RIP MSN Messenger, kthxbai. Microsoft finally flicks on KILL SWITCH in China Microsoft's users in China have been told that the firm's MSN Messenger product will be axed at the end of October - spelling the end of the road for the 15-year-old IM service. The software giant already confirmed it was retiring the product - latterly known as Windows Live Messenger - in other regions of the world back in …
There are many alternatives to Skype. Just do a simple search and you'll see. Some great, some not. I won't recommend one because it really depends on your hardware, operating system, carrier and your intentional usage. You wont know until you try something though, and that is the biggest problem, most people are too lazy or uneducated to do so. I have to laugh because my workplace uses Skype exclusivlly ,but its constantly dropping calls, one way hearing or simply not connecting. One meeting was about thinking outside the box, and it was dropped halfway through. When it was suggested to think outside the box and try something different, the idea was shot down immediately. Sooooo.....
"Soooo what should we be using... If not Skype?!"
I ask exactly the same thing of the "don't ever use Skype" crowd, especially when the user asks, "will all my friends on Skype still be able to talk to me when I use XYZ?" "No?" "Not an option."
For good or bad, Skype has momentum, and the "don't ever use Skype" proponents never think of that.
"For good or bad, Skype has momentum"
I like Skype and use it, I just wanna say, that every time I've ever seen people start to bring up the "momentum" defense it was right before a brand or technology hit the ground and died. I actually made an investment decision once where I bought stock X when I noticed financial journalists describing their opponent as having "momentum" and I made a fair bit of money. Messenger, MySpace, Real Player, SGI and scores of other dead brands were said to have momentum right about the time they were getting their asses kicked off the market. Planets have momentum. Products have life cycles.
Even before MS bought it, it was getting broken.
It's been unusable on many Win7 machines (recent ones).
Since June MS started killing Skype log on of older Windows Clients.
What alternatives to Skype? Loads but some are too complicated for Consumers (Teamviewer) and others creepy (Google & Facebook). Others are poor
QQ is better functionality than Skype, and I worry less about Chinese than Google/Facebook/Microsoft/NSA spying on my messages.
Only gripe is that "Search" only searches your EXISTING contacts. You click on an Icon with a Cluedo Head and + to add a Contact, then click on new form to "find people you might already know". Also nickname search failed. But QQ ID number worked. The Image Caphta thingy on International Sign up page doesn't work, but using English on the Chinese site Signup page (which is presumably why the blog post has two URLS / Domains) does work.
BBC had this MSN news too
Probably redirects to bbc.com outside UK.
I still have IRC but that's very limited. I used MSN and ICQ a million years ago before using Teamviewer and Skype. QQ seems fine.*
(* Can I have my free stuffed Penguin now?)
MS also killed SkypKit recently, thus stuffing all those people running multi-im-network clients like Trillian. There are workarounds; but they all involve running a full-fat copy of Skype in the background.
The real problem is that Skype is like bloody Word in that you have to use it (or at least maintain some sort of compatible presence) because everyone else is using it.
They have been forcing upgrade to the latest versions on some platforms.
(This is annoying since the latest versions have a horrid UI on the Mac, and can't do video to older versions, they also, for me, show people as online, who aren't)
They have sent notice that they are dropping support (and presumably connectivity) for older systems, including Tiger and PPC macs, Symbian and (ironically) Windows 7 phones.
So what is the odds that soon (perhaps the first anniversary of support ending) that it won't work on XP too?
(I have read that blocking skype's access to ui.skype.com is a work around)
with messenger.
Excepts MS's constant need to fuck us users about whilst chanting the old "but WE'RE telling you its better mantra".
YOU might be telling us that MS but the USERS are telling you something completely different and you just don't seem to be able to get it through your ever thickening skull.... Sometimes, change is not good....
You constantly invent ways to push even die hard windows users (me) further and further away from either, A: Legally purchased MS software or B: towards a totally non-MS path...
Keep going....I only have a finite amount of MS love.......
As all of my contacts used pidgin instead of Microsoft's crappy client before the end of live messenger, we just kept using it through reports of it closing down. thus far the network is definitely still alive to this day. I dont know if the skype client is using or not, but I suspect they wont turn off the backend network in a hurry. as all that data that goes through it has to be worth $ to them.
It's a common fallacy that companies build, support, and retire/replace products based on the potential market as defined by the perceived need for the product by the users. Users believe that these products are built for their use and benefit.
WRONG - Products are built to make the company money and when something with more income potential comes along - yes Microsoft thinks that's Skype - then other "competing" products in the company will be abandoned. All companies do this and all users believe otherwise.
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