Today I have seen screenshots from the new version of Windows Live Messenger, 2010 through a tweet by Paul Thurott. I have to say I haven’t been using any official Windows Live Messenger clients for a while but this thing gets larger and uglier with every new version. I am not sure I will be willing to sacrifice my entire screen to an IM. On MacOSX I am using Adium which is a perfect, unobtrusive piece of software that lets me reduce the size of my contact list to the minimum, only showing the names and status icons of my friends. My chat window is tabbed so even if I chat with 10 friends it just takes one small part of my screen.

I just can’t understand what is going on in Windows. Actually I have been trying to write something on them and this post will definitely not be it. But Microsoft, that huge company is creating products as if this is still 1998 and people are willing to take whatever they present.

With everyone using Facebook which offers integrated IM, twitter, Gmail and multiple protocol clients like Adium, Digsby and Trillian, I don’t know besides those mindless millions (and yes there are millions of them) who is using this kind of software.