Need an MSN client for Linux – is KMess still working?

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  • July 7, 2026 at 1:29 pm #185809
    Padilla
    Participant

    I’m still using Windows Live Messenger for chatting with a few old friends who refuse to switch to anything else. Recently moved to Linux and I’m looking for a decent MSN client. I remember KMess from years ago – does anyone know if it’s still being maintained or if there’s something better for Linux?

    July 7, 2026 at 2:20 pm #185816
    crptclean
    Participant

    I used KMess back in the day and it was genuinely the best alternative for Linux. It had all the features you’d want – display picture transfers, file transfers, custom emoticons, nudges, offline messaging, and great KDE integration with tabbed chats and a clean interface. The team even had translations in 19 languages and a really active community. But honestly, the last stable release was KMess 2.0.6 back in February 2011, and the project has been essentially dead since then. The bigger problem is that Microsoft shut down the MSN protocol years ago, so even if you could install it, it wouldn’t connect anymore. The official site is still up with screenshots, download links, and FAQs, which is a nice time capsule. If you want to see what it looked like or maybe grab the source for nostalgia, you can check out https://kmess.org/ – but for actual chatting, you’ll need to convince your friends to move to something modern like Telegram or Signal.

    July 7, 2026 at 2:28 pm #185818
    Padilla
    Participant

    Ah, that’s a shame. I remember using KMess back when I had a dual boot setup and it was solid. I had no idea MSN itself was completely gone. Guess I’ll have to have that conversation with my friends about switching. Thanks for the detailed info anyway!

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