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For GAIM functionality in OS X you can try Adium X It doesn't do IRC (by design choice), but the functionality for a lot of protocols is there.

(Also, IIRC, Adium X does use libgaim.)

Yes, they should.

Adium, a mutliple protocol instant messenger client for Mac OS X is an outstanding example. It is both simple and elegant in that it can be configured to stay completely out of your way and it takes advantage of the conventions provided by the "standard" user interface to deliver notifications rather than some cheesy, custom, in-your-face approach. The interface is very clean and consistent. It is obvious whoever is responsible for its interface understands typography and layout. When compared to many other clients, it seems to offer exactly what you need. Load up the most other clients and you are faced with a torrent of ads, and other useless features that clutter up the experience.

http://www.adiumx.com/ which includes:

Grouping of nicks under a single nick and holding for "pounces".

Transparent encryption.

Ability to reliably use the assigned nicks to refer to an intended user.

Make user icons available reliably.

Make client reliable and stable.

Last, but not least, make file transfers reliable across all protocols, which did requiring opening up ports for AIM transfers: 1026 and 1027.

Reasonably sure that last one is documented.

Mac users typically love their proprietary software more than pc-equivalents, often, even if unreasonably.

Adium makes a good IM client.
In other news, Mac OS X makes a good operating system.

One of my favorite features of an IM client (which is present in both Google Talk and Adium) is the automatic grouping of multiple IMs from the same person. For example, if I type 5 lines before you type another, it only shows my name once with all 5 messages. I think it makes reading conversations much more pleasant :)

Here's a screenshot of how Adium does it:
http://www.adiumx.com/screenshots.php?show=overvie w.jpg

For my PC i use Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
For my Mac i use Adiumx - http://www.adiumx.com/

Both cover the 3 networks i'm registered with (plus more), ICQ / Jabber (via GoogleTalk) / MSN. But i don't use anything bar the chat and file sending functionality. If i want to voice chat to somebody, i use my cell phone. Or if i'm really feeling lazy, then Skype...

The common goodness with these two, they're super simple, and they just work. I use the base install for both, that's the minimum amount of functionality. You can extend both with plugins, but who really needs all that bloat. AdiumX has tabbed chatting (that can group chats at a protocol level), and growl support, which is very pretty :)

I've tried a bunch of other clients, but they all come with too many bells and whistles. As mentioned, all i want to do is chat. That's it. And thats what IM is about, instant messaging. If you need any other functionality, like voice or whatever, then use the phone or send an email...

If you could combine features from all of the IM clients out there, what would they be?

Adium? ;)

As does Aduim.

My bad, i forgot the x on that.

http://www.adiumx.com/ is what I use.

carry on!

Use Adium (http://www.adiumx.com./ It's had encryption for a long time now and doesn't limit you to AOL AIM.

There were rumors flying that this update would include an improved version of iChat that would support tabbed chats in a single window, like Adium does. Alas, no joy. I like Adium well enough, but I like the tighter integration of iChat with the rest of the OS (showing who's online in Mail.app, for instance).

The best IM clients IMO for OS X that have Jabber support (along with practically every other network) are Adium and Proteus (both of which use GAIM).

http://www.adiumx.com/ Adium works and is based on libGaim

Try Adium which has a nice Aqua GUI and uses libgaim underneath to support every IM service.

I use Adium for exactly the reasons you suggest, however it's not perfect and the article does mention some of its greatest short-comings: multimedia. It's wonderful for text-only IM but as soon as you want audio or video you have to fire up iChat. A real pain. Not that iChat is bad, it's just that one of the reasons I like Adium is to avoid having to open multiple IM clients!

I'm a mac user and I love Adium X and would love to see it get ported to Linux. It's such an easy program to customize, very nice interface, and absolutely free. Just seems like a great fit for Linux in my opinion.

You can get Adium from Adiumx.com.

Huh, so is that where the downloads for Linux & OS X will be?

Linux/OS X(X11): http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
OS X: http://www.adiumx.com/

I don't use Windows, so I haven't been able to try Google's client, but I honestly can't see why anyone would want to use anything other than Gaim or one of its derivatives (i.e. Adium). One Gaim client can support unlimited [I am assuming] accounts using AIM, Jabber (GoogleTalk), Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, Zephyr, Novell Groupwise, .Mac, Lotus Sametime, and somthing called Gadu-Gadu. Why bother with different clients for each messaging protocal?

- Adam

All you need is a Jabber-compatible Instant Messaging client (such as Apple's iChat, or gaim), and a GMail address.

I'd say stick with Adium for now.

If you're on OS X, give Adium a try. It's excellent.

Who cares about Trillian? There are lots of free/open source IM clients that work just as well. Adium is a good one for OS X.

And thanks to libgaim, Adium can use a plethora of different IM protocols so you can keep track of friends and contacts that use different services without needing multiple clients.

It also has the best UI, features and stability/resourse use of any of the OS X chat clients (including iChat), in my opinion.

Proteus is a terrible client when compared to Adium. Try it, you'll probably switch.

For Mac users tired of having AIM, MSN and Yahoo! open at the same time, the solution is here

If you're using OS X Adium is the best client.

does trillian not have a log search functionality?

Adium does. Although Adium is only for OSX. ;)

Also, useful is being able to grep the IM logs and also search with spotlight.

Have you tried Adium? It's compatible with AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.

Uh, defensive patents are a common thing in all industries.

however, I do believe there's prior art, here. Perhaps the patent is invalid!

Adium instant messenger for OSX has smiley plugins where you can design new smilies (ie: make +<:-) into a pope smiley) and use them in your IMs.

They've had that in there for quite some time... at least a year or 2. maybe longer? I never used theplugin system, as there haven't been anything I liked created and I like the defaults just fine.

People just enjoy jumping down Microsoft's throat because they have nothing better to do.

I'd say "you must be new here," but this really has nothing to do with microsoft. This is a perfect example of why software patents are bullshit and evil (or vice versa).

Uh, defensive patents are a common thing in all industries.

however, I do believe there's prior art, here. Perhaps the patent is invalid!

Adium instant messenger for OSX has smiley plugins where you can design new smilies (ie: make +People just enjoy jumping down Microsoft's throat because they have nothing better to do.

I'd say "you must be new here," but this really has nothing to do with microsoft. This is a perfect example of why software patents are bullshit and evil (or vice versa).

Dvorak's on to something when he said people who prefer aesthetics could now buy a Mac to run Windows on it (though the reverse will most likely not be true, i.e. you can't run OS X on non-Mac hardware) - left unsaid is, of course, that some people will buyh these machines to run Linux instead.

Targeting a Mac will be easier, sure - some developers will probably buy a Mac and dual-boot (or virtualize) Windows or Linux on it, so there will be more Mac developers.

Thing is, most free software types won't consider OS X free enough - I'm switching back to Linux, personally; and a lot of OSS running on OS X share code with their Linux/Unix/X11 counterparts. Adium uses Gaim as its engine. Dashboard is based on WebCore, which is forked from KHTML - porting it back to KDE would not be too hard, and guess what, there is a GTK port. If efforts like gDesklets flounder, we can possibly port Dashboard wholesale to Linux.

Firefox and Thunderbird runs better on Linux (seriously. Try them on both platforms), and if Dvorak thinks OpenOffice is not user-friendly, he has not tried running it on a Mac yet. Oh, John, OO.o looks much better on Linux than on Windows too - if you're running the 1.1.x series, the Windows version does not have all the UI improvements that GNOME and KDE developers from Novell, Red Hat and others throw into it.

Lots of fun things are happening in the OSS world, especially on the desktop front - Sun and Novell are doing usability testing, Gtk# is making waves, in fact, F-Spot is the best photo-library tool I've seen, certainly looks faster than iPhoto and has cool things like Flickr integration built-in. Don't count us out yet.

I know most people out there don't use Mac, but I tell ya, Adium is the best chat software I've ever used. Better than Gaim (no disrespect), better than trillian, and even better than the other Mac multi-service chat clients. It's got web-based CSS compliant visual themes that you can customize, animated icons, custom soundsets, etc. etc.. Gaim definitely comes in second though, and is clearly the best for linux. I love that app. But really, I'd use anything except the standard chat clients of ANY of these services, except when video is necessary... *sigh*

He's had to install AOL's AIM just to talk with his co-workers.

Small suggestion: try Adium for an IM client. Among other things, it works with multiple services, and allows you to customize the colors of your message windows.

More on topic, I can confirm that Tiger breaks the Cisco VPN. Very annoying.

Actually, Adium uses LibGaim, written by, obviously, the Gaim folks.

I switched 3 weeks ago and have been very, very happy

I added a 12" PowerBook in addition to my Athlon desktop last month, and I'll tell you why I did, and why I am glad I did

• QuickSilver - with 5 keystrokes, max, launch any app or bookmark
• Adium, an AIM & MSN (and more) client that I wish were on windows
• Weight: 5 pounds. Very portable. It basically has the length and width of a piece of paper. Still a little taller than one
• Monitor: Very crisp
• 2 finger scrolling: very useful and easy
• $1299 at the local Apple Store, with edu discount

This laptop will probably convince me to buy a Mac desktop next. I keep trying to use Quicksilver on my Windows machine. I keep wishing the software I had on my Mac were available on my PC.

Yes, my iPod helped me become more comfortable with the Apple brand name before I bought my PowerBook. I used an old PowerBook at work before, and that got me hooked too.

I bought the laptop right before I left for the Middle East (Qatar to be specific) and wanted it to store images on. It cost a little bit more than a new, larger memory card. But it's been very, very worth it

check out Adium. It's a full-fledged OS X app running gaim to connect to the various IM networks. I'm not sure if it's in the latest public build or not (i build from source whenever there are significant updates), but encryption is definitely a feature.

Gaim does compile easily on OS X, but it looks ugly and doesn't seem like a Mac app.

Also, Adium uses gaimlib and works very nicely - I prefer it to any other IM client.

I use Adium on OS X for AIM, and I have it automatically set to log everything. Currently both my G5 and Pismo log to boot drives, but I back the logs up on an external hard disk on a regular basis.

It basically acts like an automatic journal/diary, as I tend to talk about most significant, or even sometimes insignificant events with friends and family.

The next version (0.8) of Adium for OS X will have built-in (and extremely easy to use... it can be set as the default) Off-the-Record messaging to allow for encrypted IMs.

Give it a shot in Gaim, Pandion, Adium, etc. Jabber.org has a list of public jabber servers you can register with (you register within your client) and from there can begin toying with it. It usually dosn't matter what server you pick, as you can message and have buddies on other servers, as well as use services (like transports to other protocols, chat rooms) on other servers. The most popular is jabber.org, but you can use another server or install an XMPP compliant server of your own.

More info here, thanks to wikipedia.

For GAIM, a port of Adium from MacOS X might be a possibility. Adium is a Cocoa app (=OpenStep) and uses libgaim.

Between Adium for MSN, Skype for outgoing calls (from me when I needed to make them, and incoming calls from my friends who all were on skype), and email I had my communication covered.

This also had the only slightly intended benefit of freeing me from having to rush to answer the phone, ever, or having annoying group members be able to call me. Depending on how you choose to live your life, you don't have to be at anyone's call. You're not beholden to them. You may not be a beautiful and unique snowflake, but you can control when/where you talk to people.

In an increasingly connected world, the luxury becomes being out of touch.

(Yes I believe in technology. Yes, my iBook usually leaves the house with me. No I don't have a cellphone. No, nobody wants to talk to me anyway. This way I save money. It all works out. It's much like being able avoid viruses, even on windows, if your computer is unplugged and locked in a closet. You disconnect, they can't get you. This disconnection leaves you in control.)

You can have your peace and quiet. You just have to want it.

Well, if you're using the AIM (Oscar) protocol with a different client you're technically still using something made by AOL.

I haven't used the official AIM client on any computer since '97 or so. It's just not a very good client. There's plenty of alternatives.

On Linux and Windows I use GAIM, and on a Mac I use Adium (which is really just GAIM with a redesigned UI). I know some people who use Trillian on Windows and iChat on the Mac, but I personally don't care for either of them.

Honestly, I just wish people would give up AIM and switch over to Jabber. It's perhaps missing a few features of AIM, but it's easily extendable (it uses XML, so adding client-specific features is pretty simple) and at least you're not relying on AOL.

Speaking of shareware, it's probably worth mentioning that right now, OS X has an incredible selection of shareware available.

Seriously, there are so many astoundingly good programs out there for free/cheap for solving all those pesky annoyances. Independent developers are pumping out titles rivaling the quality of software produced by big companies. It's really a testament to the APIs put out by Apple.

Just to name a few,
quicksilver - data access tool. one of the most innovative programs i've ever used.
CSSEdit - simplistic stylesheet creator/editor. allows idiots to produce valid CSS
Transmit - wonderful FTP client (my only gripe is that this should've been intergrated into the OS itself)
Acquisition - one of the best p2p clients known to man.
Adium X - the power of gaim + the beauty of OSX = priceless
BBEditBBEdit - so it's a bit more well-known than the others here, but is still a marvelous editor. a bit expensive and out of my budget. I use jEdit instead (which is cross-platform, BTW)

just to name a few..... (feel free to add more)

Well, on os x i use http://www.adiumx.com/ (gaim in a cocoa interface) and on Windows i still to this day use http://www.miranda-im.org/, and did do so ever since ICQ clocked the official client with ad's.

The main issue i have with trillian is that is uses so many resources on doing a thing that souldent use any resources, plus the app is just ... well, slow.

But it is really cool that they have gotten the video conference support, i really hope to see a OSS app that can do that. (yes i know of http://gaim-vv.sf.net/ - but it just doesnt work all that well)

Thats nice, but you should really give Adium a try. Not only is it completely free, it uses LibGaim as it's backend and has a more beautiful and customizable front end then Proteus ever will.

We don't need trillian for Mac. Adium (site seems to be down ATM) is the best IM client out there on any platform IMO.

There's not a Mac user out there who would possibly want Trillian when there's both Proteus, Adium and Fire.

I've always found Trillian to be really bloated, lacking in features, incompatible and generally just an embarrasing piece of software. It didn't even have server contact list syncing! The new version looks promising though. I wonder if their Rendezvous chat is compatible with Apple's (it'd be quite silly if it isn't).

-- Tested it--
Figures, Rendezvous is Pro only. And yay, surprise, the interface is still bloated and designed by someone who should stay away from an interface editor. What the hell is up with a minimum height of about 100 pixels just for toolbar with useless icons, a tab bar that I don't want, a titlebar for a *window in a window* (who the hell came up with that stupid window-in-window idea, anyway?), and twenty pixels of font editing buttons (really, I don't edit my chat text often enough to need buttons available at all times)?

Not only that, the View menu can only enable and disable UI elements that should be automatic (or disablers that are redundant - why would I want to disable the part of the interface where I read messages? The part where I write text? Wouldn't it then be smarter to open whichever chat part you're actually using (video, audio) in a separate window? (Think iChat)), and the Options menu presents me with *twelve* submenus (Who forbade option dialogs?).

Congratulations, Trillian team. You have successfully written an app with an interface that is even worse than MSN Messenger's. Again.

(btw, on Gaim -- Gaim has a nice share of features. I got my hopes up when I saw that its interface had been updated. However, that interface, too, is either bloated or just plain space-wasting, depending on how you configure it. That leaves us with zero (0, nil, none) chat clients with a decent interface on Windows (that I know of). Does anyone know of any reasonable apps? (Don't you dare mentioning Miranda) )

Adium doesn't have all the features of Trillian yet, but it's getting nicer each release. Plus it supports more IM protocols (it's based on libgaim).