Hotmail account on linux lite acer aspire one messenger ?

i have a new acer aspire one netbook (linux operating system) and when i go into the messenger icon and add an account, when i try to sign in a box pops up and says





'Our protocol is not supported by the server.'





i'm able to use my yahoo account and i know that hotmail is possible i'm just not sure how to get it up and running.
Hotmail account on linux lite acer aspire one messenger ?
Hotmail is a constant pain with Linux because Microsoft deliberately writes code to check your browser and or OS. There was an article on slashdot last year about just that.





I personally find Hotmail to be not worth the hassle of keeping an account there. The only reason I had a Hotmail account was so I could talk on MSN.





Here are some ways you can do this.





First I highly recommend switching to Gmail. Feature wise it is light years ahead of Hotmail. Doesn't care what OS you are running. Gives you more space, less hassle, doesn't spam you to death with paid spam like Hotmail does and also has a built in chat protocol.





To use Hotmail under Linux you can do a few things. Probably the easiest way is use Opera and have it report itself as IE. This fools Microsoft's very limited programming ability.





Another option install IE under Wine and access Hotmail that way.





A more complex way but one that if you get it working offers lots of other potential benefits such as running old windows XP games and such is to install a virtual machine using the XEN kernel.





Hotmail is the only place you'll have such trouble. All the other online email at least major ones are fully compatable with Linux. Microsoft intentionally makes it difficult for Linux users and sometimes even MAC users to get to Hotmail. Which to me is a great reason to boycott Hotmail.