Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Live Messenger in 1st quarter 2013, forcing users to switch to Skype. Most would want to switch to Skype anyway with its more advanced capabilities, and the switch makes sense to Microsoft, since they purchased Skype for $8.5 billion last year. However, the move may be seen as typical Redmondian high-handedness by those using Messenger with dial-up. Technically Skype works with dial-up but in practice most agree you really need broadband for decent use. Will everyone view Messenger as replaceable by Skype?
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Member since:2005-07-06
Well, unless there's just one "winner" network in all of this, then it will be certainly less messy... and Skype might be the closest to such status ;p
But seriously, the mess mostly got smaller over the last decade, IMHO - most of the smallish IM networks died out.
Edited 2012-11-08 04:01 UTC
Member since:2010-06-08
There is no "winner" in this. There are and will be many participants. Saying there will be a "winner" is like saying there will be one e-mail provider eventually. That won't going to happen.
IM networks either will cooperate (read XMPP), or their users will be separated by non interoperability, like e-mail was in the prehistoric computing era. Even AOL started adding [some limited] federated XMPP support to their network. MS actually started some shifts in that direction with Windows Messenger. But they didn't go far enough.
Edited 2012-11-08 04:59 UTC
Member since:2009-05-19
Member since:2006-08-12
They already support XMPP (with some OAUTH based authentication), GNOME 3 Empathy support connecting to Messenger network using XMPP. What they don't support yet is federation (interconnection between XMPP providers networks), unlike Google Talk
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/live/hh826554.aspx
I hope this gateway remains and I think it should because this capitulation on MS to use the XMPP standard was to allow easier integration with businesses that wanted to provide services over Messenger
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Member since:
2010-06-08
They should start supporting XMPP. Otherwise this mess will be only more messy.