Do you actively use any IM standard aside from MSN?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 21 May 2007, 14:55

Do you actively use any other IM standard aside from MSN (aka WLM)? Ie ICQ, Yahoo, AIM.

ICQ is overly complicated for it's own good, and hardly anyone still uses it.
AIM is pretty popular still I'd imagine, no one that I know uses it these days.
Yahoo? I don't think was ever as popular as the aforementioned standards.

I used to use Trillian but gave up on it since most of the people that I know switched to MSN.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 21 May 2007, 17:03

I use MSN and Yahoo!, and am pratting about with Skype at the moment.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 21 May 2007, 18:08

I use MSN for Tech Support @ Work, and Skype to chat to the development side.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 May 2007, 18:22

IM Clients are entirely reliant on other people also using them, as 99.9% of people I talk to all use MSN I see no point installing anything else.

My uncle keeps saying I should get Yahoo I don't see the point, especially now Yahoo and MSN can talk to each other anyway. He uses Yahoo at his end, MSN at mine, sorted.

He also says I should get Skype but frankly again why? The same rule applies. I can easily believe it's better but with only one contact it won't be used much. I hear it's THE product for voice communication, as I don't do that it doesn't interest me.

For me it comes down to a large extent what the standard is? Microsoft Office love it or loathe it it's the standard. Adobe software, pretty much all their software is the standard. Nero Burning ROM, again the standard. There are exceptions (such as the web browser) though. Oh and Itunes too. I tried that, it wasn't for me. In most cases a product is the most popular for a reason.

Skype aside which I hear has lots more features I'd be surprised if Yahoo is much better than MSN anyway, unlike say your web browser where Firefox is much better.

I'm surprised anyone still uses AIM. AFAIK it's all Skype, MSN or Yahoo (more popular than you'd imagine, if you're a MS hater). Isn't ICQ a chat client, not IM client? The last time I used it it was distinctively different.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 May 2007, 18:28

Skype added.

Whose the biggest in the Apple and Linux world?

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 21 May 2007, 18:57

You've screwed up the poll lol, we voted for 'none of the above, just MSN!'

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 May 2007, 19:17

Better?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 21 May 2007, 20:47

I use Skype for VoIP, I don't use its IM facility.

bradavon wrote:Skype added.

Whose the biggest in the Apple and Linux world?

No idea. But the Mac MSN client is severely crippled, the functional equivalent to MSN 5.0 or 6.0. We have a USB Skype phone hooked up to the Mac.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 22 May 2007, 08:50

Odd way to phrase it...

I don't use MSN actively at all! I use it just as an aside to ICQ... and Jabber, which you haven't mentioned at ALL, and SIMPLE (which is SIP's IM implementation...) is my primary IM for work related stuff.

And I never will use proprietary hack Skype. Never. Ever... Ever!

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 22 May 2007, 08:54

Ever since I wanted to upgrade to the new version of MSN, it won't work on my computer anymore, nor will it re-install the old version. The only thing I can do is use the cheap online version, which is pretty lame.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 22 May 2007, 13:00

I used to use ICQ, but that went dead a long time ago. I still have it on my pc, but hardly anyone is ever online.

I now use MSN, although tbh I'm invisible 99% of the time. I just use it to chat with some people, or quickly ask someone a question ...
I certainly don't have a huge list of MSN-friends or something. And many I have blocked (like old classmates and all that).

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 22 May 2007, 13:30

I only use Xfire, I generally dislike being bothered by IM's.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 May 2007, 17:51

I've never heard of Jabber, probably why it wasn't mentioned

@ LD: You run XP right? As that comes with Windows Messenger 4.0, not go to be confused with Windows Live Messenger which is entirely different. Have you tried that?

Why cannot you not install Windows Live Messenger 8.1? Or at the very least MSN Messenger 7.5. You could try uninstalling it via Add/Remove if it's still there and then deleting the MSN Messenger folder. Have you also tried typing the error message exactly into Google and put it inside speech marks? I usually find that very useful.

gojensen wrote:And I never will use proprietary hack Skype. Never. Ever... Ever!

I'm pretty sure they all use proprietary networks. It's just in WLM8 MS and Yahoo agreed to share their networks.

I do here Skypes VOIP capabilities are THE best. I've no need for VOIP so haven't tried.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 24 May 2007, 07:23

Wrong; Jabber uses the XMPP open standard (I think even Google talk use this). And SIP implementations using SIMPLE is also based on open standards which for most uses is compatible with XMPP via simple infrastructure bridges. Jabber is probably more used in workplaces where they want to build their own IM service. At my company we used Jabber, and whenever someone new joins the company their IM information is automatically pushed to every employee. No need manually add contacts... and while jabber is implemented in local "pools" of networks, you can always just send messages to the other networks with no problem. I.e. you manage you own infrastructure and still be able to communicate with the rest of the world. In a few words, you have full control, unlike skype or msn.

Skype may be the best at voice out of MSN and it's ilk, but that's simply because the others suck. SIP gives me telephony quality (actually better...)... why? Because it's an internet "implementation of the plain old telephony system (POTS)".

Skype use ISAC and iLBC for p2p calls at around 16kbps. Which is basically sucky. ISDN telephony used g711 at 56-64kbps. SIP uses the same... (or any other codec you want to implement...)

With SIP I can decide which ports are used for what. SKYPE just manhandles it's way through my network, and for MSN voice chat to work I had to open up all UDP traffic from port 5004 and up! That's like 60000 potential security holes in my network. (Besides I find the GUI of MSN real crappy... it took me several minutes to set up a mic, and several more to actually start a voice conversation...)

With SKYPE my network would become a master node (or whatever they call it). I'm not interested in shuffling traffic for other skype users. And last I checked I had no way of controlling this. There are reasons skype have been banned from several educational networks around the globe.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 24 May 2007, 08:09

thelostdragon wrote:Ever since I wanted to upgrade to the new version of MSN, it won't work on my computer anymore, nor will it re-install the old version. The only thing I can do is use the cheap online version, which is pretty lame.

Just do a clean installation of Windows. You'd be surprised at the amount of a pooter's faggotry is solved by a clean installation.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 May 2007, 17:41

Jabber is probably more used in workplaces where they want to build their own IM service.

If we're going down that route we'd need to include Microsoft Office Communicator then.

In a few words, you have full control, unlike skype or msn.

Well to be fair you are trying to get WLM to do something it was never desisnged to do. MSN Messenger was never designed for a work environment, it's a home tool. Hence MOC was created.

If Jabber is really a work IM tool it really cannot be compared with WLM, it needs to be compared against MOC.

Skype use ISAC and iLBC for p2p calls at around 16kbps. Which is basically sucky. ISDN telephony used g711 at 56-64kbps. SIP uses the same... (or any other codec you want to implement...).

Suck it may do but I'd guess it's all home users need. I'd presume so as it's very popular. Home users would never need the technology you're talking about. The WLM VOIP capabilities maybe limited I wouldn't know I prefer good old fashioned telephone. I make so few voice calls I really don't care about costs, and even then if you look around you can get some very cheap to free packages anyway.

Sure maybe if I had the need to call internationally but I don't. What's the telephone Kbps? I bet it's low.

Otherwise thanks though for an informative post, not being sarcastic.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 25 May 2007, 07:13

EvaUnit02 wrote:I used to use Trillian but gave up on it since most of the people that I know switched to MSN.

That doesn't make sense, since Trillian is a multi-IM-protocol application and not a new IM system, and specifically since it does communicate just fine with MSN... :-/

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 25 May 2007, 08:07

gojensen wrote:
EvaUnit02 wrote:I used to use Trillian but gave up on it since most of the people that I know switched to MSN.
That doesn't make sense, since Trillian is a multi-IM-protocol application and not a new IM system, and specifically since it does communicate just fine with MSN... :-/

It makes perfect sense. What's the point of signing into four IM services at once if there's no one to chat to on three of them? Plus there's standardised features of the MSN client which weren't available in Trillian at the time I used it.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 27 May 2007, 19:20

Yeah like nudges.

And widgets and whatchamacallits...

Trillian 1 - MSN 0

(My kid uses MSN, for the above annoyances only... he's so sad when his little MSN tells him Daddy can't see his crap

)

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 May 2007, 23:18

Nudges are annoying as is bloody MSN flashing in the task bar until you click on it. Man I wish I could stop it flashing. It's easily the most annoying thing about MSN Messenger.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 27 May 2007, 23:26

If you find nudges annoying, disable them.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 28 May 2007, 00:34

Addons:- A-patch + Messenger Plus Live. The formula for winning.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 May 2007, 11:56

Correction, people who over use them then

. Any ideas how to stop MSN from flashing? I think it's a Windows thing but boy it's annoying.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 28 May 2007, 12:54

bradavon wrote:Correction, people who over use them then . Any ideas how to stop MSN from flashing? I think it's a Windows thing but boy it's annoying.

Do a fresh installation of MSN and then apply A-patch. The option you want to disable is gleam notification I think.

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