Yahoo has ceased availability and future upgrades for its Vista-only release of its Messenger IM software. One of the first applications built specifically for and around Windows Vista is gone for good.
CNet is reporting that Yahoo has decided to return its focus to the core messenger software; "Yahoo has made the strategic decision to discontinue external releases of the stand-alone Yahoo Messenger for Vista client and focus on delivering one Windows experience that is optimized for Windows users today," Yahoo’s Terrell Karlsten said in a statement to CNET News. "This decision will help Yahoo increase efficiencies and deliver one consistent, full-featured solution for Windows users–whether they are using XP or Vista."
The Vista-optimized version of Messenger made excellent use of Vista’s “Windows Presentation Foundation,” which more or less means it used Vista’s slick interface to make the UI more appealing than other versions. The functionality was the same, and it seems the dwindling popularity of Vista has forced Yahoo to drop the project all together.
With more and more talk of people completely skipping Vista all together to instead opt for Windows 7, Yahoo looks to have taken a preemptive step. The whole idea really never made sense to me in the first place. If the Vista version had better functionality or new features I could see the benefits, but spending resources on something that can only be used on a not-so-popular OS should have been doomed from the beginning.
The “Windows Presentation Foundation” will almost definitely find its way into Windows 7, and Yahoo has vowed to continue development with the platform, but for now all development has stopped. "Moving forward we encourage Vista users to download our full-featured Yahoo Messenger 9.0 client, which is compatible with XP and Vista," Karlsten said.
Users that are already using the Vista version of Messenger can continue to do so, but no further updates will be provided. In my eyes, it proves that Vista is one step closer to extinction.
Source : http://vista.blorge.com/
CNet is reporting that Yahoo has decided to return its focus to the core messenger software; "Yahoo has made the strategic decision to discontinue external releases of the stand-alone Yahoo Messenger for Vista client and focus on delivering one Windows experience that is optimized for Windows users today," Yahoo’s Terrell Karlsten said in a statement to CNET News. "This decision will help Yahoo increase efficiencies and deliver one consistent, full-featured solution for Windows users–whether they are using XP or Vista."
The Vista-optimized version of Messenger made excellent use of Vista’s “Windows Presentation Foundation,” which more or less means it used Vista’s slick interface to make the UI more appealing than other versions. The functionality was the same, and it seems the dwindling popularity of Vista has forced Yahoo to drop the project all together.
With more and more talk of people completely skipping Vista all together to instead opt for Windows 7, Yahoo looks to have taken a preemptive step. The whole idea really never made sense to me in the first place. If the Vista version had better functionality or new features I could see the benefits, but spending resources on something that can only be used on a not-so-popular OS should have been doomed from the beginning.
The “Windows Presentation Foundation” will almost definitely find its way into Windows 7, and Yahoo has vowed to continue development with the platform, but for now all development has stopped. "Moving forward we encourage Vista users to download our full-featured Yahoo Messenger 9.0 client, which is compatible with XP and Vista," Karlsten said.
Users that are already using the Vista version of Messenger can continue to do so, but no further updates will be provided. In my eyes, it proves that Vista is one step closer to extinction.
Source : http://vista.blorge.com/
