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Trillian 3.0 Released
Octagon Most writes "Cerulean Studios has released Trillian Pro 3.0 which is still interacting with AIM, Yahoo, MSN instant messagers with impunity. It has a cool new Instant Lookup feature which links to Wikipedia, and a serverless messaging mode using Rendezvous. The free version is now Trillian Basic 3.0. Trillian is still Windows only, and if you don't like the FAQ response regarding Linux and Mac support let 'em know."
I like Trillian, it has a lot of nice features and looks pretty. However I switched to gaim because of it's cross platform support.
I was honestly surprised to see this on slashdot this morning. After all, there aren't many slashdot posts proclaiming excitement over new versions of SQL Server, right?
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Apparently trillian is supposed to work with Wine and/or Crossover Office.
I have gotten it to work with skins but it runs extremely slow on my Duron 700MHz.
On windows, I have found that Trillian is the best Multi-IM client out there. I'm off to check out what new features they've added and if its worth upgrading.
Is there a point to free Trillian anymore? I'm not knocking it (much..), I did use it once upon a time and tbh it was very good, nice eye candy too, but since finding GAIM I haven't looked back.
nbiar
Ill come back when they support HTML profiles/away messages, and fix file transfers.
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).
Not open source, costs too much, tons of bloat, and still not finished (eg the UI still requires a cheap hack of a skin, and most dialogs don't respond to keyboard input).
I'm far more impressed with miranda.
funny munging
I used to use gaim for the longest time, but often times found it frusterating. When I first got it, I tried for about 2 hours, with no evial, to change how the text appeard on my end. Not to mention that it is hard to find everything, and I think the connection manager is lacking several important featres.
I've been using Trillian Pro for a few months, and Pro 3 since the alpha version was released, and I absolutly love it. The tabs are much better than GAIM's, and I can have multipul tabs, for my friends, family, IRC, or just one huge one if thats what I want.
The one thing that trillian totaly owns gaim in, is it's plugins. They are so awesome, and offered free by Trillian. The spellchecker is something i've needed for so long (as i'm sure you can tell).:-P
Anyways, before you go and bash Trillian because it costs money, look at all the features you are getting.
So why use Trillian?
The cake is a pie
I switched to Win32 gAIM simply because I found everything about Trillian annoying as Hell. The interface felt too clunky and bloated with visuals (this was really a problem with multiple protocols). My situation is such that the network admin on campus has denied access to AIM and has provided no alternative. Initially, I would just install Trillian/Miranda/gAIM each time I logged in, but I found the installation process for each a bit tedious after logging in 2-3 times a day at different workstations.
When I bough a USB thumbdrive, I started putting all my essential apps such as FireFox on it so I could avoid reinstallation with each login. Trillian gave me some trouble with installation on a USB key (it wouldn't keep my profile data on the USB key nor would it make it apart of my Windows roaming profile), so I just finally completely migrated over to gAIM. It installed on my USB key without a hitch, has a cleaner interface, keeps logs of everything in my roaming profile and is easy to update. Even file transfer works for me now.
"You and your third dimension."
Because it looks better (subjective, yes) and I (and most of the rest of the world) don't run linux.
Trillian 3 is a very nice app indeed. The speed of file transfers has been increased and the Rendez Vous (LAN messenger) is a nice addition too. Too bad file tranfers (via MSN and Rendez Vous) seem to crash the app randomly.
- Save a tree, eat more woodpeckers
The thing that urked me about Trillian, and it still may be true today, is that it mangles UTF-8 text. Sending Japanese back and forth between trillian to trillian works fine, but trillian to aim/iChat/gaim and it gets mangled. Another thing that urks me, is that their audio/video chat don't "Just work" like it does with iChat (though it is compatible).
[end rant]
Jisho - A Japanese English German Russian French Dictionary for the rest of us.
It's good to emphasize that, although Trillian and GAIM are competitors, they share information with each other when things go awry. Whenever Yahoo! makes a change that screws up GAIM and Trillian, you can bet the devs on both sides will be helping each other out. Now that's a good proprietary/open source relationship.
and in addition there is miranda (mirando-im.org). It is: ...
- Windows/wine only
but it is:
- GPLed software
- its also free as infree beer
and it is even more powerful than trillian
Wikipedia in-depth comparison of instant messengers, including gaim and trillian.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Almost all of the IM services support voice and video but, none of the open source ones seem to. I would have expected Jabber to be leading the way in this area but, Jabber's development seems to have stagnated. I'm really surprised that the open source clients haven't got the features that the closed source ones do.
Since this morning.
Trillian 3.0 includes a Basic (free) and Pro (not free) version. The basic version feels very much like 1.0 Pro, with the odd feature from 2.0 Pro. They're done a fair amount of updating with useful little features, and they run from the same codebase now.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Why Use trillian?
1. Its simple.
2. It auto-updates now with 3.0
3. Very customizeable
4. Great plugin support
5. Feature rich
6. Fast/Efficient
7. Well known
I can go on and on. I use trillian for the above reasons and the superb support and almost up to the minute fixes for bugs/network changes and such.
There is a reason you pay for software or use the free variants thereof. The service trillian offers ontop of a great IM client is worth the cause.
Sigh. Look, take a hint boys and girls. The FAQ entry for Mac and Linux support makes it abundantly clear that Trillian developers have NO interest in supporting anything but Windows, and by badgering them, you'll just make it even less likely.
I don't understand why it's so difficult for the OSS community to just get the point -- some people don't want to play in your sandbox. Yet, invariably, I see the constant calls to hassle developers because of the choice they've made. Sure, some of them may not be aware that non-Windows users have an interest in their product, but I will bet dollars to doughnuts that the vast majority just choose not to. Is it so hard to accept that not everyone wishes to adopt or assist in your cause?
If I were a Trillian developer, and my inbox was suddenly filled with the typical bizarre sense of entitlement found here at Slashdot, even after I had posted an absolutely clear disinterest in supporting Mac or Linux in my FAQ, I guarantee that your grandchildren would be in their cold graves before I'd ever produce a non-Windows version.
This Just In -- you can't make people comply by pissing them off.
-
Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
Miranda beats Trillian hands down.
Miranda is open source.
Miranda seamlessly imports contact lists from Y!,ICQ and MSN.
Miranda can use Y!,MSN,ICQ,IRC,AIM,Jabber and loads more.
Miranda can run it all in a single nice window.
Miranda has fully customisable skins and icons.
Miranda has no adverts, ever.
Miranda has plug-ins galore...
Some of my favourite plugins are -
CAPS_LOCK flasher - incoming message? Your keyboard lights flash.
'WUMF' -Who is using my files? - Popup saying who accesses your files on a network and when, and will log all of this information.
Postit notes and reminders.
There are many more plugins.
Miranda is totally free, is open source, and simply is better than Trillian, and even Gaim.
Download it, no spyware, no ad-ware from http://www.miranda-im.org/
The serverless component sounds interesting for those of us behind firewalls.. Too bad its not in the 'basic' version....
Are there any easy to use serverless clients out in the open source world ? Multiplatform would be a bonus..
Yes I can google, but I'm looking for reviews here....
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I've been running the Beta for about two weeks now, and I really do like it. I've been using Trillian itself for about 2 years.
Honestly, Trillian was one of the first programs that I've used that, well, I was using a cracked version of... and decided after about 28 hours of use that it was worth my money.
I am a happy paid user... 3.0 Really does seem to work better. The connection manager is MANY times improved. I can connect to all three of my yahoo accounts with no muss or fuss now.
I will admit the daily (or more often) updates with the beta have been somewhat annoying, but it shows that the Cerulean team really is working hard to address problems.
Still seems to have somewhat of a problem with deleting users from your list who are on MSN, but I can live with that.
So far... after beating the hell out of it, my only gripes are:
1) The default "user icon" display is set *way* too big for starters. A problem that is easily corrected by the user, but it certainly didn't make a very good first impression with me there.
2) The new "Chat History" window and browser is useless. With it I can see the first line of a conversation that I had with someone, but I can't seem to get any deeper than that. Granted, there may be something simple that I am missing, as I have been concentrating the most on my primary problem,, which is...
3) My webcam seems to be completely useless now. I've tried the updates, tried re-installing my quicktime drivers and codecs (Why God? Why Quicktime?) I've updated my cam software... and even went out and bought a NEW camera because the one I had was 5 years old. Still no good. I get a very nasty looking green and yellow window when I start my webcam, then the cam crashes. HARD.
In fact, Trillian will not release the camera until I shut the program completely down.
All that being said, the support staff at Cerulean have been very good at keep me abreast of updates and possible causes for the problem. I know I am not the only one with the webcam problem, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason for it.
Would I advise my friends to use it? Hell yes! I do that on a daily basis.
However, I am hoping that the news about 3.0 being released public is swallowed by the firefox wave.
Seems to me that everytime something good happens with Trillian, either Yahoo or MSN change things to break it.
(eep, after previewing I realized how rambling and poorly worded this post is, but its been the 48 hours from hell here, and I just don't have the energy to correct everything)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
I just upgraded to Trillian 3.0 and let me tell you that I'm not amazed like I was with the 2.0 upgrade.
First of all, the skin support is absolutely horrible. The last updated skin is from January 2004. My trillian 2.0 skin works fine although the some of the new options really ruin its look.
After a bit of fiddling around, I got it back to to the good ol' look that I really liked (minimalistic).
By default, ALL the IM protocols are disabled. This means you have to go in and enable them, which I found to be a little annoying for an expert user. Although a beginner would not find it a lot more complex.
One of the great features of defining the size in pixels has been disabled which i really enjoyed. The main reason is because with that feature, you can just define a size and all your windows will be the same size.
The tabbed windows are a great addition, but i'm more of a fan of individual windows.
Overall, a quick looks shows great addition and bugfixes. I'll try using it for now, but I may revert to 2.0 in the future if things dont go smoothly.
Oh yes, because heaven forbids developers from ever wanting to make any money off their work.
Sheesh, you know, I love F/OSS, it is a great development model when it is done correctly. But sometimes, this whole sense of entitlement thing really turns people off to the whole movement. When zealots say things like "Oh, they're trying to SELL software, yuck!", the reactions of most people who live in the real world is: "So? Can't they make an honest living too?"
For the people who are not of the "warez" generation, there isn't much of a problem. The old free version of Trillian (it was v.0.74F last I checked, BTW) was more than enough for most users. Pro added some goodies, both with 1.0 and 2.0, but there are people who have paid for TPro, and never use the "extras". It's called honesty, people liked using the free version, and so reward the developers with a subscription. But this concept seems to be lost on those that find no problem with pirating thousands of dollars of software (read: developer time), let alone a measly $25/year subscription.
Trillian is nothing spectacular. Quite frankly I don't see why anyone would pay money for that program, with all the very good free-as-in-both-meanings IM clients that are already available on Windows.
Note to all Mac and Linux users: you're not missing much, so don't bother whining about not having ports.
I've always thought it was absurd that a chat client would use 100% CPU just to resize a window, and have had problems with Trillian not painting its custom controls over the standard Windows buttons. The client works well, but the coding for themes, non-square windows, and resizing seems to have been done by rather unskilled coders. It also uses a hell of a lot of RAM. It's a freaking chat client, and it requires more hardware resources than my web browser.
This is just my opinion, of course.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
That's a fiction put there to protect them from being sued by AOL. It's really called gAIM.
I am trolling