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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: chief1983 on July 06, 2008, 05:48:45 pm

Title: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 06, 2008, 05:48:45 pm
I'm directing this at the people who use more than one chat protocol on a regular basis, I'm guessing that most people who only use ICQ/AIM/etc tend to use the native client.  I'm just curious as to what the most common client is around here, seems like this should generate a decent sample size.  If you think I left off a big player let me know.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Nuke on July 06, 2008, 05:54:30 pm
i like pidgin, its cool if all you do is im. doesnt really have any godies like video or voice chat. at least not yet.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Ghostavo on July 06, 2008, 06:16:33 pm
Trillian in Windows and Pidgin in Linux.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: watsisname on July 06, 2008, 10:01:13 pm
AIM mostly.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: NGTM-1R on July 06, 2008, 10:05:57 pm
Trillian, although I've noted it would matter little if I used only AIM (perhaps because I don't have an MSN account registered).
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Polpolion on July 06, 2008, 10:07:04 pm
Are there any clients that have both IM and IRC functionality?
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: IceFire on July 06, 2008, 10:16:11 pm
Google Talk
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 07, 2008, 12:32:56 am
Trillian and Pidgin both have IRC support, it's just not very full featured.  IRC is one of those things where I've always needed a dedicated client, like X-Chat.  I have to use multiprotocol chat programs though, I'm on every account I have listed on the left of my posts 24/7 just about, and another one at work I don't list.  So it's just Pidgin and X-Chat for me, instead of running 7 different apps.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Scooby_Doo on July 07, 2008, 12:34:45 am
I used to use Trillian, but never had any luck with file transfers and it took up more memory than yahoo and msn together.  I just use yahoo/msn by themselves.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Nuke on July 07, 2008, 01:35:53 am
Are there any clients that have both IM and IRC functionality?

both pidgin and trillian have it.
damn looks like chief posted first :D
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: JGZinv on July 07, 2008, 01:45:25 am
Pidgin... Since Trillian wouldn't work after several attempts.

Liked it and used it since it came out.

I used Miranda for a while, but it just didn't have the ease of use and to
get most of Pidgin's functionality you have to track down and manually update
a dozen plus plugins each time they decide to update.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Nuke on July 07, 2008, 01:48:24 am
i used to use trillian but i found that pidgin releases updates faster. trillian had lots of cool features, but unfortunately none of them worked with other clients.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: blackhole on July 07, 2008, 02:44:36 am
MSN.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: MP-Ryan on July 07, 2008, 03:58:17 am
Pidgin.  Trillian has too much bloat now.  For that matter, Pidgin seems to be heading in that direction.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Unknown Target on July 07, 2008, 06:45:14 am
Pidgin. Used to be really buggy, now very slick and stable. Trillian doesn't get updated enough for my tastes, and I could never get the extra features (webcam, mic chat) to work.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: jr2 on July 07, 2008, 07:44:43 am
Miranda has IRC functionality too, IIRC.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Mongoose on July 07, 2008, 02:25:07 pm
I use Trillian, but somewhat reluctantly at times, since I'm seemingly unable to send anyone an invite to an AIM chat room...which is rather annoying when I find myself participating in them almost every night.  I've thought about trying Pidgin in the past, but I've never been arsed to.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: lenard27 on July 08, 2008, 03:07:10 pm
I use Pidgin as well. It's pretty simple and all I ever need to do it IM people for the most part. I'm surprised it's as popular as it is (leading vote getter in the poll) actually.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 08, 2008, 10:13:57 pm
Well I believe Pidgin runs on more platforms than any of the other options, so that could be part of it.  Broadest appeal.  And there's probably more people only using one native client who refrained from voting as was appreciated, since I was targeting this at people using multiple services.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: S-99 on July 09, 2008, 02:01:22 am
I was the only person who voted for kopete. Then again when it comes to the native messenger solutions my favorites are amsn and gyachi. The reason why i don't like pidgin is the lack of webcam broadcasting and receiving. That seems to be one thing pidgin never focusses on. As far as that goes, kopete is just as good as pidgin, and better for the webcam support in receiving and broadcasting as well. However, pidgin connects to a lot more services while kopete just the has the most well known services only. But, that no problem for me, kopete connects to a great deal of services anyhow.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: CmdKewin on July 09, 2008, 04:23:02 am
Well, i've used Gaim, Trillian, and Trillian Astra in the past.

Now i'm using Digsby, especially for the Twitter integration.

Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on July 09, 2008, 11:20:18 am
Trillian on any high-end computer (I have none), and Adium on my Mac (until Trillian is ported to OS X). :mad:
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: S-99 on July 09, 2008, 11:31:52 am
Kopete is compatible with adium chat window themes.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 09, 2008, 02:41:01 pm
Well, i've used Gaim, Trillian, and Trillian Astra in the past.

Now i'm using Digsby, especially for the Twitter integration.



And yet there are no votes for Digsby...

Adium added as a poll option.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: captain-custard on July 09, 2008, 03:10:13 pm
im using pidgin in windows and pidgin and kopete in linux (kopete because it has webcamsupport ( though ive never actually got it to work on my eee pc))
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on July 12, 2008, 10:53:49 pm
And yet there are no votes for Digsby...

Adium added as a poll option.

You're too late. I can't change my vote.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Stormkeeper on July 13, 2008, 08:02:55 am
I just started using Trillian. Its simple, but easy to use.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: CmdKewin on July 14, 2008, 08:52:23 am

And yet there are no votes for Digsby...

Adium added as a poll option.

Whops, forgot to vote. Sorry.

Done now.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: The.Backslash.Enthusiast on July 17, 2008, 03:00:45 pm
Pidgin for everything except GTalk, GTalk client, Skype, Meebo when I'm away (damn handy).

I'm surprised nobody seems to use Meebo.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 17, 2008, 03:15:29 pm
I'm thinking people use Meebo, just not as a primary.  I use it when I'm not at home, but it's not my preferred client.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Mars on July 17, 2008, 05:51:23 pm
Actually google talk uses the Jabber protocall, so you can use Pidgen for gtalk
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on July 17, 2008, 10:41:19 pm
Trillian is very nice to use, but only on a computer with more than 256MB RAM. :doubt:
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 17, 2008, 11:09:47 pm
Trillian is very nice to use, but only on a computer with more than 256MB RAM. :doubt:

And that's an issue because why?
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on July 17, 2008, 11:25:25 pm
Trillian is very nice to use, but only on a computer with more than 256MB RAM. :doubt:

And that's an issue because why?

No idea. It just seems to take quite a while to pre-load the application, although it's better than Windows Live Messenger in that it doesn't cause my computer to hang while it loads everything.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Nuclear1 on July 18, 2008, 12:52:36 am
Uh, I use AIM.

And Facebook messenger.

And MSN.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: jr2 on July 18, 2008, 01:51:01 pm
Ya, you can configure Pidgin to use GTalk:

Protocol:        XMPP
Username:     username
Domain:         gmail.com
Resource:      Home
Password:     *********

in the Advanced tab:

XMPP options:
Require SSL/TLS - off
Force old (port 5223) SSL - off
Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams - off
Connect port: 5222
Connect server: talk.google.com
File transfer proxies: proxy.jabber.org.7777
Proxy type Use Global Proxy Settings

Hope that helps.  :)
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 18, 2008, 02:34:29 pm
Maybe he just doesn't like Pidgin's GTalk support?  It is a bit lacking feature-wise.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: The.Backslash.Enthusiast on July 18, 2008, 05:28:03 pm
Pidgin even has an option for GTalk straight off...  I just don't use it personally because I like GTalk's client better for features.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 18, 2008, 10:42:35 pm
Pidgin even has an option for GTalk straight off...  I just don't use it personally because I like GTalk's client better for features.

w00t

chief 1, Mars & jr2 0

My only real point was that it's not a good idea to assume lack of knowledge as opposed to personal preference.  And yes I'm aware I'm an ass.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on July 18, 2008, 10:57:26 pm
Since I only do IM at work the answer would be Spark.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: S-99 on July 18, 2008, 11:09:40 pm
Skypes a lot of fun. The only way i send files of any large size speedily and easily over any distance. Then again the preference for IM clients is sort of wierd with the computer i had to fix over the weekend. This lady has yahoo, and msn live messenger set to autologin. Along with skype for her aim, icq, yahoo, and msn set to autologin. Sounds like my client is a little dumb. Redundancy is a good thing when it's necessary :yes: Not when all of your redundant components try to login at the same time. That lady had away messages from everybody on all of her accounts :lol: There was 3 that was dated from last year. Something tells me she's had that IM login problem for a while :lol:
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: jr2 on July 28, 2008, 11:50:24 am
Pidgin even has an option for GTalk straight off...  I just don't use it personally because I like GTalk's client better for features.

w00t

chief 1, Mars & jr2 0

My only real point was that it's not a good idea to assume lack of knowledge as opposed to personal preference.  And yes I'm aware I'm an ass.

Then again, some of us were on the internetz and using Pidgin before Pidgin had a GTalk option.  *smug look*
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: Mars on July 28, 2008, 11:54:09 am
Weren't we all... unless someone got started really, really, recently
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 28, 2008, 12:50:44 pm
You haven't been using Pidgin since before it had Google Talk support, unless you mean Gaim, and even then.  XMPP support has been in Pidgin almost as long as IRC and Yahoo, and ICQ.  There are XMPP references in the changelog back to 1.3, and Jabber references back to 0.11.0-pre4, in 2001.  Were you using GAIM when it had Napster support?  The XMPP support for Pidgin has been developed over time along with the XMPP protocol, they've always supported Google Talk.  They just added a special option for it because people didn't know that Google Talk was XMPP.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: jr2 on July 28, 2008, 01:01:52 pm
XMPP =/= GTalk unless properly configured.  When was the GTalk (XMPP customized) option put in?

EDIT:
Quote from: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1225
Home page states the GoogleTalk? is supported but I can't figure out how to setup or find the GoogleTalk? account setup part...? Where is the GoogleTalk? setup in Pidgin?
Change History
05/23/2007 09:13:50 AM changed by acli ¶

This should be recategorized as a webpage bug, since this information has disappeared from the web site (was in the old web site, not in the new). Without explicit instructions, even someone who is aware that Google Talk is XMPP won't easily figure out how to set up Google Talk.
(follow-ups: ↓ 3 ↓ 7 ) 05/23/2007 09:28:08 AM changed by rekkanoryo ¶

    * status changed from new to closed.
    * resolution set to invalid.

Google Talk uses the XMPP protocol. Set up an XMPP account with your Gmail username (the part before the @) in the screen name field, gmail.com (or whatever is after the @ in your Gmail address) in the domain field, then on the Advanced tab set the connect server to talk.google.com.
(in reply to: ↑ 2 ; follow-up: ↓ 4 ) 05/23/2007 10:18:42 AM changed by awolter ¶

Do know of anyway to use a different port other than port 5222? I am behind a firewall that is not easily changed. Anyway to force comminucation via port 80, 443 or 21 like the other IMs can...?
(in reply to: ↑ 3 ) 05/23/2007 10:50:03 AM changed by awolter ¶

Nevermind port 80 works!! Thanks!
(follow-up: ↓ 6 ) 05/23/2007 12:11:46 PM changed by jernst ¶

We have an AIM and an ICQ icon altough they are the same. By this logic shouldn't we have a GTalk icon in the account setup window (preferably with the right port already selected).
(in reply to: ↑ 5 ) 05/23/2007 12:14:31 PM changed by rekkanoryo ¶

Replying to jernst:

    We have an AIM and an ICQ icon altough they are the same. By this logic shouldn't we have a GTalk icon in the account setup window (preferably with the right port already selected).

Sean and I both advocate a separate prpl for Google Talk, but as a workaround we have a new option in the Pidgin account creation dialog for Google Talk that fills in the defaults appropriately. The port is not an issue, as 5222 is the correct port for XMPP. In this case, port 80 was needed only because of a restrictive firewall.
(in reply to: ↑ 2 ; follow-ups: ↓ 8 ↓ 9 ) 05/23/2007 12:55:37 PM changed by rlaager ¶

Replying to rekkanoryo:

    then on the Advanced tab set the connect server to talk.google.com.

You shouldn't need to do this. It's been fixed with SRV support since forever ago.
(in reply to: ↑ 7 ) 05/23/2007 02:42:11 PM changed by awolter ¶

When sitting behind a restrictive firewall you need to set port to 80 and put talk.google.com for server ---otherwise it will not work.
(in reply to: ↑ 7 ) 05/23/2007 11:15:29 PM changed by rekkanoryo ¶

Replying to rlaager:

    You shouldn't need to do this. It's been fixed with SRV support since forever ago.

Ideally, yes, it should be unnecessary, but I have seen several DNS servers not correctly handle SRV lookups. Granted, ISPs shouldn't be so criminally braindead as to run servers that can't do their jobs correctly, but the world isn't perfect :)
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: [DW]-Hunter on July 28, 2008, 01:07:10 pm
Trillian and Pidgin both have IRC support, it's just not very full featured.  IRC is one of those things where I've always needed a dedicated client, like X-Chat.  I have to use multiprotocol chat programs though, I'm on every account I have listed on the left of my posts 24/7 just about, and another one at work I don't list.  So it's just Pidgin and X-Chat for me, instead of running 7 different apps.

Trillian no longer supports IRC IIRC, last few times i had Trillian, IRC wasn't an option.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: chief1983 on July 28, 2008, 02:12:27 pm
jr2, you just contradicted yourself.  Google Talk merely uses XMPP, you just needed the configuration info, which is now pre-configured.  You could have always used it though, just might have taken a little googling to get the info (how ironic).  So, Pidgin has always supported Google Talk, through its XMPP support.

And Trillian's website still claims IRC support, and I believe it's still in 3.1.  So unless it's been removed in a development version, I think it's still there.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: karajorma on July 28, 2008, 02:14:20 pm
It's still there. Using it right now.
Title: Re: Favorite IM clients?
Post by: jr2 on July 28, 2008, 02:16:34 pm
mph.  Yes, I meant that you couldn't simply select XMPP and put your Google login into it (the first thing I tried).  Yes, you had to Google the information (the next thing I tried).  Now you don't have to, but I didn't notice the change, I merely remembered having a hard time setting it up when I first got Pidgin.  You see, I cheat when I get a new Windoze installation.  I copy my \Documents and Settings\jr2\Application Data\.purple directory to my new install, and presto! my account settings and logs are all set.  ;)