[JDEV] MSN vs Jabber

[Mattias Campe]

> -----Original Message-----
[...]
> 
> MSN's big advantage is (of course) user-base. Microsoft built up a user 
> base in a way that only someone with a monopoly on computer operating 
> systems could ;-) However, I've seen numbers in the past that indicate 
> their userbase has significantly lower usage by percentage than the 
> other three main portal IM systems; I figure this is because people set 
> up an MSN account when they set up their computer not knowing what it 
> is, or wanting to use it. The client then just logs in and stays silent 
> in their tooltray whenever they connect to the internet.
> 
> -David Wait
Max Metral wrote:
 > I think it's overly simplistic to suggest that Microsoft's monopoly is
 > the reason they grew their userbase so well.

Sorry, I would (IMHO) disagree on this. I think MSN wins from ICQ, Yahoo 
Messenger/Jabber the same way Internet Explorer "won" from Netscape: 
Internet Explorer was pre-installed with Windows '95 (or was it '98?). 
Why would people need another browser?

Then, later on, you could get a free hotmail e-mail account (like me, I 
got my e-mail before I knew about the "hype" MSN Messenger). A lot of 
people didn't knew about MSN Messenger or a passport. In windows Me, MSN 
is pre-installed... "hmm, I can use my e-mail adres to chat, well, I'll 
give it a try"...

 > MSN Messenger is BY FAR a better client for the majority of Internet
 > users than any of ours, and arguably better than AOL.

I think I must agree on this one: MSN Messenger doesn't have the 
overfeatered ICQ-style, but still offers good, usable features.

 > They are also a LOT more "open" than AOL and Yahoo, even if not
 > formally.  If anyone had a monopoly here, it was/is AOL, and they are
 > trying to weild it as much as they can.  A year from now, when MSN has
 > made their client an also ran, AOL and their cronies will go crying to
 > the Fed that MSFT bullied them, when what really happened is that AOL
 > acted like a bunch of babies trying to block and close off all
 > other-client access and stop all interesting application development
 > on their platform.  The question for us is which camp are we going to
 > be in, the ones who bitch about msft or the ones who embrace and
 > extend the embracers-and-extenders.

Sorry, English isn't my native language, what do you mean with "the ones 
who embrace and extend the embracers-and-extenders?".

 > We do have the advantages you state, and the more we make ourselves
 > play nice with the major clients, the better those advantages seem
 > because they won't have the disadvantages of not playing with MSN Ebay
 > alerts (for example).

Sorry, but what are MSN Ebay alerts?

 > Us bashing MSFT is sort of like the Red Sox bashing the Yankees.  If
 > we had won more in the last 80 years, we wouldn't care about the damn
 > Yankees. :)

.m.