I nay be confused here, but I have a question

Could somebody tell me how FOUR chat windows would be better than ONE with tabs?

The other windows were sleeker, slicker and more intutive. That's why.

Didn't you know? Multiple squares are a lot more sleek and intuitive than one box with tabs! DUH

In what way? The IM tabs haven't changed significantly, the chat bar at the bottom hasn't changed.

The main change is that the history window got merged into the IM window (seems like an improvement to me), and the Friends window got merged into the former New IM tab of the IM window (my opinion withheld for now).

So I don't understand which four chat windows are being discussed, or how they were in any way sleeker, slicker, or more intuitive.

Simple. Try IMing while watching chat history(and not miss anything) in a busy area.

Rip the history tab (now called Near Me, which I agree is not inturitive) out of the IM window.

Because the "new and improved" system takes up too much screen real estate for simple use, and is too cumbersome for heavy multitasking.

Seconded. If it was shorter, I wouldn't mind it as much - or, I'd at least reserve judgement until I'd played with it some more. Right now, I don't care for it - rather lose 10% of my screen across the bottom than 20% in a corner.

...or you haven't figured it out yet.

This new version is actually a little easier to use than the firstlook one was. I dont know if it's because of any changes or if I've just figured out where to look for things. I have noticed it can be resized to a pretty small size...a bit smaller than I remember last time I bothered with it.

It can be resized down to four lines.

I struggled with it for weeks. If it can't be "figured out" in weeks, there's something wrong.

The IM windows can be set back into tab mode by clicking the tear away button again. Just found that out.

Here's, more exactly, what's wrong with the new window:

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/3482/deadspacevc5.jpg

The amount of completely *dead space* is STAGGERING.

Though some designs are better than others, the main issue as to ease-of-use of an interface depends mainly on how much experience one has in using it.

The new communication interface may turn out to be a wonderful thing for me.

However, I would have liked to have put off learning a new interface to a time at which I am more awake and expecting to face the challenge of learning something new. I was hit with it last night when I did a logout to clear the texture cache. I was expecting to just resume the work I had already started when I re-started the program. I wasn't expecting to explore a new interface late at night.

But hey, now I know not to trust Linden Labs when it gives me the message that the upgrade will improve performance, when the upgrade doesn't improve performance and instead has unexpected surprises. I guess when I read that the new viewer would improve performance, I got over-excited about the prospect that some of my recurring problems with Second Life would be resolved. Not so. Live and learn.

I must admit, after a few hours faffing about with the new communications window, I decided it was about as much use as a fart in a tumble dryer, and proceeded to log out.

That's kinda what I was saying.

SqueezeOne is my new SL Forums hero.

Yeah, but it's not where you think it is.

That's just because I don't know where you live.

You would only be warm if I lived under Philip's desk.

The Chatterbox is 2 to 3 times as tall as the old Chat History or IM windows were.

In the old system, I could have Chat history at the top of my screen, one inch tall, and the IM window mostly hidden under that, takig up an additional quarter inch vertically. The rest of my screen was wide open. I could see chat history scrolling by, and when anything changed in an IM dab I could click the tab, reply, then click on the Chat history again to resume monitoring that. If a new IM came in, it just added a new tab to that inch-tall IM pane.

In the Chatterbox, I am stuck with something that won't resize to less than 2 inches tall, without hacking my system to change the xml for the UI. If some kind soul in the forums hadn't posted explicit instructions on what to change to make the chatterbox able to resize smaller, I certainly never would have found a work-around.

So I open the Chatterbox to start a new IM. There goes half my 800 x 600 window, covered by that box. I tear off that IM chat, and now 3/4 of my screen is blind. I close the Chatterbox, and I can now resize the IM to an inch high.

But then I want to check Chat History. Whoops! There goes that huge UI again! Tear off the history, and close the screen-eater...

So I set up the torn off IM window and torn off Chat History where I used to... But this IM window isn't tabbed. A new IM comes in, and I have to open Chatterbox and tear off yet ANOTHER window, then close the screen eater...

Now I have three inch-tall windows open, and heck, I may as well dock them all in the Chatterbox again! They take up more room than it did!

But with them docked, I can't follow an IM and Chat at the same time. I have to constantly flip back to chat history, and then can't see...

ARGHHHH!

Bottom line. To get the same usability I had before, I have to run in an 800 x 900 window, instead of the 800 x 600 window I used to use. Otherwise I may as well be in a text-only RP forum.

Yeah yeah yeah...just cut and paste next time.

...sorry I don't swing that way.

It's far easier to read text in a space that's wider than it is tall. It's also far easier to use a list in a space that's taller than it is wide.

Stuffing something that should be narrow and tall into something that's wide and short just doesn't work, unless you happen to have a very limited amount of friends.

Also, you already had your friends and groups listed in the "New IM" tab before, so the communicate window doesn't really add any functionality specific to IMs, it just presents it differently.

If you didn't want to use the separate friends window before, you used "New IM" instead. If you didn't want to use "New IM", you used the friends window instead. Now you don't get a choice anymore so that's where the step backwards comes in.

They should have just kept the old friends and groups window and fancied up "New IM" without wasting extra space and then in addition to being able to dock History, everyone would have been happy and it would either not have mattered to people, or it would have been seen as a welcome improvement.