AOL to Replace AIM with Triton

An anonymous reader writes "BetaNews is reporting that AOL has begun beta testing a replacement for its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) software. Triton has an entirely new user interface that adds highly anticipated features including tabbed messaging and logging. The client will also be open to third party plug-ins." From the article: "It is no coincidence that AOL is fielding so many betas concurrently. AOL Browser, an Internet Explorer based Web browser; AOL Media Player, a standalone audio and video player; AOL search technologies and AOL's synchronization utilities are all part of what was once a unified communications client called Fanfare."

Comments

An aol user was qouted as saying,

[Anonymous Coward]

"OMG WTF?!?!?"

Deja Vu

[sqlrob]

Sounds familiar

Interesting features...

[angst7]

adds highly anticipated features including tabbed messaging and logging

I've been using this for quite a while, though. It's called Gaim.

early beta

[frieked]

It is worth noting that this is still an early beta.
I installed it this morning and had frequent crashes so I switched back to the regular 5.9 version.

Here's a select quote from the betanews forums:
"Why is it that so many small or independent developers give us so much quality software, often without reward, and huge companies like AOL can only spit out this bloated garbage?"

Re:early beta

[barzok]

Because the small guy actually cares about the product, has passion around it, enjoys the work, and wants to put out something that makes him look good. He's also far more likely to "dogfood" the application, so it has to work for him before anyone else.

Huge companies like AOL (this is a generalization!) only care about the bottom line, and the passion & interest for the product isn't nearly as strong at the level of the developers. They aren't building something they believe in, they're building what they're paid to build. Add in "too many chiefs, not enough indians" (basically, every mid-level manager and marketdroid has to get their word in and impose their will) and the end result is bloated garbage.

New *client*

[gregfortune]

Just as a clarification, this is *not* a new protocol. This is a new client that integrates the AIM protocol and functionality with other services.

TRITON!!!

[Jicksta]

Trion!!!

Now with bigger, more explosive ads!

Successful Business Plan?

[bigtallmofo]

I think now I'll write a P2P application that runs on top of Triton called Tritonster. When AOL inevitably sues me for trademark infringement I'll claim that my daughter's nickname has been Tritonee for some time.

Sounds like a winning business plan to me!

Not very impressive

[Kimos]

I live in Canada so have never used AIM. I am, however, an avid user of Trillian and GAIM over ICQ and MSN. Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but offering tabbed chatting and logging features doesn't seem that impressive to me. Honestly, I wouldn't use a client that didn't log conversations and offer some type of window control.

I didn't RTFM, but I hope that those aren't the best features that Triton has to offer...

Re:AIM?

[gregfortune]

"Isn't AIM something only people with AOL use?"

Yeah, not very many of those people around.. </sarcasm>

Forget features, I want them to keep giving me CDs

[pg110404]

With the advances in CD/DVD burning and buffer underrun protection, I've not made any coasters in a really long time.

It's like c'mon, what else can I put my cup/glass on? I don't even get the Bell sympatico CDs anymore either.

Cheap bastards. Don't they know their CDs are actually worth something to me?

awesome!

[ohzero]

it'll be like....trillian 0.9B!!

Triton's Mozilla Past

[jhewitt]

Triton was completely re-written from scratch using a new GUI toolkit called "Boxely", which was derived from Mozilla's XUL. As a result, this new AIM is extremely extensible, and hackable.

Poke around in C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\AIMBeta\services and you'll find a bunch of javascript and xml files (ending in .box). These contain the code that drives the entire product. You can easily modify and extend AIM, just as you can write extensions for Firefox with XUL. This is no accident, AOL wants developers to build on AIM as a platform.

When I worked at AOL, I developed Boxely as a fun side project. I left the company a year ago, but they kept my project alive and now seem to be building real software with it. I probably should have open sourced it from the beginning.

On my blog I've written more about Boxely and how it compares to XUL: http://www.joehewitt.com/

Minimum System Requirements?

[jtriska]

Just what does this client do that it needs more than a 600mhz computer?

I got the installer, which was annoying as it's not even an installer at all but an install-getter, and it immediately prompted me with the message "Your computer does not meet the minimum system requirements to download and install AIM® Beta."

Now how about taking features away...

[acroyear]

...like using pure Flash for advertisements?

I had to switch to GAIM not for any particular feature, but to get rid of the advertising.

Seemed the version of AIM I was using at the time allowed Flash advertisements with sound, and the sound completely ignored my other settings in the AIM client to turn all sounds off.

so here i am, in my quiet little room trying to get work done, and suddenly I get interrupted by a trailer for some movie coming from the one app that should have been totally silent.

I was not amused.

and AIM was off my box in seconds.

Re:Now how about taking features away...

[zerkon]

Don't even get me started on AIM advertising, how about one day I walk over to my computer and the Java VM is running... odd there isn't a browser open... all thats open is AIM?? last thing I need is aim using up (in addition to the already bloated software that it is) an additional 20MB of ram to run Java...

then of course there is the "mouse over to hear" advertising that comes blaring out of my speakers when I minimize a window and mouse over by accident...

and my gf wonders why i use gaim

Re:Until it can connect with multiple IM services.

[badasscat]

There's no tabbed messaging

Tabbed messaging has been in Trillian since 2.0. See here.

you still have to have an account with each service you want to use

For at least a couple of the services, you can do this right through Trillian (for the others, it loads up a web page just like the official client does). I don't see how this is any different than what you'd do with an official client.

Trillian is basically just an IM client aggregator- it doesn't provide any messaging capabilities itself

Well, being an IM client aggregator pretty much makes it a killer app in itself (yes, I know there are others, but that alone instantly puts it a rung above all "official" IM clients, as does the lack of ads).

Being nicely designed and skinnable puts it yet again a step above even most other aggregators. Trillian 3.0 is so far ahead of any other IM client in terms of clean visual presentation throughout that it's not even funny. All apps should look this good by default, and if by some remote chance you don't like it, you can just download a new skin. The entire UI is skinnable, not just the outer edges. It also supports all sorts of plugins, from RSS readers to IM forwarders to weather.

Having features like tabbed messaging and 128-bit encryption is yet another point in its favor. No other freely downloadable Windows-based IM clients have these features, that I know of.

In short, Trillian does a lot of things, does some things no other IM client does, and everything it does do, it does well. AOL is apparently copying many of the features of Trillian in Triton, which should tell you something - I don't personally know anyone who actually uses the regular AIM client anymore.