Wow. From a News.com article:

As of Oct. 15, users of Microsoft's free Web-based MSN Messenger and its Windows XP-based Windows Messenger will need to upgrade their software to a newer version or be shut out of the service, the software giant said Wednesday. MSN Messenger users will need to upgrade to version 5.0 of higher; Windows Messengers customers will need to upgrade to version 4.7.2009 or higher; and consumers with MSN Messenger for Mac OS X will have to use version 3.5 or higher. The last MSN Messenger to be released was version 6.

According to Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall, "Security issues that could be posed (on older versions) require us to force an upgrade." He declined to detail the security issue, saying disclosure would "put customers at undue risk."

Meanwhile, Oct. 15 also will mark the deadline for Trillian support for MSN Messenger. Trillian is software that integrates multiple IM clients into a common interface. While it doesn't enable IM services to communicate directly with one another, it lets people view all of their buddy lists from various services under one window.

Now, ain't that a nice thing to do. It doesn't matter that people don't want to "upgrade" every two seconds. It doesn't matter that people are sick and tired of "security patches". Except now it's not just "upgrades" for "security reasons". It's upgrade now or it stops working. The new version will be more secure, right? Just like the new versions of Outlook and Windows were supposed to be more secure? Good, good, I see. Let me just get this abacus here for my computational needs, just in case, you know...

They have to pull this kind of stunt right in the middle of two of their most widespread security crises ever? Oh, right, of course, "security". I'm sure that wiping out Trillian connectivity in the process had nothing to do with that. Everyone will understand "security" these days. Sure. Sounds a lot like a "PATRIOT upgrade", if you know what I mean.

Oh, right, and I'm sure that this "upgrade" has nothing whatsoever to do with this, right? Of course not.

I am, quite simply, astonished that they are not more sensitive to their customers, to increasing interoperability, and to letting users choose which product they like best, dammit!

Yes, I'm still receiving one email a minute. Yes, I'm still incredibly pissed off at Microsoft.

The deadline approaches.

Categories: technology
Posted by diego on August 20 2003 at 11:20 PM