nice article :MSN Messenger 7: consolidating Windows' lock-in strategy?

[ubuntu_demon]

Hi,

There's a nice article about msn at osnews. I concur that linux needs a better msn client.

MSN Messenger 7: consolidating Windows' lock-in strategy?
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=9413

[refused777]

Ubuntu Messenger, anyone?

[trygvebw]

Hi,

There's a nice article about msn at osnews. I concur that linux needs a better msn client.

MSN Messenger 7: consolidating Windows' lock-in strategy?
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=9413
I think GAIM is quite good - and with the VV extension it becomes even better. :D

[Perfect Storm]

Gaim is great no doubt of it, but the author of the article got a point. I don't care how the gaim looks like or have fancy options. The basic I use it for is having contact with friends/family/etc. But eye-candy is an ultimate weapon to gain teenagers/young people to use a specific program and ease of use.

[BWF89]

Who uses MSN messenger? Everone I know uses AIM...

GAIM is released under the GPL right? Why don't a bunch of you guys (programmers) from this site get together (collaborate over the net) and write your own IM program?

If your a good programmer and you don't like what's being given to you, you have no right to complain the the world of Open Source...

[trygvebw]

Who uses MSN messenger? Everone I know uses AIM...


I guess MSN is more popular in Europe than in the US. :D

[ubuntu_demon]

Who uses MSN messenger? Everone I know uses AIM...

GAIM is released under the GPL right? Why don't a bunch of you guys (programmers) from this site get together (collaborate over the net) and write your own IM program?

If your a good programmer and you don't like what's being given to you, you have no right to complain the the world of Open Source...
i'm not complaining. I like Ubuntu and I like amsn. But I think the author has a point.

[Quest-Master]

Everyone I know uses MSN. :\

I really think though that Gaim needs more of MSN's features. I have to reboot into Windows for things like talking to my family on webcam across the world and such.. can't do that with Gaim. :(

[Perfect Storm]

What about amsn? http://amsn.sourceforge.net/modules.php?name=About_Amsn I don't know if it support webcam but perhaps there's a plugin that do it.

Screenshot (http://amsn.sourceforge.net/shots/CVS_amsn_shot.jpg)

[jakeslife]

I've never found a linux equivalent of a messenger that supports web cam, through Yahoo, MSN, or anything else.

[darkoptix]

Gaim is great, and from that screenshot, amsn looks great too.
I'm a teenager, and I think MSN Messenger sucks, but i use it on Gaim, and it works great. I still have all the features i used in MSN. For webcam, i don't think much works for IM clients.

[caiphn]

I'm a total newbie, I just downloaded AMSN and then

sudo apt-get install amsn

so it went through a bunch of stuff.

So I check in Synaptic and it says it's installed.. however.. how do I start it? Sorry for the dumb question, I'm just really new to this.

[Adrenal]

Open the terminal, type in amsn, press enter

[caiphn]

Gotcha. Is there a way to make a link to it on the desktop? Like for example, I did that and pointed it to usr/bin/amsn and it worked, however I have to manually locate the PNG icon and everything? Seems kinda long winded just to install a link to something, or is there a simpler way around this?

[illek]

i'm not complaining. I like Ubuntu and I like amsn. But I think the author has a point.

I concur. I use all three Messengers (AOL, MSN, YAHOO) with GAIM and the use of those Messengers on their native OS (Windows) is light years ahead of GAIM, Kopete, et all. Yahoo Messenger has gotton so good that I have seriously considered moving back to Win2000 just to use it!! ](*,)

Unfortunately, I do not believe we will ever see programs like this as good in Linux because their is just no financial incentive to develop them.

[kassetra]

I think a good compromise would be something like a gdesklets app for gaim that has all the eye candy a teenager can stand...

That way, 1. we wouldn't need a brand new app from scratch, 2. people would have a choice, near immediately (because the gdesklet app would be built from the regular gaim), and 3. people would be motivated to make themes, plugins, etc. for the gdesklet-gaim.

[Adrenal]

Why not just make gaim skinnable?

[lao_V]

The thing that annoyed me most about GAIM or any other Linux IMs was that when I logged in as myself (after my wife had previously logged in and logged out), I was able to see all her contacts in my account. And, when I logged in using MSN messenger, I was still able to see them!!!

Anyone else experienced soemthing like that? Maybe I haven't looked at the options properly?

[nocturn]

Everyone I know uses MSN. :\

I really think though that Gaim needs more of MSN's features. I have to reboot into Windows for things like talking to my family on webcam across the world and such.. can't do that with Gaim. :(
AFAIK (info is dated) MSN messenger uses NetMeeting for WebCam support.

You should be able to do that with gnomemeeting.

[nocturn]

Why not just make gaim skinnable?

A very good suggestion!

[nocturn]

I concur. I use all three Messengers (AOL, MSN, YAHOO) with GAIM and the use of those Messengers on their native OS (Windows) is light years ahead of GAIM, Kopete, et all. Yahoo Messenger has gotton so good that I have seriously considered moving back to Win2000 just to use it!! ](*,)

Unfortunately, I do not believe we will ever see programs like this as good in Linux because their is just no financial incentive to develop them.

If you believe that, then the same goes for Gnome/the Linux kernel/...

Writing a killer IM program on Linux would be good, but if it is done I'm hoping it will talk jabber, not a proprietary protocol.

[Kimm]

Mercury (dMSN) Messenger supports webcam, its realy neat to, you can have avatars and custom smileys and it looks oh so much better then amsn. Filetransfers are also very good

www.mercury.to

only catch is that it is written in Java and that ofcourse slows the computer down...
Webcam is still beta and I suggest you download the Mercury 1709 Beta RC2

[ubuntu_demon]

Mercury (dMSN) Messenger supports webcam, its realy neat to, you can have avatars and custom smileys and it looks oh so much better then amsn. Filetransfers are also very good

www.mercury.to

only catch is that it is written in Java and that ofcourse slows the computer down...
Webcam is still beta and I suggest you download the Mercury 1709 Beta RC2
thnx for the tip I'll check it out

I'm currently prefering gaim above amsn because amsn crashes once in a while. Too bad I can't unblock people in gaim. It doesn't happen much but sometimes I want to block someone :)

I've also found another relevant article .. I've posted about it in this thread :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=24156

[Stormy Eyes]

Why not just make gaim skinnable?

No, thank you. I like my plain old GAIM that uses GTK2 and fits in with the rest of GNOME.

[-Rick-]

Too bad I can't unblock people in gaim. It doesn't happen much but sometimes I want to block someone :)

You can, but its a bit hidden....its in Extra-->privacy

[ubuntu_demon]

You can, but its a bit hidden....its in Extra-->privacy
thnx :)

[escuchamezz]

why don't you just run it with WINE?

[mohaham]

I agree with the Author..
but Gaim is stable and rock solid....and thats what counts..

[ubuntu_demon]

I agree with the Author..
but Gaim is stable and rock solid....and thats what counts..
gaim provides the necessities but I totally agree with the autor ... everything that msn offers in windows should also be possible in linux to make it appeal

[Nano]

Gaim is ok but is still far from the best im software I've ever tried: Miranda for Windows.
The VV features don't give camera support to msn, which makes it pretty useless to me.
In other words, I use Gaim because there's nothing else.

[J. S. Jackson]

I live in Montreal, and MSN is the standard here, it seems. Not only do all my gaming friends use it, but my employer does too.

...and not only my employer, but all the other companies we do business with, including graphic artists, printers, most of the major pharmas in Canada, etc..

It's almost as deeply engrained as Office, Quarke, Photoshop, and Acrobat, at this point.

[Ubunted]

I've used GAIM for a while now, and I love it, mainly because I can use it on both my Windows and Linux boxes. It also gets plenty of updates and does MSN seamlessly.

What I DON'T like - and what I suspect is a major turn-off for most - is its configuration interface. It's just awful. I have yet to memorize anything in there, and any time I want to change something, I have to hunt for it all over again.

[mark]

I don't do chat - first, I'm too "fat-fingered" to keep up with the flow and, second - I work at a rehabilitation center for guys with substance abuse problems - I get MORE than enough random, unsolicited input...<g>

I realize there are "best-case" scenarios where chat is useful but, honestly, I haven't run across any of them in the "real world".

[Rhodan]

Everyone I know uses MSN. :\

I really think though that Gaim needs more of MSN's features. I have to reboot into Windows for things like talking to my family on webcam across the world and such.. can't do that with Gaim. :(

Yup same here, everyone uses MSN that I know. I've tried to get them to use GAIM but they say "can it do this and that", and thats where it ends. :roll:

[TravisNewman]

Personally, I say who cares about all that extra stuff! Its the downfall of every chat program out right now. I want a chat program that can chat and send files, that's about it. Gaim does need work in the sending files part though...

[ubuntu_demon]

msn is the main IM in the netherlands too

[TravisNewman]

msn is the main IM in the netherlands too
It's strange-- in the US (my part of it anyway) it's not country specific, it's area specific. Where I grew up, everyone uses ICQ. One hour away, where I live now, everyone uses AIM.