Microsoft to Shut Down Windows Live Messenger

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Microsoft is sometimes slow in laying to rest some of its older services, but not so MSN Messenger. Microsoft has announced that the company will shutter the service on March 15th for good. Of course Microsoft will not leave you high and dry, that’s a perk of the company purchasing Skype in 2011. Switch over and never look back. R.I.P MSN Messenger :cool:

In the past few months it has been encouraging users to sign into the Skype client with their Microsoft (Hotmail, Outlook.com, Windows Live, MSN) accounts in order to convert their accounts.
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A friend of mine has used both for years and uses the same email and password for both and his WLM contacts have never transferred over to Skype.

So as normal the change isn't going well for all involved.
 
Got that email a few days ago, very shocking. I have lot of old internet friends on MSN, some I don't talk to that often but they're there and I do occasionally say hi. Going to suck to start over. What's the next best thing these days, gtalk? I may as well switch to it now and put a message on my MSN to get people to add me to gtalk.
 
You can merge Skype and WL accounts then all your old MSN/WL friends are on skype
 
Skype has no alternative clients. There is only the crappy Skype GUI.
I hope people switch to "gtalk" instead, as it's actually jabber - an open, decentralized protocol. No one can close it, or even decide which clients are used.
 
I miss WLM. One of my x-gf who is married back in 2004 found me in Myspace days and we used WLM to chat along. Then all of the sudden. She was sending nudes :D
 
pankkake said:
Skype has no alternative clients. There is only the crappy Skype GUI.
I hope people switch to "gtalk" instead, as it's actually jabber - an open, decentralized protocol. No one can close it, or even decide which clients are used.
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You can use Trillian to login to Skype now.

But yes, I agree. Skype's UI is horrible if you want to just IM. I find it odd that MS is actually closing down the service, considering ICQ is still running(although highly integrated into AIM). Seems odd to me.


Also, the WLM service isn't actually closing on March 15th, 2013. Only it is baring users who from using the actual WLM program. In October, it will stop users from connecting via the XMPP method, and then in March, 2014 it will finally close down the MSP method for connecting to it, which will in turn close down the service.
 
This isn't good. I much prefer it over Skype for many reasons. The only advantage Skype has over it is webcams, though I honestly am not sure how the current versions compare as I almost never use that feature.

I'll switch to Skype (have had it for years), though I won't be happy about it. Especially since the new one seems to be getting a "Metro makeover", which will make the UI even worse than the current Skype.
 
I still use MSN for instant messaging with some friends who have it. I liked it because of Hotmail integration but as I understand it the Skype software sucks. Not sure I haven't used it myself. But I'm not interested in the change myself.
 
A friend and I tried using Skype for messaging a couple weeks ago. It was simply awful. Messages were often delayed and when they did appear they could do so completely out of order. Both Google Talk and Facebook Messenger work much better.
 
What i hate about this is i actually had 2-3 msn accounts and i used them all under Pidgin.. since i had old people who never added me on my new accounts..

Now i cant do that with Skype...i can only have 1 account and be done with it, i have a work account and a personal once before for MSN so now i have to put everyone on 1 account....

I still hate how skype sync's your messages you already have read on another computer and shows them as "new" messages when you sign in somewhere else..
 
Been using msn messenger over a decade. Edited the exe file to allow me to use 8.5 messenger so it doesn't force me to the latest. Sucks how its shutting down. Might just switch to trillian and use another service most likely. Don't really like skype that much.
 
-Dragon- said:
You can merge Skype and WL accounts then all your old MSN/WL friends are on skype
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I saw quite a number of complains on Microsoft Live forum reporting that their contacts are missing after transferring their WL account over to Skype, so I'm holding off for the moment hoping that they will fix whatever bug there is before I do it.

Still wished Microsoft wouldn't shut down WLM though, it really sucks having to use Skype.
 
I use it from time to time for chatting and remote connections. Seems like such a bone head move. Messenger is the better program from the sound of all these Skype issues.
 
I hate Skype and still use WLM (MSN for the ones in the know! LO). I hate Skype for its cruddy UI and bloatness and apparent use of my recourses without me knowing (nor being able to stop it). The only thing it has over MSN is bettery video and audio functionality and the desktop sharing thing is excellent. But having an in your face totally un-customizable UI and crappy IM is just pathetic. Thats why i always stuck with MSN + MsgPlus! combined with A-Patch or the other one that stopped developing years ago to get rid of the ads! Made MSN really compact and useable!

*sigh* fkrs!
 
yes skype is crap compared with wlm. hopefully ms will improve it but i'll be looking for something to replace it.
 
We use it in the office and across our world-wide organization. It has never worked well connecting to outside our network, but inside it works great....99% of the time.
 
richardatkinson said:
I tried using skype instead and it blows. I'm not happy about this.
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Me too. I hated it. No tabbed chat, no emoticons, no nothing. It's like MSN Messenger version 1 all over again long before it became Windows Live Messenger.
 
Conker said:
Been using msn messenger over a decade. Edited the exe file to allow me to use 8.5 messenger so it doesn't force me to the latest. Sucks how its shutting down. Might just switch to trillian and use another service most likely. Don't really like skype that much.
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if they shut down the service, then trillian will have no servers to connect to to use, otherwise people would just use messenger / live....
 
Monkey God said:
We use it in the office and across our world-wide organization. It has never worked well connecting to outside our network, but inside it works great....99% of the time.
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if your doing Skype calls you need to manually set each skype system to use a specific port for Voice chats in this case.
 
I only use WLM to see if I have new emails in my Hotmail, thats all. Still using 8.5 which was the last good version, all later versions of WLM were horrible. I've used Skype and I don't like it, looks complicated.
 
Meh, Skype's client is way to huge to use for just chatting with friends. >.< Oh well, it's a good thing I don't have any friends except for my cat and he doesn't really use his computer except as something to warm up his little kitty behind.
 
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