toms Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Ok, i'm one of the older Email generation who never got into this instant messaging thing at all. But recently i've been hearing that all the hip young dudes do most of their communication by IM and feel that Email is for fuddy duddys. I wanna be hip again brothers! Well, actually, a few of my mates have moved abroad recently, and i may be doing something similar, so being able to stay in contact with them a bit more interactively than email would be cool. Plus now that mobiles seem to be able to hand IM it might be a handy way to take advantage of a lot of my unused data allowance. Thing is, there seem to be 100s of systems that don't seem to be cross compatible (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ, IRC, skype etc..) so i'm confused. Do you have to sign up to loads to ensure that people will have a good chance of contacting you? Is your computer then running loads of chat clients? I remember seeing an open source cross-network chat client: but it didn't seem to support a lot of the newer features of some networks such as voice or even video chat. I'd normally try and avoid AOL and Microsoft on principle: but the fact that my work PC has MSN messenger installed and i wouldn't be able to install anything else makes it appealing - though i may not be in that job much longer anyway. Recommendations anyone? PS? Why the heck didn't they come up with a unified IM standard????? Imagine if all web browsers only displayed proprietary web pages!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Trillian. It supports AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, IRC, and some other protocols as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I use GAIM, and it is like Trillian, has AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, jabber, IRC, and some I have never heard of called Gadu-Gadu and SILC. It also has Napster, I didn't know napster had an IM service. But out of those I use AIM and MSN because those are the two services all my friends use. Well mostly it's AIM for people I have met and MSN for Lucasforums people XD EDIT: Skype is another one you might want to look into, it's a free internet phone service so you can actually talk to people online, you just need a microphone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Isn't GAIM for Linux though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET Warrior Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 nah, GAIM is on PC as well. I recommend looking into trillian, but you'll have to get accounts for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc, depending on who you want to talk to. The only services I need are AIM and MSN, so those are the ones I've got accounts on, and I use trillian to keep it all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Isn't GAIM for Linux though? It's for all platforms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manoman81 Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Trillian. It supports AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, IRC, and some other protocols as well. Agreed. Be warned about Skype. My boss had it running and two random people from Europe (couldn't tell what nationality) connected to him at work and wanted to know if he was interested in phone sex. We both just laughed it off. It was funny but really weird at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lathain Valtiel Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I second the Trillian recommendations, but be warned that it is missing certain features of each client due to some development stagnation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TiE23 Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I'm strictly MSN, but because you said no already, all I can suggest is Trillian because I don't know anyother things. But yah, I love MSN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Windu Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I just use AIM and MSN messenger.. I never bothered with trillian... didn't like the style, or the smileys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lathain Valtiel Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 You can change both of those you know. In fact, there's an MSN smilies pack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Windu Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I just don't think it's worth it to go through all that trouble. AIM and MSN work fine, and those are the only 2 I use, so it's fine with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerd_Annhilator Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Xfire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BongoBob Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I love GAIM, although right now it's pissing me off. Other than that, Skype would rule for you. It's like making phone calls from PC to PC for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Groovy Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 They all suck. The cool thing is, they are all free! Just download all of them, and decide which one you like best. Personally I hate all of them, but some of them I use to talk to people more often than others, so I leave them on all the time. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toms Posted April 5, 2006 Author Share Posted April 5, 2006 I would do that... but i hate signing up for things... you always seem to have to create accounts for bloomin' everything on the interweb, and half the time you realise within about 5 minutes that you don't even want it after all... but by then you have had to go through all the hassle of signing up and giving away your email address yet again. I found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messengers which is almost too comprehensive to be of any use. With cross platform ones like Trillian, GAIM or Miranda (anyone used that one?) how well do they communicate with people using the Official versions and how well do they keep up with the new features. For example i'm imagining: I use Trillian and a mate contacts me with MSNM - but he tries using new features like voice chat, video chat or even just minor new features and it doesn't come out on my end due to not having been implemented yet on Trillian. Is this an issue? Also, it seems like everyone is adding voice and video chat to their messengers these days... does that make skype pointless? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katarn07 Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 They all suck. I agree with this. In fact, I've retrogressed from IM to just email. If I catch someone on the same time as me, it plays out as an IM convo. If not, it's good enough. I had too many problems with my PC when using AIM. After getting rid of it, I have experienced a lot fewer problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BongoBob Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Grooves has a point. It may be a bitch, but you should just sign up for all of them, or at least the major 3 (AIM, Yahoo, and MSN). Figure out which ones you want, and then get rid of the ones you don't want. Personally, despite my vendetta against AOL, I use AIM all the time. I only use Yahoo or MSN sometimes, to talk to a select few people. But when I'm on my linux comp in my room I use GAIM. I don't belive GAIM nor Trillian work with most features of the IMs (Video chat, voice chat, etc.) I've never put this much thought into IM services before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Or you can just get on IRC and idle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rccar328 Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I use Trillian for my AIM and Yahoo accounts...yes, you have to sign up for each one, which sucks, but using something like Trillian really simplifies the process once you've done the whole signing up game. I've never used voice chat or video chat...I think you have to pay for Trillian Pro to get those features...but I've never really wanted to use them, either, so it hasn't been a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Obi-Wan Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I just have MSN. I don't bother with the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manoman81 Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 Trillian works for me. They put updates for when each service updates. No complaints here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toms Posted April 6, 2006 Author Share Posted April 6, 2006 I've never put this much thought into IM services before Yeah sorry! I tend to overthink these things. Its cos i'm doing it from scratch rather than just signing up to one or two naturally as i go along... Turns out I already have accounts with yahoo and MSM due to previous email signups... even though i don't use those email addresses anymore. (thats another side effect of this annoyance of having to sign up to everything just to try it out! grr..) I've installed Miranda IM to try it out on the basis that it doesn't require an install so its easy to remove if i don't like it. Its a bit of a pain in the ass to set up though as you need loads of plugins just to get basic functionality. How does IRC work - how do you know what server to pick? Anyone any experience with ICQ? I like the idea that you can use ICQ to send text messages to mobiles. (for free i assume). Once i have it properly set up i just need to find someone to talk to!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Groovy Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 Anyone any experience with ICQ? I like the idea that you can use ICQ to send text messages to mobiles. (for free i assume). Once i have it properly set up i just need to find someone to talk to!! I had signed up for ICQ when the good people of LF made me a moderator. For a long time that was THE prefered method of communication among admin and mods of LF, then we kind of moved over to mIRC as an alternative. Some of them still use ICQ, but the reason I dropped it, was because I had forgot my number, AND I got an awful lot of bot messages. I don't see a need to try to retrive that account or sign up for a new one. ICQ did not impress me at all, and they have nothing to offer, that you can't get someplace else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSR Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 aye, if msn is blocked at skewl or something, then i use trusty old meebo. not exact;y brilliant, but it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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