MSN on a Mac? Virtual machine? Native?

Hey guys!

I’ve been dealing with this issue for quite a while but it got shooved underneath the tablecloth when I had an XP on my room..

Of course there’s the couple well-known clients that are natively available, but they miss one important feature: MSN Groups – a recently added feature that allows a chatroom-like experience, which me and my friends have been eagerly using and I can’t live without.

What client is there to use for a Mac to access the MSN network properly? Or how do you connect?

I recently got a new MacBook Pro. Now, I’ve been trying to migrate fully to it, to replace my old Acer that’s been sitting around – purchased a VGA cable so that I could maintain my 22” monitor. The only thing holding me back is MSN .

I’ve installed Parallels with Windows 7 on it, and then I can just use Windows Live Messenger. Problem is that Parellels eats away greatly at my processor, and thus my battery life. No problem when connected to the wall, but not that great when stuck in public transport.

I’ve tried the same thing with VirtualBox and Windows XP (darnit that took ages to install!), but again processor consumption is quite high, and the coherence mode of VBox is not too great (start bar just pops right on my dock)

My next attempt will probably be to install XP on parallels, as that’s probably less intensive than Windows 7. However, I’m starting to think I’m missconfiguring something in parallels.. or is it just supposed to consume a lot of my processor?

Now I wonder. How do you guys solve this issue?

Hove you tried Adium? I don’t use the group chat, but it seems it’s available with Adium.
FYI : http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=411128

Dude…Adium. Didn’t you Google?

WHAT !? Does adium support group chat?! I was quite sure I tested it thoroughly.. I’ll take a closer look

EDIT : Hoax. Darnit. I’m looking for MSN Groups, not a regular group chat where you invite people. Windows Live Messenger has this feature where you subscribe to a Group and then you can join it whenever you like, furthermore it functions very much like the old group chats. Just you don’t get booted for idling (as everybody is always there when he/she is online) and you don’t have to get invited (idem)

This is the feature I’m looking for: Windows Live Groups But it seems it only comes with WLM .

I guess I’ll have to figure out how to optimize parallels properly instead of finding a replacement IM client then Or, of course, write my own to be native for OSX in Xcode.. I do have a spare summer holiday..

Dude…Live Groups… Duuuddeeee.

Google groups all the way man!

Facebook pages all the way!

Only reason I’m using it is cause we (classmates and I) use it to chat with on msn. Nobody uses the page online I bet half of them don’t even know it exists