Microsoft holds off on shooting Windows Live Messenger Microsoft's firing squad has put off the execution of Windows Live Messenger, leaving it sitting on death row for another few weeks. Redmond is in the process of ditching Messenger in favour of Skype Chat and was due to throw everyone off the older messaging service on 15 March. Instead, users will be compelled to switch over …
the end of messenger can't come quickly enough.
messenger was bad anyway - why would anyone want everyone and their dog to know you were on line?
think of all that crap extra internet traffic - "i'm here - woohoo!"
very sad!
from memory, messenger was bad but even more bad as a hacking tool and component of other hacks.
probably still is today - maybe that's why its demise is delayed (let's hope its not the spooks having trouble migrating?!
Live Messenger has been a good tool and it will be missed.
The Messenger "no history option" does exactly that - unlike Skype which requires an explicit logout before deleting a chat history. The latter also has an annoying habit of suddenly popping up a conversation window that is days old - especially if you use it on more then one PC.
MSN privacy options used to be very good - whereas Skype still produces "fishing" attempts at contact. Presumably that is via some Skype public information that can't be hidden. Unfortunately MSN recently went down the path of FaceBook - and opened up contact information to effectively "friends of friends". Presumably Skype will also implement this type of "social" feature. It makes it impossible to put friends, acquaintances, hobbies, and work into totally insulated compartments.
Logging in to Skype as a Live Messenger user inhibits the automatic login feature after a reboot.
Hmm, taking into account figure cooking and wikipedia's legendary innacuracy, " In June 2009, Microsoft reported the service attracted over 330 million active users each month".
Is hardly obsolete nor hardly used.
I like mesenger, i dont like skype. I like having no choice even less.
Dear MS, i love you, i always have done BUT SHIT LIKE THIS MAKES ME ANGRY and an angry windows user could possibly start looking at alternatives. Get shut of S.Ballmer. He is a 'tard....
I prefer Messenger as well.
Skype just winds me up.
I use it to chat to the good lady when I'm working away. It's simple and works most of the time. We have a fixed IP at home and I would love to find a alternative Video over IP system that connects directly without the need of a controlling server etc. If anyone can suggest one.
"Someone forgot to unbunch her panties this morning...
It's simply obsolete, and was hardly used anymore, so it's being killed off. No Black Hats needed."
Huh? There are about 300 million active users on it! How is that 'hardly used any more'?
MSN is far superior to Skype for IM. It has far more collaboration tools for example.
If by 300 million active users, you mean to include all the people who use hotmail and get logged into messenger willy-nilly because the damn thing resets every once in a while and no-one hardly notices, then yes, I'll take your number. Actually using messenger as a IM client? I don't think so.
World + dog has moved on to more current offerings such as (standalone) Skype, which was why they were bought in the first place, Teamspeak or equivalent for gaming/group purposes, and if all else fails even FB chat.
As far as community and use is concerned, messenger has become a desert, and as such is slated for the ax-man.
I suspect you're mixing up messenger and Windows Live Messenger.
Messenger was the thing that used the LAN messaging service and messages had to be sent from the command line... and became rapidly useless due to spam and/or the prevalence of NAT.
Windows live messenger is/was that thing formerly known as MSN messenger.
MSN was good, I used it a lot. Skpye is ugly and painful and horrible. i imagine microsoft have lost about 90% of their users by doing this. Of course they don't care as they weren't making money off this anyway, and it's worth that loss to promote skype a little bit where they can make money.
It's very sad though.
I knew a lot of people using msn. They are all using facebook chat now instead. Not skype.
Im trying out Tango as it will run in my Desktop and my smartphone, it seems far less prone to those annoying stranger requests I get on Skype.Most of my MSN list are also on yahoo so we will just move there, I still have ICQ and AIM in Adium too (or Trillian on my remaining windows laptop screen) I'll run it while it works but when they switch it off I will move off of Microsoft services for most of my chat, I may even drop Skype as that is becoming a buggy annoyance, I don't do facebook so it isn't that which has driven me out.
It all helps me to move further and further away from Microsoft - even my dyslexic sister is now running a Linux based machine and wont be seeing a windows phone anytime soon. Own goal by Redmond - again. Maybe they have caught the Nokia deathwish virus.
...it has a low bandwidth "overhead" (allowing it's use over a laptop and mobile tether connection via 3G), it allows you to block one or more contacts, (so you can stay "offline" to those you don't want to "appear to") and it has a nice range of options so you can save your chat history, add a few extra "emoticons" to your library (which are great to use when chatting)...
Skype on the other hand is a VOIP client with "chat" added on.....difficult to use and not worthy of serious consideration for "chat" - maybe dropping MSN is to appease the shareholders to justify M$ hefty $8bn investment....??
Either way, there's now room for an alternative to MSN...I wonder if Yahoo Messenger is still going?
On Mac OS X I'm still using the unbowdlerised (pre-Ebay) version of Skype which has a sensible interface and does all I need. A few years ago I install Messenger for Mac and found it also usable even if I didn't use it much because most of my contacts were already on Skype. One thing I did discover about Messenger that I liked is that it can connect to Lync and, as I have customers on Lync, find this pretty good. So, I was sort of looking forward to great convergence. However, the new Skype client is a huge disappointment: firstly, it keeps trying to promote calls with it to me - I've got a phone flatrate and find phones easier to use so no thanks - but what is really the crowning turd in the waterpipe is the need to switch between Skype and Microsoft accounts and even then still not be able to talk to Lync. Oh, and Microsoft logins are exclusive so logon on one device and you're logged out of others. This is so much fail in one product that I think we've found the team that was previously working on IE. And that was after spunking, what was it, USD 8 billion? on the company. Way to go, Stevie B!
Fortunately, I did my tests in a Windows VM so my Skype 2.x is still pristinely usable. I guess it's only a matter of time before Microsoft starts trying to wind down the old Skype logins (makes sense for them). In which case I think I will move to Wickr assuming it ever becomes available for anything other than the I-Phone.
The advantage Messenger has over skype is that you can chat from within hotmail without having to have the client installed on the PC meaning you can log onto any computer and use it without wondering if the client software was there. So unless Microsoft develop a web chat version of Skype to replace messenger in hotmail it will be a step back for instant chat rather than a move forward.
i have swapped, and its pants, list of complains.
1, like someone else i get chat messages 4 days late.
2, i dont get notice that i have emails in my hotmail.
3, my groups for my contacts are all gone so all the contacts i have are now in one list. so i dont know who some folks are related to.
4, they use different names in skpye - most of my contacts had "game names" now i have their real names - and thus dont have a clue who half of them are.
5, there is so much rubbish on the skpye screen - msn i could make small and just have a list showing. now i have to have adverts and other rubbish.
6, like above it does not clear out history.
MS should have created a new version of the Skype client and dual branded it to help users get used to it. It should have contained a fair chunk of the Messenger chat features as well. As it is they are forcing their users into a downgrade where they lose useful functionality.
It will also be impossible for me to use it for personal use and work use at the same time. I use a work email address for Skype and a personal one for Messenger. I have no interest in merging them. The new Skype client should allow multiple logins at the same time to manage this scenario.
...That the delay is caused because no one bothered to inform the XBox department. It seems XBox sits completely on Messenger functionality when it comes to online playing and all other specific XBox online activities.
One department apparently had no clue what so ever about the other department and was >< close to simply wrecking it.
I don't know if this is true or not, its a rumour I've picked up from multiple directions within my surroundings, but it is the kind of rumour I consider to be very plausible.
Last week we saw how Bill Gates wasn't so happy with the strategy on the mobile market. Well, here's another disaster in the making; while Messenger can be used on the Windows phone even when its locked, Skype cannot. I've tried Skype on Windows but ugh...
btw; Has Microsoft ever stopped to think about how company employees might feel about this? After all; Messenger is basically part of the OS whereas Skype is an 'evil' third party program. Ok; maybe being I'm a bit silly here, but there are plenty of companies where Messenger is allowed partly because of this.
Hint: not all Messenger users will switch over to Skype. They will find alternatives.
VOIP calls? There are alternatives to Skype too.
RIP Messenger a.k.a MSN. So long and thanks for the memories.
Now it's time to move on to a non-Microsoft offering.
Many of us have contacts that fit into distinct categories work, close family, friends, acquaintances etc. We need completely different spaces for all these, as separate as possible. This idea of bringing our whole lives under one roof is totally flawed. Microsoft and Skype would be far better off addressing this kind of fundamental rather than rushing to merge everything together.
Like many, I don't use MSN a great deal but it fills a gap that Skype doesn't replace.
What idiot had the idea to kill MSN before Skype was ready to replace it? Microsoft really need to do something about their internal turf wars if they want to retain the user base built up over years.
I love Skype as a video chat client, though it's ever expanding and bloating UI seems to forget it's just that... a chat utility... not a full screen app that I want opening a dozen windows, reading me the news and fetching my slippers
And much as I hated Messenger (I used Digsby by preference until that got EOL'd) the Skype IM user experience makes me want to go back to sending letters (and don't get me started on the whole Facebook integration nightmare and the inability to have selective statuses for different networks or groups of people)... and now they want to integrate it with Lync so I can never appear offline to my coworkers lest I miss an IM or call from my family?!
I hope they're spending the stay of execution getting a new version ready that starts to address some of these warts because while they were the de facto winner for a while there are now alternatives like Viber and Tango, Facetime, GTalk/Hangouts that make switching more of an option
At work we use messenger because it allows our sales and purchasing to multi-task as well as allows us (communicating in a quicker way than email for example) and above all else we could easily store logs on a central server so we have proof of whats been said, it also didn't have to have the calling facility forced on everyone.
However with Skype, phone/video calls are unblockable on a network level and only doable on a machine level, there's also no way of centralising messenger logs for storage and best of all was microsoft's response to asking if it could be done, was No, why would you and we have no intention of even entertaining the idea?
I love Skype, it's great for serious video and audio communications. I love MSN because it's great for one-off communications.
I don't want to use Skype for the later, I use MSN for "acquaintances" so they don't get mixed up with proper friends and family on Skype. MSN isn't perfect but it does a job and so did Skype until I was forced to integrate my accounts, now I can't delete any of the MSN contacts that I no longer require and am forced to add anybody new as a Skype contact. Grrr!
I can see myself not using either in the near future, thankfully many of my close friends and family have iPhones/iPads/iPods so I can use Facetime instead. Goodbye Micro$oft!
I have two children who were avid MSN messenger users until about 4 years ago when they started making much more use of Skype messaging , especially after the went to university, and Facebook chat as their means of communication to family and friends so the drop from 300 million downwards over the last three years is not at all surprising to me based on my own family experience.
Yep, Messenger was pretty good way of keeping in touch but I personally prefer Skype as I can choose to IM, Voice Call or Video chat from the same tool.
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