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After your inspiring speach about Jabber. You never really tell us exactly what it is, or provide a link for more info. A link wold be nice. We like links.

I'll try to help. Here is Jabber's main page. The first thing you need to do is Grab a client My personal favourite is Psi, a crossplatform slim and slick client that I feel is better because I can opt to have incoming events as messages or chats (or just leave them as they came), opt to pop up the window, automatically show the message, or just flash in the tray (especially important when you type over 100WPM and someone messages you out of the blue), it's open source, I've created a few patches to help make the client better (IMO), and it's under active development. Psi also has a message/chat history (searchable) and supports multiple identities (online at the same time, in the same client) and Jabber itself features multiple instances of a particular Jabber User (home/work, etc.). Features coming up in Psi are groupchat (in 0.8.7, due out Very Soon Now), File Transfer (that works behind NAT, coming in 0.9), pluggable storage for history and prefs (SQL, etc.) and other leading-edge stuff for Jabber. Justin (the lead developer of Psi) seems to have a real knack for making a solid, stable client and pushing the envelope with the new Jabber feature drafts.

Oh yes, Psi also supports SSL (client--server) and there is a Jabber draft for SSL between servers, so your inane chatter is kept private with strong encryption. *cough*ICQ*cough*

Psi is a Qt app, but there are CLI clients, Perl module clients, GTK clients, Win32-only clients, Java clients, JScript clients... Hell there's even a Flash client. The protocol is completely open.

Perhaps one of the biggest assets to Jabber is that it is decentralized. There are many public servers, and you can set your own up (hell even Debian has packages for it!). [warning - the public servers link has a session-id, I don't know if it'll work for anyone else]

The biggest problem with Jabber is that it is still a little tricky for newbies to get in to -- there is no "download this, it registers you with one of the common servers" links (not that I'm aware of anyway), so you need someone to either set it up for you or point you off to a public server. A lot of the clients are crap (a common problem with OSS, I'm afraid). Sometimes the transports (gateways to other IM systems, like ICQ, AIM, Y!, etc.) don't work because the other systems find a common server and shut down access to their network from it, but if you run your own server or you are on a small server, you won't even blip on their radar.

I really like it. I used to be an ICQ-head (my UIN is just over 1-mil) but when they started throwing up ads and adding more and more crap to the client I bailed) and I couldn't find a decent Jabber client (one that didn't pop up messages and take focus, how F#%#^T#$'ing irritating!) for a while, but now I am a very happy Jabber user. Hell even my wife, mom and grandmother use it (seriously) -- it works great for computer-cautious people because of the simplicity.

After your inspiring speach about Jabber. You never really tell us exactly what it is, or provide a link for more info. A link wold be nice. We like links.

I'll try to help. Here is Jabber's main page. The first thing you need to do is Grab a client My personal favourite is Psi, a crossplatform slim and slick client that I feel is better because I can opt to have incoming events as messages or chats (or just leave them as they came), opt to pop up the window, automatically show the message, or just flash in the tray (especially important when you type over 100WPM and someone messages you out of the blue), it's open source, I've created a few patches to help make the client better (IMO), and it's under active development. Psi also has a message/chat history (searchable) and supports multiple identities (online at the same time, in the same client) and Jabber itself features multiple instances of a particular Jabber User (home/work, etc.). Features coming up in Psi are groupchat (in 0.8.7, due out Very Soon Now), File Transfer (that works behind NAT, coming in 0.9), pluggable storage for history and prefs (SQL, etc.) and other leading-edge stuff for Jabber. Justin (the lead developer of Psi) seems to have a real knack for making a solid, stable client and pushing the envelope with the new Jabber feature drafts.

Oh yes, Psi also supports SSL (client--server) and there is a Jabber draft for SSL between servers, so your inane chatter is kept private with strong encryption. *cough*ICQ*cough*

Psi is a Qt app, but there are CLI clients, Perl module clients, GTK clients, Win32-only clients, Java clients, JScript clients... Hell there's even a Flash client. The protocol is completely open.

Perhaps one of the biggest assets to Jabber is that it is decentralized. There are many public servers, and you can set your own up (hell even Debian has packages for it!). [warning - the public servers link has a session-id, I don't know if it'll work for anyone else]

The biggest problem with Jabber is that it is still a little tricky for newbies to get in to -- there is no "download this, it registers you with one of the common servers" links (not that I'm aware of anyway), so you need someone to either set it up for you or point you off to a public server. A lot of the clients are crap (a common problem with OSS, I'm afraid). Sometimes the transports (gateways to other IM systems, like ICQ, AIM, Y!, etc.) don't work because the other systems find a common server and shut down access to their network from it, but if you run your own server or you are on a small server, you won't even blip on their radar.

I really like it. I used to be an ICQ-head (my UIN is just over 1-mil) but when they started throwing up ads and adding more and more crap to the client I bailed) and I couldn't find a decent Jabber client (one that didn't pop up messages and take focus, how F#%#^T#$'ing irritating!) for a while, but now I am a very happy Jabber user. Hell even my wife, mom and grandmother use it (seriously) -- it works great for computer-cautious people because of the simplicity.

Jabber is an open protocol for instant messaging, based on XML. It allows for communication similar to current aim, icq and msn messenger protocols/programs. However, it is able to surpass them based on the openness of the protocol (lots of non-braindead clients for many platforms), features such as ssl encryption on messages (if client and server support it) and through use of transports which allow users of a jabber network to openly interface with clients on other networks (msn messenger, icq, aim, etc).

The ability to log on with only one username/pass and have all contacts on all of your networks be contacted through a consistant interface alone is worth trying jabber out. I recommend psi as a good starting client, however you can find many other clients on jabbercentral .

Jabber Central (more pratical information on jabber)
Jabber Powered (an initiative to create products based on Jabber)
Jabber Studio (the development hub of the Jabber community)
Old Jabber documentation
Jabber FAQ
A nice overview of Jabber
Jogger (a jabber based weblog)
Jabber Python module
Unofficial Jabber user guide
Programming Perl(an O'Reilly book)

Ooh. It frosts my shorts to see how someone can use "Ecosystem" as a metaphor for a One Microsoft Way. Ecosystems require diversity to be self-regulating. Ecosystems survive ecological crises by having lots of different species, all evolving separately in their niche. When conditions change, some species suffer, while others thrive. That's a diversified ecosystem.

The open source community exhibits that kind of behavior. Some people ask "Why are there so many different Jabber clients? Shouldn't we all get together and concentrate on one good client for each OS? Not if you want a healthy 'ecosystem'... Let a thousand projects bloom... 10 might become great products. 'Natural selection' will cause a lot of them to fail, but the rest will succeed in their niche.

Opensource software development even allows for transgenic mutation, if the code is copyleft. The 'DNA' (our code), can move around, joining other projects, making robust solutions for each niche. If conditions change, some projects will suffer, but others will rise.

Bill Gates thinks that Capitalism and Innovation work, because it's worked for him. Meanwhile, $209 for Visio? What's up with THAT? It's MacDraw for Org Charts... Lemme out of "that" ecosystem pronto!
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There are tons of clients

But seriously...

AOL should be *irrelevant* to our IM needs. (the "we" here being /.'ers) Why should we be beholden to AOL, MSN, or any of the others when there's already a great alternative out there in Jabber? There are plenty of good clients out there. For Windows, there's Psi Messenger, for Linux/*BSD, there's the excellent Gabber, and for OSX, there's JabberFox, and Mac OS uh... "<X" has Jabbernaut*.

And, for the uber-geeks among us, you can even run your own Jabber *server*, too.

Also, contrary to popular belief, it's really not very hard to get all your current ICQ/AOL/MSN addicted friends to try out Jabber. I thought it would be difficult when I first started trying to convince my friends and family to use Jabber to talk to me, but they were actually happy to try it. People are so accustomed to running 2 or 3 IM programs (thank you, proprietary networks and protocols!) that they don't seem to mind one more. I've even gotten a few compliments on Jabber's lack of IM spam or ads. Plus, Psi for windows is pretty damn stable, so no worries about recommending a broken client. (how embarassing!)

So before you bitch about AOL, DO something about it instead. Support an already open, and far *superior* IM standard. Because it is AOL's right to say who does and doesn't get to use their networks and IM servers - after all, it's their stuff. But conversely, it's OUR right to say "FSCK YOU AOL!" and use and promote something BETTER.

*(for the sake of fairness, Jabbernaut really sucked hard last time I saw it, so Mac users not running OS X have my sympathy. Perhaps you should try one of the Java clients, like Shaolo...)

But seriously...

AOL should be *irrelevant* to our IM needs. (the "we" here being /.'ers) Why should we be beholden to AOL, MSN, or any of the others when there's already a great alternative out there in Jabber? There are plenty of good clients out there. For Windows, there's Psi Messenger, for Linux/*BSD, there's the excellent Gabber, and for OSX, there's JabberFox, and Mac OS uh... "<X" has Jabbernaut*.

And, for the uber-geeks among us, you can even run your own Jabber *server*, too.

Also, contrary to popular belief, it's really not very hard to get all your current ICQ/AOL/MSN addicted friends to try out Jabber. I thought it would be difficult when I first started trying to convince my friends and family to use Jabber to talk to me, but they were actually happy to try it. People are so accustomed to running 2 or 3 IM programs (thank you, proprietary networks and protocols!) that they don't seem to mind one more. I've even gotten a few compliments on Jabber's lack of IM spam or ads. Plus, Psi for windows is pretty damn stable, so no worries about recommending a broken client. (how embarassing!)

So before you bitch about AOL, DO something about it instead. Support an already open, and far *superior* IM standard. Because it is AOL's right to say who does and doesn't get to use their networks and IM servers - after all, it's their stuff. But conversely, it's OUR right to say "FSCK YOU AOL!" and use and promote something BETTER.

*(for the sake of fairness, Jabbernaut really sucked hard last time I saw it, so Mac users not running OS X have my sympathy. Perhaps you should try one of the Java clients, like Shaolo...)

"One area of P2P that saw plenty of development in 2001 was instant messaging."

Yahoo! IM, ICQ, AIM, etc. are not P2P. They are pretty server-centric systems.

I think I'm going to go try Jabber.

I'm always suprised how little support the Jabber project is getting. They've done some fantastic things there.

The Jabber system can communicate with almost every IM system out there (ICQ, MSN, etc.) There's even IRC support.

Also, the whole thing is completely cross-platform. There are even clients for handhelds (http://www.jabbercentral.org/clients/).

And do I have to mention it's entirily GPL?

And, don't forget about JabberCentral -- a great place for Jabber news and Jabber downloads.

Alex Bischoff

I have been attempting to use Jabber the last year but it was just not good enough.

But Jabber is finally getting to the point were it has replace my ICQ client.

I am using winjab as my client which has been very useful. All my contacts use ICQ and Iactually prefer winjab over the official ICQ client. You can find a full list of clients here

Now I am thinking of telling my contacts about jabber and hoping for them to change

Well Jabber can at least help you for now. There are several transports you can import into the native jabber system so that you can communicate with various IM's. While Jabber is far away from perfect for now i see a lot of promise and it works(at least when sending text messages to other IM's)
you can get the latest Jabber news and a roundup of clients at JabberCentral. Various Plattforms are supported right now.