Microsoft Ships Messenger 6.0 for Mac OS X

By Geoff Duncan September 28, 2006

When it comes to the Macintosh, let’s face it: Microsoft is better known for what it doesn’t do rather than what it actually does. Mac versions of its Office productivity applications have been money makers for coming up on two decades, but, gosh, where’s Outlook for Macintosh? Business tools like Access? Heck, even cute consumer services like MSN are missing in action! Internet Explorer? Mothballed. Windows Media Player? Gone. Games? None. Virtual PC? Acquired, digested, and >burp< done.

But every once in a while, Microsoft seems some value in producing Mac software—and the irony is that Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit (MacBU) often does a pretty good job. So much so that if these products came from anybody but Microsoft, they’d be widely heralded.

And guess what: Microsoft has launched Messenger 6 for Macintosh, a Mac OS X instant messaging client which can communicate with users of both Microsoft’s MSN Messenger service and Yahoo Messenger—just like the big boys—and includes support for the system-wide Spotlight search feature built into Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” for searching chat transcripts. Messenger 6.0 pick up a bit of Mac culture by being able to display your current iTunes selection as your status message, and (in a nod to Windows culture) includes cheesy animated icons. But, hey, it ships as a universal binary, so owners of recent Intel-based Macintosh computers will get full performance. On its own, Messenger 6 can’t chat with iChat or AIM users, but they can reach those networks via a Microsoft Office Live Communications Server; otherwise, you’ have to use Mac OS X’s built-in iChat or another client. But hey: Messenger 6.0 is free.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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