Mac Messenger 7

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier for a M$ software release.

Now, for most people, you’ll probably bitch that basic functionality like AV chat for home accounts is not available on the new version of Mac Messenger. And I can understand this complaint seeing as iChat has had this for years. The main issue, as I understand it, is that the M$ Live service needs to go through a series of improvements to catch up with the communication services offered on the corporate product offerings. Mainly, enhanced presence that is tied into Office Communication Server.

However, if you are a Mac user on a windows network that has upgraded to OCS you have two choices. Pray that your company has installed the web front end to OCS and you can communicate that way (not the best, but pretty usable). Or install VMWare Fusion or Parallels and run the client in a VM. Kind of costly on the system resources but also usable.

Needless to say, I’m pretty pumped about this announcement. I had originally heard rumors that the client was not going to come out until the Live services were ready which was insane.

Good job Microsoft! (I rarely say that)