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Microsoft Retiring Messenger, Replacing It With Skype
Entropy98 writes "Windows Live Messenger will be shut down by March 2013, after nearly 13 years of service, so Microsoft can focus its efforts on Skype, its recent $8.5bn acquisition. No word on whether users will be able to transfer their WLM accounts to Skype. 'According to internet analysis firm Comscore, WLM still had more than double the number of Skype's instant messenger facility at the start of this year and was second only in popularity to Yahoo Messenger. But the report suggested WLM's US audience had fallen to 8.3 million unique users, representing a 48% drop year-on-year. By contrast, the number of people using Skype to instant message each other grew over the period.'"
FTW
AOL IM finally won! Good job AOL!
Umm... Skype 6.0 already began integrating WLM and Skype accounts. See http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/24/3547644/skype-6-0-mac-windows-release
Hasn't everyone stopped using AIM/MSN and moved on to Gtalk/Facebook Messenger?
Keep on knockin'
https://robbiecrash.me
If I'm going to go with one big evil super corporation with ties to government agencies and concerns about privacy and yadda yadda, I might as well use the one I've used for years that is between free and super cheap and way less bloated -- Google Voice.
Not sure I like the sound of that.
The last thing I want is some election year halfwit or spammer suddenly popping up on my desktop to expound their views or blast me with unwanted content. Better be a big DISABLE button somewhere easy to find.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
There, I said it. Nobody I know uses Messenger anymore, but practically everyone is using Facebook Messenger. Some have basically replaced both IM and email with it.
Pidgin has no Skype support. You have to run real Skype to do Skype chat. There is a plugin to let you manage contacts.
I wonder if they will replace the Messenger integration on Xbox with Skype too?
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
>> No word on whether users will be able to transfer their WLM accounts to Skype.
From TFA: "To ease the changeover, Microsoft is offering a tool to migrate WLM messenger contacts over."
Given the accumulation of annoyances in Skype since MS acquired it (the whole ads thing, for instance) I expected they'd bought it to kill it.
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
Endeavors in mobile OS's aside, (Winphone8 / RT tablets are stillborn - Deal with it), Microsoft has been making some rather.. Un-microsoft like software moves lately.
They're getting rid of crap that nobody used or liked: .net - Not a supported framework for metro, winphone, winRT.
Dropping of the Live brand title - Which nobody liked.
Apparent abandonment of silverlight - Nobody liked it. Microsoft practically paid NBC and neflix to use it. Not supported in metro IE, winphone7, winphone8, winRT and never will be.
Apparent abandonment of
Their new stuff has cross platform support and is appears to be quite functional:
Live drive(Or whatver they're renaming it to) - Good, fast, low cost, apps available for andriod and iOS
Skype - Good, cheap, again cross platform apps available. Replacing crapfest windows messenger.
Hyper-V - Officially supports linux, drivers and support in main kernel tree.
Azure - Cloud platform officially supports linux.
And nothing of value was lost.
As long as they uncorporate sounds like a high-pitched cartoony UH-OH! and THWAP! into the new UI, I'm fine with it.
Was this change a request from governments to make spying on people easier?
In other news retires Skype, Replacing it with GoogleTalk.
I fought like the devil not to get on Skype, but it was company policy that I had to have it, so now I have it, and now they have decided it is TEH SUCK and are replacing it with Google Talk.
Trillian still works for me and that is what all my outside contacts use.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
It wouldn't surprise me if this move by Microsoft is designed to kill off 3rd party clients (many such clients exist for MSN Messenger, all efforts to produce one for Skype have so far failed for legal and/or technical reasons)
They have the best IM client on the market (well, the newest versions suck for their UI, but the older ones are great), and they go and kill them off in favour of a software that serves a completely different purpose. I could understand ceasing development and reducing support, but surely it's making them more money through ads than it costs to run the network?
Is "performing noticeably worse on old, low-cost, small-form-factor, or battery-powered hardware than the previous version" precise enough?
For one thing, the various IRC networks (EFnet, Freenode, Quakenet, Undernet, etc.) are not interconnected, so you have to be on the same network as whomever you're trying to contact.
I wouldn't be surprised if a key reason Windows Messenger hasn't been killed already is that Microsoft is waiting until their Xbox 360 Skype client is ready to go. I use my 360 for all my gaming and TV viewing, so it would be pretty convenient to be able to get my phone calls through the system as well, especially if the client was capable of multitasking which, unfortunately, some key Microsoft 360 apps (perhaps most notably Xbox Music Pass, formerly Zune Pass) are not.
Apparent abandonment of .net - Not a supported framework for metro, winphone, winRT.
I thought the .NET Framework was still the only way to make apps for Windows Phone 7.8.
Right now I am using pidgin to have my MSN contacts and my Jabber/gTalk contacts in a single list and a single application. Skype has always been reluctant (slight euphemism there) to let third party software connect to its network. I have no solution then, but I think that I will then help half of my list migrate into gTalk then.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Microsoft Lync (formally Office Communicator). Two advantages of Communicator are that SIPE project provides Pidgin support and that some corporate firewalls where Communicator is used also let MSN through the network.
Skype would be acceptable if it supported third party clients. I use facebook chat purely because it uses XMPP so I can connect to it via Pidgin.
Family members are wanting me to use messaging apps like Tango that require your mobile phone number to work and don't have a linux client, let alone pidgin integration. If they supported XMPP I might be interested. If I used SMS frequently (more than once or twice a week) I might be interested, but I'm not. SMS messages can sit on my phone unread for hours.
I wonder what the impact is on Lync? I would guess it's based on Messenger to some extent.
That's pretty much the only reason I still have Messenger installed any more.
IM systems rise and fall on the quality of their smiley faces.
AIM had an extensive array of smileys baked into the product just not easily accessible in the free version unless you kept a library of font sml tags that could be cut and pasted.
Microsoft had some nice smiles too but the best feature was flash based nudges with ufos and kid throwing snowballs.
Open source clients I have tried over the years suffer from low quality smiley faces and thrills.
I think moving forward we need to take control of the environment and move to a distributed domain based system where no one party controls the endpoints or can spy or collect your data.
There is no reason to have to endure ads, privacy violations or spying to communicate with each other on a network of PEERS.
With MSN going away and IPv6 coming online there is an opportunity to get things right, move everyone off of their central control crack addiction and like it.
I haven't needed an IM client for years since Steam hit critical mass among my friends. If and other friends, family, or work people need to message me they can txt or email.
MSN/Windows/Live Messenger has been a pain in the ass ever since Windows XP would end up loading each of those as separate clients to do the same thing.
I can't stand the fact you can't send message to people offline. Both parties need to be online and if you send a message and they are offline it will be sent to them next time you are both online, even if you are on invisible, revealing that you are in fact online. You can also tell if someone is online but invisible by simply sending a message to them, if it the message doesn't have a rotating circle next to it you can be sure they are online.
Also have you ever logged into another computer/device with skype after you've been chatting on a different computer? You end up getting some of the messages again on that device.
Skype is shit for text based chatting.
"Update to Skype. Your Messenger contacts are there. (Update now)" Apparently they are serious about moving from messenger to skype, so much so that they've already moved my contacts (or will do so immediately upon my pressing of this ad in Messenger ...).
Skype, Surface, Xbox, now a phone, Windows 8, maps, office, voice recognition, skydive, etc etc.
They hold many cards old Microsoft, now that they've starting to tie all these components into a single working organism, along side the sinking share price of Apple. The battlegrounds have been set and this is the first move of Microsoft's new borgification.
What is going to happen is this, we're going to start seeing consolidated product offerings of this calibre which will be focused in reshaping the lounge room, the office, the kids bedroom, the parents bedroom, they've only really left out the kitchen (maybe we'll see Sink OS at some point).
Please tell me amongst the FOSS lovers and Apple punces that dwell on this board that there's someone else out there can see what this minor but well placed move has done? Again, I'm not here to endorse any of this (as people keep thinking i do) I'm just using my own vision and personal experience to draw this conclusion.
MS has made poor moves in the past few years, yet for every poor move one could say it was a strategy to end up at this turning point.
They did this at the perfect time, they've allowed the Skype customer base to become comfortable with their new overlords and now the turn the dark side has become complete!
As for Facebook and it ties with Skype, I'd be very worried about what data gets shared between the two, in fact who in their right mind would of allowed such a partnership to take place ... wait wait ... yes Facebook's run by Mark Z ... I bet he didn't see this coming, so what now? slap a photo gallery app on the side of Skype and you have a better version of Facebook? Hows that 15 or so year "shelf life" on Facebook's platform looking now investors ? :)
I wish I could retire my msn account but unfortunately it's still the preferred IM system for most here in the UK.
Personally I have my own xmpp server running for IM. Not only is it open but it's also means that I'm in control of my contacts & know that, if it fails it's my own fault ;-)
If I need to talk to someone on Google Talk or other xmpp severs its no problem as its federated correctly so I'm pretty much covered.
I'm just wondering what those insisting on msn will do now or the chaos when this happens next year.
Java gaming nut - http://www.retep.org/ or for the rail http://uktra.in/
http://www.slate.com/articles/technol/technology/2012/11/microsoft_surface_why_is_the_new_tablet_so_much_worse_than_the_ipad.html
Indeed they have, the axis of evil is on the march. Pity it is the Italians, feared by none, their tech out of date before the first shot is fired.
I haven't used skype in ages, Xbox is the only gaming platform I don't own, W8 phones need to be insanely subsidized and when you google for "sales record W8 phone" you get pictures of thumble weeds.
Windows 8 is universally despised and it just a copy cat of Unity and Gnome in an attempt to alienate users.
Maps? MS has maps? Gosh... that should tell you something about it, honestly didn't know they had.
Office... they had that for over a decade, for matter they also have had phones etc etc for that long.
You are saying that MS has all the tools to lock people in. Yes. That is what everyone else thought... and then iOS and Android happened and showed that the lockin wasn't as tight as everyone thought. Rim got big because they locked you into exchange and surely that was essential. Where is Rim now? Where is the exchange lockin? GONE! Suddenly every boss has a macbook and insists the office systems work with it and screw MS attempts to create a windows only network.
I have no doubt that MS would love to see the parents posts brainfart happen for real but they had two decades to get it done, why should they succeed now when for the first time there is some serious competition and the computing landscape has changed forever?
No doubt oztiks grandparent was in that bunker, grasping his headless dead leader screaming "come on, we got the enemy right were we want them, we can win it!"
The battle has been lost, all MS can do right now is try to not loose the office desktop too.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Work is a living hell because this messenger. Thankfully no one is competent enough to use Skype. A major tool of micromanagement will be destroyed.
The original, simply called 'Windows Messanger' that comes default on XP Pro no-ads, and slim on memory.
Old Skype v4 Pro still works i hope...
http://www.oldversion.com/Skype-for-Business.html
What's the oldest working Skype version?
Does anyone knows any more ok IMs...?
o Portable
o Low-resources 1-2M RAM
o Encrypted by default
I've used Windows from 3.1 to Win7 and almost all versions in between, in all the time I've never used Messenger.
But I've read my share of messages posted with messenger and it's top posting backasswards behavior.
Used IE to download Netscape, but Netscape couldn't keep up with the newsgroups so gave Forte Agent .98
a try and been using it since, stopping at 1.93.
...back when they introduced chat within Gmail. Suddenly people who could not install chat clients at work due to IT policies were perfectly able to chat with other Gmail users. I used to be a big user of Yahoo messenger, ever since web based chat started hardly anyone I know uses it anymore. As for MSN/Live, the less said the better - old accounts seem to have been taken over for spam. It took several years for Yahoo to play catch up and offer chat within their webmail, but it's too late.
(This of course excludes IRC users and those who have their own Jabber setups).
I now use the open source Windows client Miranda IM - fully featured, has a 64bit version, supports all popular networks including Jabber and extensible via plugins.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
i removed Skype from my boxes, all Linux BTW, the moment Microsoft announced the acquisition. however, years later Skype still have not figured out how to delete the account. what idiots!