2010.... that's six years - an eternity in computer terms! Everything can happen in such a long time. Everything or nothing.

I believe in ten years time MS will be in a very weak position. Their push of the ".NET framework" is going to be a complicated mess. In 2010 a lot of computers will be shipping that do not have a MS OS.

Good to hear Bill's plan failed

Yep, trill works fine on all fronts now. The only problem with msn was those damned update "reminders", and that problem was solved long ago. Yahoo started causing a problem a while back (very bad case of "keeping up with the joneses" (or in this case, the gateses)), but that's been cleared up now too. There's now a yahoo patch for all 3 versions of trill (free, pro v1, and pro v2).

Trillian works just fine. In fact, it was Yahoo that's been giving Trillian a hard time till a few days ago.

The given date has passed... any status report from you Billy-Lovers?

1) I'm not using a firewall.
2) Trill connected to msn just fine with the old dll, and nothing has been changed other than the dll.
3) My password is just letters and numbers. Most things/sites don't allow unusual characters, so I'm in the habbit of not using them in my password.
4) The new version of trill pro has jabber support. I'm not too hot on jabber myself though. It's nice because you can connect to msn and such through the jabber network, but I haven't liked any of the jabber software that I've tried.

True, we'll have to see what happens then, but at least until then we don't have to endure the MS nagging anymore. I'm now using Miranda IM and it works great for me if I set it to use the latest available MSN protocol, also it supports Jabber; which is a plus since one of my friends has been insisting that I try it lately. As you can see, I don't really have trouble adapting to whatever medium people prefer, of course if this becomes an impossibility after October 15th, I'll have to go with more drastic measures...
(I wish I knew what kind of measures )

Cypherswipe: I had trouble connecting with the MSN v.8/9/10 or whatever it's called; I think in my case it had something to do with certain characters in my password not being recognized by the new protocol... I changed my password to one with less 'exotic' characters and that works for me (don't ask how I got the idea, luck I guess), if I change it back to the old one, still unable to connect. I don't know if this has anything to do with your problem but maybe worth a shot.

Cyber: I got a pop-up from my ZoneAlarm when I first launched the updated Trillian. Make sure your firewall doesn't block it.

NetDanzr: It's not October 15th yet

Cypherswipe: So they have to use more than one program then. Too bad for them. Is that your problem? And if they break up contact: That's what you get from using a Microsoft product in the first place

MC- Then it becomes a chain reaction issue. They've been on whatever IM for a while and have built up a list of contacts on it, and if they change now they'll either have to go with myultiple IMs (either seperate or in one prog) or get their friends to switch, but they won't want to switch because then their friends would need to switch, etc.

ND- Lucky bastard. Doesn't work at all for me, I can't even connect to msn at all with the new dll. I just keep getting an error code that indicates the program can't find a COM dll file. I've tried redownloading the dll, and I haven't changed anything other than the dll, but it just won't work.

For the record: I downloaded the msn.dll, and it works like a charm. Thanks, Cypher

Cypher: If you have been the one who has been using different protocols before, and these people only one, I wouldn't see any problems explaining why you can no longer do that and that it's their turn now.

Bill Gates has been selling lots of stock lately. Somewhere around 45 million USD a day.

All well and good regarding new contacts, but what about existing ones? Ones that you gained while testing other IMs, or ones that you gained before a particular IM became complete crap?
Also, I find the number/quality of people on an IM to be more importnat than the IM itself (up to a point). What's the point in having a fantastic IM if you can't actually use it because there's no one else who uses it? Don't get me wrong, I do prefer the functions/features of some IMs over others, and I do get very aggravated with some IMs, but the people (usually) outweigh such issues. This current msn situation however is debateable, and I may wind up ditching msn if I can't find a decent solutuion to the problem. (I only have a few msn contacts anyway.

I'm not sure about that number, but yes, I don't have such a phone, because I don't see the need of having one

Let me guess: you are one of the last five people in Germany who don't have a cell phone

Again, it's the idleness of the masses.

Yes, I'm one of those people. My point is just: If anyone wants to contact me, he/she/it can do it, but I'm only 'offering' a limited number of ways to do so. Why should I be the one who takes a step towards them (i.e. those who use another, and only that one, protocol)?`I have my reasons to have chosen ICQ over AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, and whatever others, and my reasons are related to the comfort and the options of that system, not the number of people on that network. That is why I'm better than all this other scum you're talking about (read: MSN users)

It's not about the software, it's about the contacts who use that software and only that software. There are many people who refuse to switch from their fav IM (whether it be msn or aim or icq or whatever) or even to add another IM (use msn and icq or whatever), which means that you either have to find some way to keep using msn or quit talking to those friends.