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Six Multi-Service IM Clients Reviewed

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the trillian-for-the-win dept.

mikemuch writes "It's been a while since AOL stopped trying to jam third-party IM clients, and their use is now a fairly common desktop experience. ExtremeTech has posted a roundup of free alternatives to the standard IM software from the big boys — AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN (now Windows Live) Messenger. The products are a mixed bag, some of them Web 2.0-based, like the excellent meebo and the ad-heavy eBuddy. Most give you combined message windows with tabs. GAIM is now Pidgin, Meetro tries to get you chatting with locals, and Trillian, now at version 3.1, remains the client to beat."

8 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. One word by darkwhite · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Kopete?

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  2. Re:Miranda? by flakier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Beats the bloated trillian hands down. Not only that, source is free =) I can't believe it wasn't part of the article

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  3. pidgon/gaim is the only open source one, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    why would I use some adware instead of open source?

  4. Trillian? by loconet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In this day an age where Linux on the desktop is more and more common, I don't consider an IM that only works on Windows a serious contender.

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    1. Re:Trillian? by Virgil+Tibbs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Adium only works on OS X.
      Now THATS a niche market. ..but good on them for filling it...

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  5. Trillian by hattig · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I found Trillian to be a horribly bloated, very unstylish, and difficult to configure application.

    It seems that the only pluses it has is that it does modern internet communications media (voice and video) on these networks. I'm hoping that they've fixed the configuration system too since I last tried it.

    Adium on the Mac is pretty damn good, and deserves the 8/10. 9/10 and 10/10 would be Adium with voice and video support respectively. The interface styles are all very sophisticated and configurable, and it's simply very usable.

    And that's what matters, usability. I'd far rather have fewer features that I can use simply, quickly, and easily rather than more features that are exposed poorly via the interface. Of course I'd rather have usability and all the features, but I think that Adium (and the libpurple it's based around) will get voice, video and other proprietary features support at some point.

  6. What about Kopete by elrendermeister · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oddly missing were a host of good Linux offerings like Kopete (the built in kde client).

  7. Several More Words by nurb432 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Kopete, Miranda, Proteus, Fire.

    Their list of 6 is pretty sparse..

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