It happened last week or so: "MSN Messenger" popped up a window telling me there's an update. I didn't want one, as the all of the previous updates I downloaded introduced more and more advertisement-orientated tabs to the software and reduced functionality rather than enhancing it. Additionally, the update's new features described on the product website looked meaningless, if not ridiculous.
I can currently no longer log into the Microsoft Directory for MSN Messenger using my current version 6.2.sth of MSN Messenger. As I have learned by researching the MSN Messenger problem (why on earth do I have to do that on my own?), I have been running software exposing my infrastructure to security risks (published to a broad public by Microsoft) for at least one week without getting to know about the security flaws in MSN Messenger.
What joy.
To make things even worse, I am now being forced to download an update if I want to continue using MSN Messenger. That is after having been exposed to known and even communicated security flaws for quite a while. I do feel irritated about who decides what regarding MSN Messenger.
Perhaps it's only me, but that does remind me we do urgently need strong competitors in this industry.
In his blog, Microsoft's Shawn Burke writes he intends to release the sourcecode for Microsoft Windows Forms within the upcoming .NET Framework 2.0 to the public. It's not that I'm eager to deeply dig into that source, but it would sure make certain debugging scenarios easier for any customer. Go, Shawn!