I kind of liked the old MSN Messenger and hung on to it for years, including when it devolved into Live Messenger. After the last update however, it has become completely useless. Any tips for a good instant message replacement (first one to say twitter gets slapped with a fish)? Needs to be something simple I can convince family and old friends to use too, so not too sophisticated to set up and use.

 

For various reasons I would prefer not to rely on Skype.

Facebook ?

 

Isn't everybody cajoled into that these days. Or try google+, theres got to be a messenger included.

Well Microsoft are killing the "Live" branding from all their products shortly. Won't make the resulting product any better but it'll no longer be Live Messenger.

Well, Microsoft Live Messenger without "Live" still makes it some kind social networking thing that they want to turn it into.

 

I hadn't thought about Google+ (I even created an account there when it was opened up to the public). Facebook is banned on my router firewall. I wouldn't touch it with a fire poker. Maybe Skype will have to do, even if I hate giving out those details to more people than I have to.

Aim still exists.

Aren't there messenger software that can run protocols of several different messengers? That way only you have to change, not your friends. Miranda and Trillian comes to mind (don't know if those still exist or work with current versions of the messenger protocol)

I'll try search for some of those names (Aim, Miranda and Trillian), thanks guys

Well, Microsoft Live Messenger without "Live" still makes it some kind social networking thing that they want to turn it into.

 

I hadn't thought about Google+ (I even created an account there when it was opened up to the public). Facebook is banned on my router firewall. I wouldn't touch it with a fire poker. Maybe Skype will have to do, even if I hate giving out those details to more people than I have to.

 

Google+ is great, and it has video chat built in.

Oh, but yeah, the programme you want is Pidgin, Gorth.

 

It uses all protocols. So you log in to one programme and can talk to all your MSN, Facebook, Google+, ICE, etc friends from what seems to be one account. It's also free and open source.

 

Linky: http://www.pidgin.im/

 

Supported chat networks:

• AIM
  
• Bonjour
  
• Gadu-Gadu
  
• Google Talk
  
• Groupwise
  
• ICQ
  
• IRC
  
• MSN
  
• MXit
  
• MySpaceIM
  
• SILC
  
• SIMPLE
  
• Sametime
  
• XMPP
  
• Yahoo!
  
• Zephyr
  

Edited May 6, 201213 yr by Krezack

Yeah, Pidgin is pretty awesome. I knew there was another one than those I emntioned, just couldn't recall it's name. But Pidgin was it, I used it myself for a long time.

That's exactly what I need

 

Off to convince a few individuals that they need to shift too. They share my sentiments on the current state of the MSN client.

(first one to say twitter gets slapped with a fish)?

So much hate for Twitter .... wait, I'll save you the time:

 

But yeah, that'd definitely not be what you're looking for. That Pidgin looks kinda interesting, I might check it out myself. I don't "do" chat anymore but eh, it might come in handy occasionally.

I've just recently decided to get back into IRC. It's pretty beautiful what channels you can find to suit your interests.

I kind of liked the old MSN Messenger and hung on to it for years, including when it devolved into Live Messenger. After the last update however, it has become completely useless. Any tips for a good instant message replacement (first one to say twitter gets slapped with a fish)? Needs to be something simple I can convince family and old friends to use too, so not too sophisticated to set up and use. For various reasons I would prefer not to rely on Skype.

I use google talk (via Adium, but pidgin supports it as well) to communicate with friends and family. Good client support and most people have a gmail account of some kind. Facebook chat is a vile creature, but remains the best non-phone way for connecting with tall blondes outside talking distance.

I use google talk (via Adium, but pidgin supports it as well) to communicate with friends and family. Good client support and most people have a gmail account of some kind. Facebook chat is a vile creature, but remains the best non-phone way for connecting with tall blondes outside talking distance.

I've installed it and added an MSN account. I might as well try adding my Google account to it. It's a bit trickier to convince family and friends to switch from the old and familiar to Google Talk though, although the new MSN Social network thing seems to have alienated most of them too.