with Outlook.com.
• Similar to Facebook upgrades, Hotmail users will be allowed to opt-in to the upgrade or they can wait until the changes are mandated later on this year. 

From the article: 

“'For most of those people,' says Harry McCracken of Time, 'that should be a good thing — or at least, as forced transitions go, not a bad thing. While it’s impossible to underestimate the ferocity with which some folks prefer to clutch onto whatever they’ve already got, Outlook.com is a far better service than Hotmail, with a radically decluttered interface and useful new organization tools.'”