December 4th, 2006

What’s the deal with the default [MSN Messenger](http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=msnmessenger) client for the Mac? I could rave on and on about this, so I decided that I will just write it all down in point form.

• No tabbed chat interface.
• Clunky / large UI.
• No web-cam, game, extended compatibility with windows client (could be seen as a good thing).
• Lagging behind features of the windows client.
• The “One or more messages could not be sent” message that shows up 5-10 min’s after you have just typed a lot of stuff. Giving no real indication what was, and what wasn’t, sent properly.
• Preferences aren’t saved per messenger user-name. If I change the colour on my MSN user-name, someone else who logs in (using my OS X account) gets the same colour.
• Rarely updated, and when it is new features are very /yawn.

These are just a few things off the top of my head. I could add more if I sat and thought about it. In summary, why does the official MSN messenger client for Mac suck so much?

**Note: It handles multiple group conversations very well.

I’ve been reading some [New Scientist](http://www.newscientist.com/) articles online recently, they have some really cool stuff. I’ve often read New Scientist magazine whilst in some form of waiting room (doctor, dentist, etc) but only recently I’ve been thinking about actually subscribing to it.

It contains a lot of really interesting reading but the subscription is something like $200 a year, which I guess is cheap considering the magazine comes out weekly. Still, I’m not 100% certain as yet.

Anyway, on to the topic which I originally started this post for. I went through and subscribed to all the [RSS feeds](http://www.newscientist.com/feeds.ns) I could find on their web-site. Amongst feeds for such topics as ‘Being Human’, ‘Human Evolution’, ‘Mysteries of the Deep’, ‘Quantum World’, I find one specifically titled ‘Teenagers’.

I just found it funny that they had a totally separate category for topics related to teenagers. I guess there is a lot of research being conducted into those strange creatures.

I really like [Adium](http://www.adiumx.com/). Its an awesome multi service chat client and looks a heck of a lot better than many of the ‘standard / default’ clients. I have it in my dock and I use it maybe once every few weeks, which really bugs me. The reason I can’t use it as my default client on OS X is because of [this](http://trac.adiumx.com/ticket/1583) little bug.

Basically, you cannot have multiple group conversations running in Adium. When i say ‘group conversation’, I’m talking about conversations with more than one person. ‘Multiple group conversations’ means having more than one group conversation. i.e. I want to have a group conversation with contact 1, 3 and 5 but at the same time I also want to be chatting to contact 2, 6 and 4 in another group chat.

Adium doesn’t like this, and ends up sending all messages from both group conversations to the same window. Sure, this may sound fine. I mean you can still see all the messages right? Well yes, but at the same time you don’t really have any idea where the messages you type are going and it’s really confusing.

I would have thought this would be a ‘basic’ feature of any instant message client. If you follow the link to the bug report, you will see that this bug is set to be looked at around version 1.5. Adium is currently in heavy development for a 1.0 release, who knows when the 1.5 release will come around. So in the meantime, I have to make do with the default mac MSN client, which is close to THE worst instant messaging client out there, but that’s a totally other post I need to type up.

I know, I know… Adium is open source, why don’t I get off my lazy butt and help out? Simple answer, I’m too busy trying to get my own apps working. I shouldn’t really complain. Adium (even with its bugs) is an awesome piece of free software and I’d be using it every single day if only it handled multiple group conversations.