Yeah I don't know what that dude was talking about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

First it became live.com

Where does "MSN" and "Passport" fit in this orgy?

Hotmail->Live->Outlook

Hotmail - young rebellious teenager with 2 MB of storage

Live - "experimenting" phase, "monopoly conviction? I do not recall!"

Outlook - Older YUP, approaching middle age, quite cynical, but still might change, albeit with reluctance and complete lack of enthusiasm

Passport was what is now your Microsoft account (aka .NET account, Live Account, etc)

For a while hotmail was MSN hotmail and Windows Live Messenger was previously MSN messenger. Now MSN is just Microsoft's portal page.