Microsoft on Messenger for the Mac: it ain't dead!

This is good news. Of course when I heard Microsoft Messenger for Mac was dead the article also stated that it was getting replaced with something different. As for the one comment way up the list about Numbers confusing long time Excel users. I was taught how to use Excel when I was in school. I knew it inside and out. I then had to relearn everything when I switched to Microsoft Works. I've been using Numbers since October, when I switched to Mac, and it has yet to confuse me. I managed to do something today that stumped me but I undid it in no time.

Microsoft does make some good products. I refuse to use Adium or another third party client as I don't like them. It's a personal preference thing. I don't use AIM either... I use iChat now. On my Windows machine its AIM Pro. It's just conjuncture to argue over what software is better. It's just like Windows Vs. Mac. I hate Windows because of problems. Love Mac because of my lack of problems. Windows Live Messenger spoiled me... but Microsoft Messenger for Mac has spoiled me with a few features.

Just be thankful for whatever you use. As for this wolf... MICROSOFT MESSENGER FOR MAC FOR LIFE!

And you say ????? FOR LIFE!

See we are the same. Just different shoes.

Adium is good, but is not the best. I'm glad with the news about Messenger for mac being alive. I prefer it over adium, because of the GUI (keeps the old MSN Messenger look) and the custom emoticons.

I hope MSN 7 will be compatible with the newest MSN Protocol, supporting offline chat and all that stuff.

If they're calling it 7.0, does that mean this will still be missing features like offline messaging and roaming identity will still be missing?

@5 Adium just isn't an option for those of us who need to use corporate messaging at work. Also, file transfer in Adium is iffy at best.

Say want you want about MS software, there's something about the MSN Messenger that works for me vs. the other ways of getting MSN chat functionality.

I just recently did the iChat/Jabber/Psi integration and while it's kind of cool in some ways, it's very disorganized in many others (no easy grouping, adds a new entry into Address Book for each client, impossible to clean up users you've blocked). I know it's a work around, but it would be nice to have some organization.

Haven't tried Adium yet, so can't say how that works for multiple clients. Assuming it works pretty well, so I may try it here sometime.

Although before long, we'll have multiple multiple-IM programs installed, vying for your usage.

so, for you to do your job everyday, and not use VM stuff for it. You need to be able to pick single emoticons and place them in your client? ok.

I use MSN in iChat, through a Jabber transport. This gives me one system-wide list of contacts in the form of Address Book cards. Their (slightly altered - contact%email@jabberserver) MSN address becomes just another field on their card. This way, not only do I get to use the clutter-free iChat interface for all my IM (except for Skype), I can also quickly look up past conversations with Spotlight (and see their online status in Mail).

@ Huggins:

I know that, but you have to add them as packages, right? I like to be able to add just the few, cool ones that other people send to me. Ultimately, Adium doesn't include any features that makes it superior to Messenger in what its supposed to do: Chatting. Though Adium is seemingly infinite tweakable the very simple feat of Messenger, adding separate emoticons, is what makes Messenger the better choice in my (limited) world :-)

@ AJ:

"iWork replaces Office and then some"

Well, it might for some, but iWork is a long way from replicating Word and Excel. IMHO, the only app in iWork that improves over it's Office counterpart is Keynote.

"Parallels and Fusion are better than VirtualPC"

Probably not a fair comparison, as VirtualPC is not compatible with any Intel Mac, and is now legacy software.

Besides, Parallels and Fusion *do* let you run Microsoft software on your Mac- they let you run Windows!

"Flip4Mac handles anything we'd need WMPlayer for"

Again, WMP is legacy software and no longer available from Microsoft, so there isn't really a 'rival' product offered by MS for Flip4Map. In fact, MS promotes F4M on its own website.

"Safari and Firefox are better than IE"

IE hasn't been available for the Mac for years!!

I think the only real point in your post is Office- for some, i.e. non-power users, iWork works just fine. It's not fully compatible with Office however- certain documents won't appear as they do in Word/Powerpoint etc.

And Number's approach to spreadsheets is completely different to that of Excel, which can be confusing to long time Excel users.

Just because it's got Microsoft written on it doesn't mean the software is bad!

@ d.s.pederson

Not to proclaim Adium as the greatest thing in life, but, you can find a plethora of emoticons, including Messenger's on emoticons, on the Adium website:

http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&cat_id=2