Better late than never is overstated, what took so long?
A preview version of exclusive Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista is finally available today after almost 12 months of radio silence. Hard to believe this application was announced all the way back in January at CES 2007. During the same amount of time, Microsoft has delivered five versions (3 beta, 2 final) of Windows Live Messenger.
However above all, the new Yahoo Messenger is possibly the first real mainstream application to take advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and a number of Vista APIs for which I salute them for adopting new technology.
Comparing this preview release to the original conceptual design by Frog Design shows a number of subtle interface modifications but also a major disappointment.
Changes to the interface include the application windows are now encapsulated inside Windows Aero Glass frames. On one hand, this satisfies Microsoft’s Vista user experience guidelines which suggests all windows use the standard frame, but on the other seem rather quirky because the application has two harshly different styles of transparency.
The major disappointment is the lack of voice, video and sharing capabilities which were widely fanfared and demonstrated at CES. These features simply don’t exist in this version which leaves this client nothing more than just a fancy text instant messenger. The official blog states explains these features and more are coming in future releases which I hope isn’t on another 12-month cycle.
One of the major roadblocks for WPF applications has been performance and it looks like this application suffers the same fate. On a dual-core system with a more than plentiful graphics card, this application can’t even render the emoticon popout opening and closing without obvious pauses. Generally when anything animates, CPU usage flies right up and performance hits rock bottom.
Along with the client is also a Sidebar gadget that allows for easy access to favorite buddies, a.k.a. people you want to stalk. Unfortunately I couldn’t get this gadget to even load, where it would just display a red cross like an image failed to load in Internet Explorer. I gave up after several tries.
For more than 12 month’s work, this application is an embarrassment. It looks great with a lot of fancy graphical wizardry, but there’s not much here. Unless they fix the performance issues and add back the features which were exciting, it is simply not worth switching to from Windows Live Messenger or even Yahoo Messenger 9.
Update: I’ve heard some indication that Yahoo Messenger and presumably WPF runs better in Vista SP1.
Comments for "Yahoo Messenger for Vista finally launches"
Anonymous
Why would you even use this if it doesn’t have any voice/video support? It’s best to stick to Trillian or Pidgin in that case. Neither of them are bloated, and they basically have the same support as the official client. The only feature not widely available in the multi protocol clients is audio/video.
Wayne
Oh,the UI looks good!
mrmckeb
I don’t really understand WHY Microsofts WPF ahs such performance problems - I know it does, but why? Why???
Morten
The UI has gone worse, especially with the borders as Long points out…
Marcus
I think the UI looks great as it is, minus a few bugs in the settings dialogs.
n-blue
I got email and have installed. The UI is differ from the original concept. The option is seem to be minimal. I posted some screenshot here if anyone interesting:
http://n-blue.nblogz.net/yahoo-messenger-for-windows-vista/
Jedi
Oh, no, it doesn’t run on Vista 64bit
Damn…i was really waiting for it…
pingpong
WPF: the best known framework for creating screenshots of mockups
Jay
am I unlucky ?? there are NOTHING without screen bugs
it’s a completely bad application .. nothing is working and nothing is good in that .. the UI is completely bad …
I don’t know why but there are black elements almost everywhere .. the sidebar gadget doesn’t work (I only have a small blank square and nothing else), the text format button is not working and button at his right neither (maybe it’s for everybody this one).
When a conversation is in maximize –> you have to go to the right top corner to make it non maximize… pfff… in WLM just double click and it’s gone from maximize to non-maximize and the opposite !
No picture are displayed … PFFF… the tabs are nice but not intuitive.
I really need to see graphical bugs fixed because it is totally HORRIBLE.
just look at that :
http://ece.fsa.ucl.ac.be/jmelchio/graphicalbugs.png
[url]http://ece.fsa.ucl.ac.be/jmelchio/graphicalbugs.png[/url]
Jay
it’s not working properly on my Vista Ultimate x86 computer
Jay
just look at these screenshots :
http://ece.fsa.ucl.ac.be/jmelchio/graphicalbugs.png
and the button of text format is not working .. and the sidebar gadget is just a blank empty square (the 4th images in the screenshots).
it looked so good one year before… and now it’s just so bad… just as Firefox 3.0 :(… why MS are doing better product than they ever done ? and why other are just doing bad work? :/
tino
Maybe they have waited for the release of Visual Studio 2008?
Saurabh
I’m not a heavy IM user. So perhaps I am totally not dissapointed about the lack of video & sharing capabilities. But the performance is not dissapointing on SP1 RC. And I’m running it on a Dell Box with a mere 1GB RAM & intelGFx. The memory utilization is definitely better than Y! Messenger 9.
mrmckeb
@Saurabh
Vista SP1 RC does have noticeable performance improvements for WPF. After reading your comments I went back to playing around with a sample Expression Blend project and it works MUCH faster!
…I’m still surprised that the performance is poor at all. I run a C2D 2.4, 4GB RAM and a 640MB 8800GTS and it’s not perfect by any means…
mrmckeb
@Jay, are you running .NET 3.5 or 3.0? Curious is all…
Jay
mmh.. I’m running Vista SP1 RC with .NET 3.5 I think.. not 100% sure but almost.
maybe it is the graphical drivers…(even if nothing is wrong apart this application).
John
I have uninstalled the application. As someone pointed out, it is basicly a fancy text messager nothing else. They seemed to have removed 80% of the functionality of yahoo v8. Without voice and video why use it? Furthermore a “normal” user isn’t goint to be running a dual core, 3 Gb, high end graphics card configuration. An application that does not meet the needs of it’s user is useless no matter how flashy it is.
carmon
user interface looks completely crap…
dryden
pretty weak! not impressed whatsoever…. pidgin is fine, this yahoo is just that - bunch a yahoo!
mark
Dr. Doom
useless and ugly crap
WLM 9.0 beta is better than this shit…
You can put animated avatars, connect on multiple PC’s, audio/video support etc. etc.
Ravi
its simply “crap” if it requires a single word description… you cannot transmit video or use voice chat in it. please stop using it.I am opting out of yahoo and asking my friends to opt in for a different environment like skype.
yahoo will lose subscribers with such an annoying so called updated version
katie
ooVoo has voice, video, and sharing capabilities that Yahoo Messenger lacks in its new version. It allows user to record video chats, free phone calls, and special effects for users. Its an interesting way to do video messenging but still has all the qualities of IMing if you don’t feel like being on camera. Like I am doing right now. Because I have my wet hair in a towel but have to talk about what I’m seeing on Lost. More info for the curious: http://www.myoovooday.com/index.php.
xxxphoviaxxx
i triied to download the ym for vista, and tried using it.. but unfortunately, i cant have the chatroom and voicechat.. y?? is there no latest design for it? i think this ym for vista is exclusive only for those vista users and for your friends that are also vista users, but wat if the’re using different? but, as a summary its really really great!! but im still longing in time that the voicechat and room will be implement.. thank you..
Rahman
why there is no chatroom and when i use the normal version ,,i don’t have a voice in chatroom?
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