Way back in January, I saw a demo of Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista at CES. Around that time, the Yahoo Messenger Blog said: “Windows Vista will be available starting January 30, 2007 and we expect to have Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista available in beta a few months later.”
That was more than six months ago. So where is it? The Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista page still says it’s “coming soon”… I guess it all depends on your definition of “soon.” As of June 27, that target was still off in the distance:
… we’re working harder than ever on Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista.
You will be able to download a Beta version in the coming months. I wish I could be more specific with a release date at this point because I know how much anticipation our users have had for the entirely new Vista-powered interface.
It actually does look like a pretty cool project. So why is it taking so long?
Ed Bott 
Perhaps waiting for Vista-SP1? Sadly, our IT department won’t even consider Vista until Microsoft “commits” to it with a Service Pack. I found that an odd response until it was explained simply: We don’t have time for bugs or to build workarounds when we discover something doesn’t work in Vista. Therefore, we can afford to wait.
Since IT often gets the leftover dollars in any mid-sized company, that’s understandable. They simply can’t afford to take the chance and create unnecessary work for themselves. I’m still deeply disappointed in driver development. After Vista, Microsoft should follow the GNU/Linux lead and provide a LiveDVD to allow users test the OS on existing hardware.
The problem is similar for Mac users. The latest stable build is 2.5.3, from June 2003 (!), and the latest beta – 3.0 – was released last June. Beta 2 is supposedly on its way but last I heard they were stuck over whether to make an OS X 10.3.x compatible program with fewer features, or a 10.4.x compatible one with more features.