Has anyone else tried the new Windows Live Messenger Beta? I don't see why they have to integrate all these different services into the application. I mean, you can decide not to use them but seriously?

Here's a list of their services you can connect to WLM Beta with:
11870.com
4travel
AlloCine
Arto
Azbuz
Baby Kingdom
Biip.no Community
Bilddagboken
Blingee
Blog RSS Feed
Blogger
[email protected]
Break.com
BuddyTV.com
BuscaPe
CNET
Dada
Dailymotion
Daum
Digg
dkbn
Doctissimo Community
Facebook
Flickr
Flixster
Fotolog
Goodreads
Hold On To Your Seat Online on France2.fr
Hulu
Hyves
iLike
ImageShack
IRC-Galleria
Judy's Book
Last.fm
Libero Community
Libimseti.cz
L'Internaute Copains
LiveJournal
lokalisten.de
metroFLOG
MiniBlog
Multiply
MySpace
myVIP
NAVER
Neogen.ro
Netlog
Newsvine
OleOle
Overblog
Pandora
Photobucket
Photozou
PIXNET
psicofxp.com
Qik
Qype
SayClubme
sevenload
Skyrock
SlideShare
SmugMug
Stumble Upon
Tabelog
Telecinco.es
TISTORY
TripIt
TypePad
Viadeo
virtualnights
Wat.tv
WordPress
wow.ya.ru
Xing
Yelp
YouTube
Zoo

That's is a hell of a lot of services and how it works is you have a huge window. On the right you have the normal MSN messenger and on the left you have updates on every single service you subscribed to.

I just think they are trying too hard. They should just concentrate on what they were doing, instant messaging. Trying to incorporate everything is just ridiculous.

Any thoughts?

I hate that program with a passion.

Originally Posted by adrian

I hate that program with a passion.

WLM itself or the new version?

Do you think it'll fail and they'll go back to a normal instant messenger program?

It's bad. They made something as simple as changing your display name a convoluted process. Plus, they spent so much time on the social networking crap that they didn't bother making improvements to their unbelievable archaic instant messaging engine. In a perfect world, Windows Live Messenger would include many of the cool aspects of Google Wave's chat (Like threaded conversations). But instead, the entire chat remains unchanged,

Nice, more bloat.

WLM is fine on its own... but who likes bloat??!

Originally Posted by MiniDragon

It's bad. They made something as simple as changing your display name a convoluted process. Plus, they spent so much time on the social networking crap that they didn't bother making improvements to their unbelievable archaic instant messaging engine. In a perfect world, Windows Live Messenger would include many of the cool aspects of Google Wave's chat (Like threaded conversations). But instead, the entire chat remains unchanged,

Originally Posted by blackdragon

Nice, more bloat.

WLM is fine on its own... but who likes bloat??!

They should definitively concentrate on instant messaging since that's what WLM is... a messenger. All this other stuff is useless. I don't even think it makes it easier for people, I'd personally rather just have a bookmark bar and have all those services bookmarked.

I hope they learn how big of a dud this is going to be and go back to what they are known for.

WLM 2010/2011 is the reason why I am glad we have Pidgin.

Originally Posted by changturkey

WLM 2010/2011 is the reason why I am glad we have Pidgin.

I don't know if I would switch to Pidgin though, I don't use any other instant messenger services...

Originally Posted by jhan523

I don't know if I would switch to Pidgin though, I don't use any other instant messenger services...

Even if you only use one protocol, it's still better than all that bloated crap WLM has.

I'm using Adium right now on OSX and everything's so much nicer than the official client.

Originally Posted by jhan523

WLM itself or the new version?

Do you think it'll fail and they'll go back to a normal instant messenger program?

Live mess in general. Though the more they add, the worse it gets.

They're rolling out support for facebook chat support for the WLM Beta right now, that should be a welcome addition. Tabbed convos and real names were also nice additions in the beta. I don't like all the social integration nonsense though, but that is made invisible at the touch of a button and WLM Beta becomes WLM with a few new features.

Originally Posted by Tailsnake

They're rolling out support for facebook chat support for the WLM Beta right now, that should be a welcome addition. Tabbed convos and real names were also nice additions in the beta. I don't like all the social integration nonsense though, but that is made invisible at the touch of a button and WLM Beta becomes WLM with a few new features.

You can nickname people on the previous WLM. I also hate when people don't have their names on their msn because if they change it I have no idea who the hell is who. It's useful to nickname everyone and you can even sort your list by nicknames or by msn names.

Now I can't remember if that was integrated in WLM or if it was MsgPlus Live... But either way, it was still possible to get everyone on your list to be labeled as their actual name. But it would take a hell of a long time to nickname everyone if you have like 100 contacts.

WLM is not a very good program, but it's all right. The beta, this new version with all this crap, is HORRIBLE though. Absolutely awful. Astoundingly bad.

If you don't switch to the compact (i.e., old school) view, literally 80% of the screen real estate is devoted to a bunch of useless updates like "<Name> has changed his display picture". Really? I absolutely rage when I see stuff like this. Honestly, I don't care. Plus, I couldn't even find out how to change my display name because every time I tried changing it it would only change my full name, which was not what other people were seeing when talking to me.

One of the worst programs I've ever used - I promptly uninstalled and reverted to the version I had.

While we're here, does anyone know of a program as a replacement? The only thing is, I don't use any other messenger programs such as AIM or ICQ or anything, and if possible I'd like the variety and customization present in WLM right now (i.e., changing background pictures, fonts, usage of custom emoticons, etc).

apatch should do something to remove the bloat. I'm just waiting for him and msgplus.

Originally Posted by Afzal

apatch should do something to remove the bloat. I'm just waiting for him and msgplus.

I'm also waiting for msgplus :\ Would he write one for the beta or do you think he would wait for it to be released first? I mean, the beta is constantly going to change until it's released, it's updated once or twice already in the couple of weeks since the first appearance.