Live Messenger 2009

[Mark Janssen]

Hello all,

As may have noticed Microsoft has started distribution of Live
Messenger 2009 (http://download.live.com/messenger). Although the
website says this is a beta, version the About dialog does not mention
this. Weird enough the old version can be downloaded from other pages,
I'm not sure what they are doing. The new version has a new UI and
brings many fancy (read: rather useless) features like shared
backgrounds called 'scenes' (just like a display picture, but placed
in the background of the window). However, it also has some features
that might be interesting to Pidgin and Adium users.

First of all, the new version adds support for signing in at (and
chatting from) multiple locations (which Microsoft calls 'places').
Microsoft's client has a simple interface for managing the locations
where you're signed in at, allowing the user to selectively sign off
at other locations. This feature also has the annoying side-effect of
opening a group chat in Adium (probably also in Pidgin) when you're
chatting with a user which is signed on at multiple locations.

More interesting might be changes in the A/V protocol. To quote the
Mac Mojo blog (http://www.officeformac.com/blog/An-Update-on-Messenger-for-Mac):
"I'm glad to say that the upcoming release of Windows Live Messenger,
currently in beta, delivers the new A/V protocol that enables us to
deliver A/V support in Messenger for Mac. It is cross-platform
compatible and will work with Windows Live Messenger. This is a huge
milestone that will enable us to continue moving forward with
Messenger for Mac development."
I couldn't find any further details though.

I'm not sure if the new version involves any radical protocol changes,
but it's certainly worth taking a look at.

Regards,
Mark

P.S.: I couldn't find any other messages about this on the mailing
list, but excuse me if this has been mentioned before.