MSN to be shut down!

[junglejames]

Thanks microsoft. You have officially ruined that age old tradition of talking to other people. MSN was brilliant. So simple and easy to use. I still use it now, although ive noticed only about 2 or 3 people from my contact list ever appear online. So tried downloading skype. Eventually got there, although it is stupidly complicated. Then tried logging in using my hotmail details. Oh, now it tries to tell me the internet has gone to sleep. Thats funny. How come the internet is working perfectly well everywhere else then? Watch, i bet even this message sends no problem. So skype doesnt work as microsoft says it will. So I eventually lose touch with anybody on my msn contact list. Luckily id lost touch with most of them anyway, but now i lose touch with everybody. Congrats microsoft. You have a clever knack of always going backwards. Firstly with the introduction of Vista, now with this.

 

[Manchester77]

MSN :")
Remember when we all used to use it, and when we used to watch channel 5!! Aw nostalgia:')

 

[Yew]

Thanks microsoft. You have officially ruined that age old tradition of talking to other people. MSN was brilliant. So simple and easy to use. I still use it now, although ive noticed only about 2 or 3 people from my contact list ever appear online. So tried downloading skype. Eventually got there, although it is stupidly complicated. Then tried logging in using my hotmail details. Oh, now it tries to tell me the internet has gone to sleep. Thats funny. How come the internet is working perfectly well everywhere else then? Watch, i bet even this message sends no problem. So skype doesnt work as microsoft says it will. So I eventually lose touch with anybody on my msn contact list. Luckily id lost touch with most of them anyway, but now i lose touch with everybody. Congrats microsoft. You have a clever knack of always going backwards. Firstly with the introduction of Vista, now with this.

Thats the problem, most of my friends have migrated to facebook for the instant messaging needs, so the only people I see online these days are the few who still have MSN Messenger set to automatically open, and Yorkie.

 

[SS4]

As far as I'm aware, Skype will do exactly the same job, with all the same contacts etc.

Instant Messaging is an afterthought for skype; what happens if you choose to use neither voice nor video. There is no choice of font text for either yourself or your contacts and I suspect many other options in WLM are not in Skype.

From my perspective there is no open source client that can be used in lieu of the official client - this may change with time but for now if I wish to use Skype I would have to have Kopete launch the official app (thus requiring 32 bit libraries on an otherwise entirely 64 bit system).
It also means I'm in the same situation as I'm in regarding Facebook, I want to leave but doing so would be akin to sending myself to Coventry (and not on a Daytripper ) because they either don't care or don't understand.

Despite that it still beats Facebook chat

 

[maniacmartin]

From my perspective there is no open source client that can be used in lieu of the official client - this may change with time but for now if I wish to use Skype I would have to have Kopete launch the official app (thus requiring 32 bit libraries on an otherwise entirely 64 bit system).
It also means I'm in the same situation as I'm in regarding Facebook, I want to leave but doing so would be akin to sending myself to Coventry (and not on a Daytripper ) because they either don't care or don't understand.

Despite that it still beats Facebook chat

You can access Facebook chat with any XMPP client. Pidgin will do it, and I suspect Kopete will too. Having to have 32 bit libraries chewing memory for Skype isn't a problem for me, as I have the memory to spare (but it is irksome if you're OCD about that sort of stuff).

wget -O skype-install.deb http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-deb-64

Skype do have a 64-bit deb hidden away, but last time I checked it depended on 32-bit libraries too.

 

[Class172]

Windows Live Messenger is/was awful software.

I use Pidgin, which is far better. No adverts, it's not bloated, doesn't consume loads of memory or CPU usage, and it doesn't crash!

The only problem I have is that I use an MSN account with Pidgin. Does anyone have any suggestions to resolve that problem? What alternative account would you recommend that will work well with Pidgin? I can use Skype with Pidgin using a plugin but surely there's a better alternative as it is a bit of a pain to do that.

Yes, Pidgin is excellent and easy to use, thanks to you though for originally recommending it to me though.

 

[Ivo]

I see that Hotmail seems to have died a terrible, terrible death this morning, replacing it with an (admittedly more user-friendly) updated version of Outlook.

Pah. People used to choose Hotmail over Outlook because it was a squillion times better. The new Outlook interface is much better than before however...

 

[Searle]

I see that Hotmail seems to have died a terrible, terrible death this morning, replacing it with an (admittedly more user-friendly) updated version of Outlook.

Pah. People used to choose Hotmail over Outlook because it was a squillion times better. The new Outlook interface is much better than before however...

Do Microsoft not understand the phrase 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it?' Why did hotmail need to be changed, it worked perfectly fine before

 

[Crossover]

I ended up changing onto Outlook the other week (purely by accident) so it doesn't look like I could have delayed it much longer anyway.

It does seems to be better, but I don't mike the messaging feature (which seems to sit on top of the message preventing from accessing some stuff whilst the chat window is open) and if I scroll down the email list and tick one of the messages, it seems to have a nasty habit of jumping around and putting that message at the bottom...pain in the backside when trying to select a few at the same time.

Oh....and why can't they make the shift key work like regular Outlook...that you can select one block of messages, then select another block further down but with a gap in the middle

 

[317666]

I don't know about everyone else but I've still got Hotmail!

 

[Drsatan]

I seldom use my hotmail account which I created when I was 15. It lasted until I finished sixth form, at which point I decided to set up a Gmail account, with a more sensible email address. The main motivation to go with Gmail as opposed to Hotmail was that, allegedly, Gmail would not reveal your true IP address, instead revealing the IP address of your ISP's server!

Since then I've been using my Gmail account for all work related and personal emails, and I've turned on the 'import mail' function, meaning that all emails sent to my hotmail account are forwarded to my Gmail account. Most of them are junk mail or promotional emails from Microsoft so I don't bother reading them.

 

[83G/84D]

I don't know about everyone else but I've still got Hotmail!

and me.

 

[Crossover]

Seems like the transition process will be a gradual one over the coming few weeks. The time will come for you all eventually

 

[SS4]

I've got outlook but like Drsatan my hotmail email get imported into gmail

 

[Class172]

and me.

Me also, for now...

 

[bronzeonion]

Dissapointed msn is going to be axed, its by far the best non video method of instant messaging. It's been around for so long it has matured into a very stable and reliable way of instant messaging people. Two things Skype chat doesn't have: Imageshare which is incredibly useful if you cba to send/download a file and custom emoticons.

 

[90019]

It does seems to be better, but I don't mike the messaging feature

Does anyone know how to turn the stupid bloody thing off?
I absolutely hate the messaging feature on it, but I can't find any way to get rid of it or stop it connecting to messenger.

 

[yorkie]

Dissapointed msn is going to be axed, its by far the best non video method of instant messaging. It's been around for so long it has matured into a very stable and reliable way of instant messaging people. Two things Skype chat doesn't have: Imageshare which is incredibly useful if you cba to send/download a file and custom emoticons.

The protocol still works, and the client was awful, so you can simply carry on as normal if you use Pidgin, at least for the time being. You can also use Pidgin for Google Talk, Facebook chat etc. No adverts, no bloat, no junk!

 

[maniacmartin]

and custom emoticons.

The end of custom emoticons is a bonus in my opinion

 

[Crossover]

Does anyone know how to turn the stupid bloody thing off?
I absolutely hate the messaging feature on it, but I can't find any way to get rid of it or stop it connecting to messenger.

I am pretty sure I read somewhere (in trying to discover why the aforementioned "glitch" happens in the messaging feature) that it cannot be turned off. Thanks Microsoft!

EDIT: Looking, it seems I can turn off the Facebook aspect (which I ended up linking some time ago) but not the Windows Live part...best you can probably do is make yourself invisible

EDIT 2: It may be possible to block via the hosts file - see here (note I have not tested this so I cannot vouch for whether it will have the desired effect)

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The end of custom emoticons is a bonus in my opinion

I'm reminded of times when friends used to have custom emots on every single letter! On dial-up, it was more than a pain when you had to go through and "add" the emots (but didn't actually add them) to see what letter (or combination of) it was masking. At least I only used to have the odd few emots :P