Messenger:Mac

[bousozoku]

why cant there be some way for us to sign into msn with ichat? that would make things simpler.

Microsoft would have to agree to that for it to be any better than their own client. The third parties are getting away with it simply because it would be too much bother and bad public relations to stop them. Apple would be a good target, though.

 

[dllavaneras]

Well, if they would only let Apple integrate MSN with iChat, I'm sure it'd be much better than the current messenger. Of course, Microsoft is Microsoft, and I'm not sure if they would allow that

 

[bousozoku]

Well, if they would only let Apple integrate MSN with iChat, I'm sure it'd be much better than the current messenger. Of course, Microsoft is Microsoft, and I'm not sure if they would allow that

Trade secrets keep many industries from seeking compromises that would benefit consumers, especially in the U.S.A. I'm sure if Apple were the one with the protocol (*cough*FairPlay*cough*) they would be extremely slow to share.

 

[mkrishnan]

Trade secrets keep many industries from seeking compromises that would benefit consumers, especially in the U.S.A. I'm sure if Apple were the one with the protocol (*cough*FairPlay*cough*) they would be extremely slow to share.

Very true.

Not only that, but you get into the whole complexity that applications are locked heavily into core services / APIs of the OS for which they were designed, unless significant efforts are taken to avoid this. This isn't any more a Microsoft thing than it is an Apple thing.

If Microsoft handed Apple, libgaim, or anyone else, the entire source code for Windows Live as well as all existing in-house documentation on the project, it still would be a non-trivial task to take that and make a Mac messenger that could hook into Windows Live and use all of its features, simply because so many of those features depend on subtleties of APIs unique to Windows (and particularly to Windows Media).

 

[dllavaneras]

I know, I know... but if MS isn't going to put much effort in messenger:mac, they might as well let Apple do something nice with it