aMSN

aMSN (Alvaro's Messenger or Another MSN messenger) is an open source application based on the Compu's Messenger (CCMSN) software and engineered from the ground up to be a clone of the official MSN Messenger client created by Microsoft for its Windows OS.

Features at a glance

Its key features include tabbed chat windows, support for conferencing, offline messaging, webcam support, file transfers, autoaway messages, support for groups, as well as support for multiple accounts.

In addition, the application features chat history, on event alarms, timestamping, voice clips, sound for events, normal, animated and custom emoticons with sounds, support for buddy icons, global nicknames, and full proxy support.

Looks and acts as the official MSN Messenger app

Its user interface provides you with the same look and feel as the original MSN Messenger application, and the best thing is that it works the same on all the supported operating systems. It also integrates well with the system tray area of the GNOME and KDE desktop environments.

The application also comes with profiles, allowing users to separate configuration per login, support for displaying pictures, Invisible status, manual contact list manipulation (allow/block), as well as remote control ability to detect if a certain contact has removed you from their list.

While the application provides users with a high level of customization, there are better and more actively developed alternatives out there, such as Pidgin and Empathy, that not only support the modern Windows Live protocol, but they can be used with many other IM channels.

Under the hood and availability

Under the hood, we can mention that the code is written in the C++, C and Tcl programming languages and the graphical user interface is designed in the Tk GUI toolkit. It is a multiplatform and multilingual application.

The project is distributed as a source archive, allowing users to configure, compile and install the application on any Linux distribution, as well as binary files for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

What is new in this release:

• aMSN 0.98.9 is more than just a bugfix release, it's the latest development code with all the new features and stability/security fixes that you've been waiting for.
• The reason you see 0.98.9 and not 0.98.5 is that this release is "almost" 0.99. In 0.99, which will be released (hopefully) soon, we will implement the new MSNP18 protocol version, which will enable signing in at multiple locations, offline messages, and hopefully audio and video calls too. 0.98.9 is the same as a 0.99 release but without MSNP18 support, this way you get the latest stable release just before we upgrade the protocol.

What is new in version 0.97.2:

• This version fixes, along with some other bugs, the bug you could have experienced when sending OIMs.