MS determined to piss off IM users
I use a 3rd party MSN client. In the old days, I used Trillian, then MirandaIM and now Pidgin for the PC/Linux and Adium for the Mac. Both those clients give me the ability to use many different networks (ICQ, Facebook IM, Google Talk) at the same time using just one client. Plus I don’t have to tolerate the horrible adverts and pathetically large memory footprint of the official MSN client.
Today, presumably because they hate us, MS decided to change the protocol of their instant messaging network without telling anyone. This left many who use non-crappy clients without the ability to talk to their (usually less tech-savy) MSN friends. The reasons for MS doing this are unknown, but probably something to do with MS’s unwillingness to give any sort of control to OpenSource projects and those who believe that the MS products are inferior to the close-source alternatives.
Still, I have been given a fix for Pidgin at least (thanks Ed!). The plug-in based architecture of Pidgin allows a different MSN integration in the form of msn-pecan which, at the time of writing, allows previous service to be resumed. I think both Aidum and Pidgin teams are working on fixes for their clients. Now begins the work of getting my friends to use a rather more reliable IM network!
edit 12 Jan 9.10am: Due to the good people at Adium, it was a screw-up rather than an attempt to screw users. Everything is now back to usual it seems.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:42 am
What would you suggest your less technically gifted friends use for IM?
January 13th, 2009 at 10:12 am
The above.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Wait! Why did the 3rd party clients fail when MSN’s official client worked perfectly fine? 3rd party versions more robust my arse!
The MSN messenger protocol is very easy to tear apart if you have a packet sniffer. So why doesnt the developers of the 3rd party version do this? The mind boggles.
Also,
Loving the MS haters comments on this blog
http://adiumx.com/blog/2009/01/msn-rejecting-adium-132-connections/
January 13th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
As it says in the article that you linked to, “it was a server-side problem, which Microsoft has now cleared up”.
No one is claiming that the 3rd party clients have more robust connections when the proprietary protocol is changed without warning. Only Microsoft know what they are doing and they’re not telling anyone.
The developers are fully aware of how the protocol works, but it’s difficult to know what to do when it works in a different way every day. Bizarrely, they aren’t mind readers so can’t distribute new plug-ins before MS decides to change how the system works (or does not work).