Comments on: Open Thread: What Instant Messenger Do You Use The Most?

By: B-O

B-O — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:45:46 +0000

Trillian, because of the wide support for different IM:s. I prefer it to Pidgin mostly because file-transfers are faster. By the way, I think Trillian is missing from the list!

By: Vertimyst

Vertimyst — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:50:16 +0000

Windows Live Messenger and Pidgin (with Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, Gtalk) in Windows, either Kopete or Pidgin in Linux, and Adium in OSX.

Adium’s my favorite client, I like Pidgin, but I need the features exclusive to WLM as well (video, voice, etc.). I know Trillian has those, but I hate that client. Too bloated, both in appearance and size, IMO.

Anyone know of a client like this, with a clean interface similar to Pidgin and Adium, and voice and video support? Preferrably cross-platform (mainly Win/Linux, but OSX would be nice too). I doubt there’s such an app, though… :/

By: DravenX

DravenX — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:10:05 +0000

I’m a gamer. I always have xfire connected when I’m back home. I used AIM, ICQ, MSN & Yahoo. I use xfire the most and yahoo next. Once in a while I will connect to AIM and MSN but I haven’t been on ICQ in years.

I use xfire for games as stated above and use most often. I only use Yahoo when I’m away from home on TDY’s or deployments so I can talk to my wife. I have Skype as well but Yahoo looks better IMO.

By: Warren

Warren — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:41:48 +0000

I used to use aim until i came to linux and realized that the latest aim available for linux is 1.3… not too current. Ubuntu’s default is Pidgin, which has replaced my need for aim admirably

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:33:55 +0000

Pidgin and GTalk occasionally. Probably only sign on once every other week, so I’m not interested in a lot of advanced features.

By: Jase

Jase — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:18:06 +0000

I use MSN/Windows Live Messenger mostly, I also use mIRC quite a bit as well, although not as heavily as I once did. ICQ fell by the wayside, but I used that at one stage too.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:30:51 +0000

I use Adium on my Mac; Windows Live Messenger on my Windows.

By: Drew

Drew — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:23:58 +0000

Do a Google search – you cant get rid of ads and the ‘Today’ pop-up easily

By: JokrzWyld

JokrzWyld — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:02:35 +0000

I very seldom use messaging.
When I did it was with the one that came with XP. (I can’t even remember the name.)
Now that I no longer use Windows, if I was to use a client it would be Pidgin.

Cheers.

By: Force Flow

Force Flow — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:09:47 +0000

I have accounts for AIM, MSN, Y!, Skype, facebook, steam, xfire, and at one point, I had ICQ.

I use digsby instead of pidgin for AIM, MSN, Y!, and facebook. Steam is by itself with the native client, and I’ve pretty much migrated completely over from xfire to steam (in 2004, steam was still kinda broken as an IM client & friends list). Skype is on its own too with the native client, though there are plans in place with digsby to include skype (IM chat-only) in coming versions.

Pidgin is a pretty good tool, but the main reason I use digsby is because it is more customizable in some areas that were lacking in pidgin (especially the friends/buddy list), it’s light weight, has a minimal UI, and doesn’t feel half-finished and glitchy like pidgin did when I last tried it (maybe 8 months ago)