Live Messenger 2009 Beta

[Simon]

The new Windows Live Messenger 2009 Beta is now available for download! It looks better than ever and has some nice new features.

Read more: Live Messenger 2009 Beta Looking Good

Download: http://windows-live-messenger.en.softonic.com/

[Steve_Barker]

Who needs it? Does it do all these?:

AIM

Bonjour

Gadu-Gadu

Google Talk

Groupwise

ICQ

IRC

MSN

MySpaceIM

QQ

SILC

SIMPLE

Sametime

XMPP

Yahoo!

Zephyr

No option then Pidgin it is then:

http://www.pidgin.im/about/

Pidgin review:

http://en.onsoftware.com/the-pidgin-soars-like-an-eagle/

Actually, I use Kopete http://kopete.kde.org/ which is not quite as good as Pidgin, but it comes with KDE, and as I have only used Yahoo messenger once in the last two years, I see no hurry to install Pidgin. My other half uses Pidgin regulary on her computer.

[Simon]

No, it just works with MSN and Yahoo Messenger. But that is enough for me. I stopped using ICQ, AIM and Yahoo years ago. And Google Talk has never been for me, I like Skype more.

If I want a multi-im-program I will use Trillian. Their new version is in BETA testing at the moment - and its looking fine!

When it comes to this new Live update I must say I like it very much. Especially the new Live programs that you can install with the new MSN Messenger. They are actually great. Especially the calendar which is MUCH better than Google's. Bravo work Microsoft! :P

[Patrick]

Pidgin is indeed THE most awesome IM-Program I've ever used. It's got it all: Many different protocols (of which I'm only using Facebook, ICQ [pretty much the most popular one in Germany, so I wouldn't be able to avoid it even though it sucks], Jabber and MSN [which I don't really use anymore but just happen to have an account for]), plug-ins which allow to do a lot of stuff and it's not all about skins and looks. It's all about IMing.

I've used Live Messenger back when I was on Windows and I've found it's much better than most proprietorial Programs (especially ICQ which is total crap), but I hate it to use too many apps for one purpose.