amsn (among with other packages) have been masked (and a last-rites message was sent) due to "MSN service termination". The source mentioned in the email is just a Forbes article, which, among other things, refers that MSN will only be available in china until the end of this month. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/92772 I don't believe this is a reliable source to warrant a package mask. This is just the same kind of news that were around a year or so ago (after which the MSN service was not shut down). And amsn is still working for me, being able to exchange messages between two Microsoft accounts. Reproducible: Always
Hi Nuno, speaking as a member of net-im herd: Are you interested in (proxy-)maintaining these packages? Is there still any real need to use these package? KMess 2.0.6.2 released - 2012-03-02 aMSN 0.98.9 released - 2012-05-25 Both upstreams seem to be inactive. If you want to connect to the MS network multi-protocol messengers like net-im/pidgin should work, too. Please also keep in mind, that it might stop working after 2014-10-31 [1]. Cheers, Manuel [1] http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/29/6082199/msn-messenger-shutting-down-15-years-history
According to what I've read and briefly discussed on IRC, there seems to be code for a newer version of aMSN, although the last release is indeed older. I'm not sure if upstream inactivity by itself is a good reason to stop using/providing a package, but I also don't think I'd be the ideal person to maintain these packages, as I've never used KMess and I barely use aMSN (although I use it once in a while, when needed). I am aware that there are other clients that are able to connect to the MSN Messenger network. And the posts about the MSN Messenger service shutting down are most likely FUD, see [1,2]. This is not the first time that several articles suggest that MSN Messenger will "shut down", and it'd not be the first time when, after that, the MSN Messenger service was not "shut down". [1] http://messengergeek.wordpress.com/messenger-status/ [2] http://messengergeek.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/when-is-messenger-really-shutting-down/ Still, if the only reason for these packages to be masked is the Forbes article, IMHO they should be unmasked. If there are other reasons to keep some of these packages masked, these should be the reasons mentioned in the mask. (It seems to be the case that there were other reasons to mask amsn, according to the OP on the gentoo-dev thread.)
Just a small note that the MSN Messenger service is still working today, November 2, 2014, through net-im/amsn. No changes were observed since October 31, 2014.
is this still working today?
I can try, but I don't think so. Some time ago, Microsoft blocked some Application IDs, including the one(s) used by AMSN[0]. While this specific change has known solutions, I got the idea the AMSN team was not interested in updating AMSN so that it would work again. [0] https://messengergeek.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/most-third-party-messenger-clients-have-gone-offline-temporarily/
There have been further changes in the MSN Messenger service (they now block non-HTTPS connections, apparently), and AMSN is now completely unable to connect to my Passport accounts.
It needs to be removed along with all the remaining MSN messenger clients.
Note that my comment is specifically about amsn, other clients may be still working.
it is futile to keep around clients for a dead service
the package has been removed
