Free IM Ride Over

Jack · Post by **Jack** » September 17th, 2003, 11:37 am

Well, most people know that MSN Messenger will no longer allow people onto their network that use old versions of MSN Messenger and third party clients without some form of compensation starting October 15th. Now Yahoo! has joined the fray. Starting September 24th, they will block users of all old versions of Yahoo! IM and third party clients. See <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112511,00.asp">here</a> for more information. At least MSN is willing to let third parties use their protocol for a fee. But Yahoo! appears to not care either way, and would rather not have third party clients use their protocol at all.

Jack

Jack · Post by **Jack** » September 17th, 2003, 12:00 pm

I wonder what all the Linux users will do now that they won't be able to use MSN or Yahoo!. More importantly, it looks like we're heading back to the days of just using one IM protocol. Since Jabber sucks and no one I know uses it, I suppose I'll just stick with MSN...

Jack

Lost User 8002 · September 17th, 2003, 12:15 pm

I use GAIM...
Most of my friends are on ICQ...

Post by **shadytrees** » September 17th, 2003, 12:42 pm

Hasn't Trillian already hacked the new MSN protocol? Can't they share among the free multi-IM community how to hack it? This technically makes sense. It's your network. Would you want other application taking advantage of it? BTW, has Yahoo/Microsoft made an official statement on whether to develop for Linux or not? The latter seems bleak but Yahoo might.

sharkius · Post by **sharkius** » September 17th, 2003, 1:06 pm

I think Trillian jsut renamed the last newest protocol with the newer ones name. I'm pretty sure Miranda has hacked the new one though. It'll get spread around soon enough.

hartlandcat · Post by **hartlandcat** » September 17th, 2003, 2:02 pm

I use Gaim as well, although I'll probably use Kopete when I finally get internet on my Linux computer. I have more people on AIM than most, although I do know some people that only go on MSN.

David James · Post by **David James** » September 17th, 2003, 3:41 pm

I don't know Jack - I'll probably continue to use <a href="http://kopete.kde.org" title="Kopete - The KDE Instant Messenger">kopete</a>.

banjobacon! · Post by **banjobacon!** » September 17th, 2003, 4:28 pm

Good ol' Kopete. not that I use MSN, but it's good to see that they're doing they're doing everything they can to make it a great product. Now if all the kinks get worked out... it will rule the world!

Or mayeb the kinks are becasue I have a slightly old version and can't upgrade til I get KDE 3.1.1, but I might as well wait for 3.2 final.

Hooded One · Post by **Hooded One** » September 17th, 2003, 6:12 pm

Trillian uses the newer MSN protocol, as does GAIM. I think they'll all have problems with the Yahoo service though.

This is why people should move to Jabber. The main AIM feature that people commonly use that it lacks is the direct connect/image sending, which is relatively minor.

Still, I don't expect it to be long before 3rd-party clients move to the new protocol.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » September 17th, 2003, 6:58 pm

Try telling your 14 and 15 year-old cousins to move over to Jabber, when all of their friends from school use MSN. Try telling your friends from work to move over to Jabber, when everyone they know uses AIM. It won't work, which is why Jabber will never catch on. It's a catch-22 unfortunately. No one uses Jabber because no one uses Jabber.

Jack

Hooded One · Post by **Hooded One** » September 17th, 2003, 7:08 pm

That's generally true, but the popularity of 3rd party clients can do a lot for Jabber. Eventually, people will get sick of their preferred client being constantly blocked and look for another solution. Especially now that Trillian has Jabber support (via plugin, but it's still there) seeing as it's the most popular 3rd-party client for Windows. Ok, it'd be even better if the free version of Trillian included Jabber, but I have no idea if this is planned for the next free release.

And quite frankly, the people who are most likely to adamantly cling to AIM are people I'm least likely to talk to.

shill · Post by **shill** » September 17th, 2003, 7:13 pm

Jack Comics wrote:It's a catch-22 unfortunately. No one uses Jabber because no one uses Jabber.

Just like how nobody uses linux, because nobody uses linux (and therefore, nobody develops for it)

Post by **shadytrees** » September 17th, 2003, 7:53 pm

Jack Comics wrote:Try telling your 14 and 15 year-old cousins to move over to Jabber, when all of their friends from school use MSN. Try telling your friends from work to move over to Jabber, when everyone they know uses AIM. It won't work, which is why Jabber will never catch on. It's a catch-22 unfortunately. No one uses Jabber because no one uses Jabber. :P

Try hacking their Windows un-patched computers with no firewall and no anti-virus because they don't know what security is and replace their AIM with Jabber. :-)

banjobacon! · Post by **banjobacon!** » September 17th, 2003, 8:25 pm

What I like about jabber is the email-type usernames. There will be no need to be sexyboy892. you can just look for a server that has no sexyboy on it.

daihard · Post by **daihard** » September 17th, 2003, 8:40 pm

David James wrote:I don't know Jack - I'll probably continue to use <a href="http://kopete.kde.org" title="Kopete - The KDE Instant Messenger">kopete</a>.

I will have to upgrade to KDE 3.1 in order to use Kopete. :cry: