What is Microsoft's problem?

[Husar]

I'm currently using Miranda(if you compare that to pidgin, pidgin looks like a graphics blender ) but to be honest, I always liked the MSN Messenger, now called Live Messenger. There are some features that can be/have to be customized and to be honest it was faster than downloading, installing and getting to work all the Miranda plugins I use now. Also keep in mind that some people may actually like to have fancy graphics in a sidebar with links to all sorts of stuff that may be irrelevant to you and me. For you and me there's an option to turn that sidebar off. It's a bit like setting a new game to the correct resolution and tweaking the graphics settings until you're satisfied.

I've heard some bad things about the Microsoft Messenger but for me it seemed to be the most private protocol whereas until some years ago I used to receive daily requests in ICQ from porn stars who wanted me in their contact lists.
ICQ 6 even goes a step further and after adding someone you cannot see her/his online status because that requires a special permit now on top of the one already given.
Well, Miranda works around this and a few other annoyances, uses less ressources etc but you have to find all the nice plugins yourself and features like voice chat(which I have actually used somewhat extensively some years ago) are not available at all AFAIK.

To answer your original question, I don't think Microsoft has a problem, I think you have one.