Hey, remember MSN/Windows Live Messenger? It was probably my favorite instant messaging program back in the day. I loved using the handwriting feature to trade little doodles with my friends. But Microsoft shut it down shortly after they bought Skype, and tried to migrate all of its users over to that inferior program instead.

Anyway, a group of dedicated fans has brought MSN back to life! You can go to https://escargot.chat and download versions of the client that are patched to point to their servers instead of Microsoft’s. They’ve patched a lot of different MSN Messenger builds, so you can pick whichever one you remember most fondly. I’m using 8.5.

Escargot also seems to be working on support for AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and other extinct instant messengers. Makes me feel pretty nostalgic. So, uh... if you want to message me on MSN, my username on there is Hlavco, as usual.