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This is just an incremental version update. For the licq client at least, it's a one-byte fix in /usr/bin/licq

For me I want to have secure messaging. I installed gpg-agent and GPGME and Licq http://www.licq.org/ gets the GPG stuff done automatically for ICQ, AIM and MSN. There is also an SSL option for direct connections.. think it only works with ICQ and AIM though.

Yes, you can.

In fact I released a webfront to my ICQ clone, here is the screenshot:
http://www.licq.org/Gifs/licq_licqweb_usage.jpg

Messages and changes in status get sent to the user in real-time, all thanks to Ajax, Web2.0, whatever you wanna call it.

And licq and ickle and Trillian and...

What about the SSL support in LICQ, which is a Linux ICQ client? I'm yet to actually find someone else who has it compiled in to try it with, but I'm still hoping.

May I instead suggest Miranda for ICQ?

By default it's bare bones basic. You can add all the functionality you want with plugins. It's very stable (though some plugins can cause crashes)
Plugins are also available for AIM, Yahoo and MSN if you desire.
Win32 only though. But I find licq (the latest version) to be very stable for *nix.

Miranda:
http://miranda-icq.sf.net

Licq:
http://www.licq.org

I don't see what the big deal about this is, it's not like you couldn't find this stuff out in the past without this.... and for free no less.

I work at a college, and the network admin here wanted to try out this mini-distro called PLAC for Portable Linux Auditing CD. Basically it's supposed to be small enough to be burned onto one of those business card sized CD's, and they're bootable. So basically you can pop it into a CD drive and boot a machine to this auditing software. Well, since he wanted to try it out, we setup a small box just inside the firewall here to see what it could find. Well... to be honest, it found a lot. It could grab URL's that people were looking at, emails that they were sending out, and yes, even AIM messages.

The amazing thing is that it would sniff the network packets, but yet report everything in a simple, easily-readable format. It's amazing how much private stuff on the internet isn't private.

This makes me appreciate licq with an SSL connection even more.

If you're a windows user, miranda icq is very nice, tiny, and skinnable. If you're a linux user, no doubt you've heard of licq or Kit. And if you want something more than just icq, both Trillian (windows) and jabber (linux) are good alternatives to using the default icq bloated adware.

Watashi wa watashi.

While typically I keep my real-time messaging to IRC, I do use ICQ (well, licq) to talk to one or two non-tech people who can't cope with IRC. I've tried using AIM a couple of times, but I really didn't like it - it seemed to have fewer features than I was used to in ICQ.

So, other than the fact that AIM has many more users than ICQ, what is the advantage of using it instead?

LICQ supports secure (as far as SSL is secure) communication via openSSL. AFAIK it works only with other licq users, though.

It's quite stable, works great, and supports the latest ICQ protocol.

Licq download page

ICQ was bought by AOL some time ago. There was discussion of mergeing the two services, but so far the only thing we've seen in ICQ moving to the AIM protocol. AIM and ICQ have somewhat different userbases however. AIM is primarily used by Americans and the technological neophytes. ICQ has a much more international userbase, and the users tend to be more technologically savvy.

Personally, I hate the Mirabilis ICQ client (the default install has how many buttons?), but I despise the AIM client (no offline messages and the bing-bong-here's-a-window-right-in-your-face interface. Note to developers: never autopopup windows on me, it's very rude.

The worst part of all of this is that the one client I really did like, Licq is completely floundering.

Which version of Everybuddy were you using? IIRC M$N support is broken in the latest stable release. If that was what you wanted Everybuddy for, try to track down a beta from just before the stable release. It works fairly well and supports MSN, though it's ICQ support is kinda limited. I don't think it supported file transfers, etc.

If you just need simple ICQ support (messaging, not much else) try this. I still prefer licq (preferably 1.0.4, I've had lots of trouble with 1.0.3) for my IM needs.

Taking this...
Besides, as with the many alternative mp3 players, there are other linux distrobutions out there.
...into account and your dislike of AOL as a company, why choose to use AOL's ICQ software? There are plenty of alternative ICQ clients out there.

About the only ICQ feature it doesn't have (yet) are file transfers. But, then I just want an IM client. I have ftp covered already.

There are lots of free e-mail forwarding services on the web, use Google to look for some..

About ICQ authoriztaion, strange you mentioned it, but due to flaws in ICQ security, anyone can add you to their contact list without your autorization (even without you knowning it). See for example licq which I consider to be the best ICQ client available.

There's KIllustrator (photo-editing), Konqueror and Mozilla (web browsing, HTML editing etc), and again a good many others.

Oh, and anti-aliased fonts are very very nice, but that's just a bonus of a superior toolkit...

Check out:

• licq - a nice qt-based client
• gnomeicu - a nice GNOME client

There are others, but these are the 2 best I've found. I seem to prefer licq, but that's a personal preference. YMMV.

Disclaimer: I use the CVS version of Licq and the nightly builds of this gtk+ plugin (there is more than one; this is the one that rocks).

Disclaimer: I use the CVS version of Licq and the nightly builds of this gtk+ plugin (there is more than one; this is the one that rocks).

Disclaimer: I use the CVS version of Licq and the nightly builds of this gtk+ plugin (there is more than one; this is the one that rocks).

www.licq.org

Silly me, I should have thought to post it. It really is an excellent peice of software.

GAIM
GnomeICU
LICQ

Considering what AOL did to Mozilla, you're probably better off with an open-source clone.

--
Kiro

The new version of licq supports encrypted messages.
So long as you have another way of verifying identity, (Secure Shell Server Key, Certificate on their webserver, They tell you where you have a birthmark no one knows about, etc.)
It can be very private and secure.
you said:
"every last scrap of information about you will now be collected unless it's your e-mail. "
actually, there are probably copies of your old e-mails floating around. They could be on the server the message was sent from, the server the message was sent to, any system on the same subnet as those servers, any system in between, and any system belonging to someone who has access to the aforementioned systems.

So if you want privacy:
*Use pgp
*Use licq
*Use encrypted and/or anonymous chat systems
*Use an anonymous proxy
*Whisper it in their ear instead

i've looked at love from both sides now. from win and lose, and still somehow...

Check out gtk.licq.org. It has gtk plugin that completely replaces any need for for the qt-plugin, or (in your case and mine) the need for QT altogether. Albeit, it's not a deb yet, but (as soon as my Debian developer application finishes its thing), it will be.

The GTK plugin is prettier, slicker, and even smaller. The only functionality is has been missing (compared to the QT plugin) that I've been able to notice is that in the last stable version of gtk-licq, it didn't do autoaway. The config stuff is there, but the code needed to be finished. I believe that is already in the CVS. It rocks. As a Debian fantatic, the fact that I am willing to break put a non-apt-get changeable version into /usr/local/bin says a lot. It's totally worth the lapse of (one) religion. Try it out.

As for other services, I just use ICQ. I generally use Licq (homepage), but there exist a number of other clients. I've found that I like Licq the best. Linuxberg (homepage) has a lot of chat programs as I recall.

Hope this helps.

Oh yeah. Sorry. and the url:
www.licq.org
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"I already have all the latest software."