I just read Roy’s blog post about XML-RPC interfaces and client side blog writers. I’ve tried out ScribeFire, which Roy reviews with:
ScribeFire seems *very* *very* unpolished. Their forums are filled with reports, and nobody responding to them. It didn’t seem to work very well with my test Tabulas account, so I’m not exactly filled with hope on that front.
I tried out ScribeFire a few months back and was initially very pleased with it. However, after a couple weeks of fighting with bugs I abandoned the plugin. It was just so damn buggy. Anyway, Roy mentioned Windows Live Writer; so, I downloaded and installed it. This is my first official post with it. Wow! this is frickin’ sweet. This is a really polished product. It’s even elegant, which is a clear indication this product was a Microsoft acquisition. It even has a bunch of useful plugins for things like Flickr, Picasa, paste from Visual Studio with syntax highlighting, and more.
I do have to complain about the install experience. It took forever. I have no idea what it was analyzing, but it "scanned" my computer for minutes. Also, it’s a damn shame Live Writer isn’t still open source as it was prior to the Microsoft acquisition of the company. Why Microsoft felt the need to close source this is beyond me. Doing so only diminishes the value of the product to users and Microsoft. Just idiotic.
Aaron Fulkerson 
The install experience was bad, but Windows Live Writer is AWESOME! I can’t switch back to MarsEdit, I find myself missing features like the Amazon plugin, the Flickr plugin, the SnagIT screen captures, and hCalendar plugin. It’s really, really well done. I’m surprised.
Is Windows Live Writer an acquisition? I didn’t think so. I’ll ask Angus.