MSN, AIM, and Yahoo

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
http://www.crn.com/sections/breaking...cleId=23900984



All routed through a Microsoft Server product. Sounds sketchy. I'm sure it will have "problems" with iChat coincidentally. Can't be good. Writing on the wall indeed. Doesn't work with Jabber.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Well it's a step in the right direction. IM is a freakin' mess. No one IM client has all the features I need. They really need to agree on a base featureset of interoperability.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    talksense101talksense101 Posts: 1,738member
    A M$ server product for my chat client? No thanks.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    Well it's a step in the right direction. IM is a freakin' mess. No one IM client has all the features I need. They really need to agree on a base featureset of interoperability.



    well, i am surprised no one has made a thread about this yet, but justin wood, author of the multi-protocol IM client Proteus was just hired by Apple. I have to assume it was to join the iChat team. Justin has done a remarkable job in the face of ever-changing MSN tweaks that would break something in Proteus time and time again. maybe he can bring what you (and others) are looking for in iChat.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rok

    well, i am surprised no one has made a thread about this yet, but justin wood, author of the multi-protocol IM client Proteus was just hired by Apple. I have to assume it was to join the iChat team. Justin has done a remarkable job in the face of ever-changing MSN tweaks that would break something in Proteus time and time again. maybe he can bring what you (and others) are looking for in iChat.



    Now that is good and interesting news! Thanks, rok. Do you have a link?



    When Apple hired David Hyatt, who was directing the Chimera (now Camino) browser project, we got Safari. Who know what Justin Wood working for Apple will bring us?



    Escher
  • Reply 5 of 8
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Escher

    Now that is good and interesting news! Thanks, rok. Do you have a link?



    yep, but it'sjust the short blurb from MacMinute earlier this week.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    amoryaamorya Posts: 1,103member
    Don't forget that it's for legal reasons that iChat can't work with MSN, not for technical reasons.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Amorya

    Don't forget that it's for legal reasons that iChat can't work with MSN, not for technical reasons.



    What are the legal reasons? I assume it has to do with licencing.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    amoryaamorya Posts: 1,103member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cosmo

    What are the legal reasons? I assume it has to do with licencing.



    Basically, the clients like Adium and Proteus that connect to AIM and MSN do so by having "reverse engineered" the system. Microsoft and AOL have not allowed those clients to connect to their servers. They often change the format of the connection, which breaks those clients until they reverse engineer it again. It seems that they haven't yet threatened legal action on the individuals who make them, but if they wanted to they probably could.



    Apple actually approached AOL and got a license to connect to them. IChat's done with AOL's blessing - hence it works more reliably than the free multi-clients.



    It's probable that AOL have made a condition of the license that Apple doesn't get one from MS too, but that's speculation.



    In the past, Microsoft had MSN able to talk to AIM users too. They hadn't got a license. AOL went ape and threatened to sue. If Apple tried the same thing, they'd probably get the same result.





    Amorya
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