Recommend an XP messenger client

September 14, 2004 12:06 PM

What's your favorite messenger client for XP and why?
posted by signal to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

Trillain from Cerulean Studios.
posted by travis vocino at 12:14 PM on September 14, 2004

Ditto, because I can have multiple IM services open without wasting memory.
posted by pmurray63 at 12:21 PM on September 14, 2004

gaim, because it is open source, under active development, and feature rich.
posted by Hackworth at 12:28 PM on September 14, 2004

trillian here as well, the pro version.
posted by t r a c y at 12:31 PM on September 14, 2004

MSN Messenger, because AIM and ICQ are both AOL-tainted rubbish (and no-one I know uses them anyway). Also, Trillian sucks -- it's one of those programs that thinks it's so special that it needs its own unique little interface where nothing makes sense. If I really wanted to use more than one messenger service at a time, I'd go for the Windows port of Gaim.
posted by reklaw at 12:39 PM on September 14, 2004

i use both gaim (at work) and trillian pro (at home). i'm not fully satisfied with either, but they're the best of the lot at the moment. i've attempted to write one that has all the features i want, but a month into it my attention span...
posted by escher at 1:02 PM on September 14, 2004

A thousand times Trillian, and the free version has all the features I need. I'm tempted to give Gaim a whirl.
posted by John Shaft at 1:16 PM on September 14, 2004

Another vote for Trillian.

That is, at least since I figured out that the "hide" button in the upper right (next to the standard maximize, minimize, and close buttons) of chat windows actually was not a minimize button, and how to recover hidden windows.

I was somewhat less happy with it before that--it took me an oddly long time to figure it out, and until I did, I had a lot of "where the #$@% did that chat window I just minimized go, and how do I get it back?" moments.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:56 PM on September 14, 2004

trillian, 'cause some of my friends insist on using IM and i hate it, so i want the least number of programs installed as possible so that i can use it if necessary without seeing ads, crap, and idiot hard-to-disable program popups and upgrade notices every time the system starts.

but the interface is a little weird, yeah. same issue with it as with windows media player and other free-form application skins - if the damn buttons are ALWAYS in one spot by default in computer apps, why does moving them to strange spots make designers so damn giddy? seriously. some of the default WMP skins i've seen make it take forever to actually find the little X to close the damn program. maybe i'll look at gaim - is the skinning any better there?
posted by caution live frogs at 2:07 PM on September 14, 2004

I must say I absolutely love the audibles on the new Yahoo Messenger.
posted by gramcracker at 2:25 PM on September 14, 2004

In the real world why might someone choose Trillian Pro over the free version of Trillian?
posted by Songdog at 4:39 PM on September 14, 2004

Here's another recommendation for Trillian, which I almost dismissed until trying a minimalist skin called Compact.
posted by oldmanyoung at 6:00 PM on September 14, 2004

trillian pro. can't remember why i bought pro, it had some features that i wanted that the free version didn't have... but i'm happy to support them for making this software anyhow.
posted by kv at 6:12 PM on September 14, 2004

I got a copy of Trillian Pro because they're bastards (who make great software!) and refuse to put Unicode support into the free version. Pro also has lots of plugins that allow you to check your POP3 mail, to do lists, stock ticker, a full-fledged PIM and things like that. I think they're rather unnecessary, but that's why you can turn them off.
posted by calistasm at 6:26 PM on September 14, 2004

MirandaIM. Fast, light, GPL'd free. Advanced plug-in architecture allows you to add functionality via downloadable (or self-written) plug-ins, or to remove protocols you don't need. I hated Trillian, and Miranda fit the bill perfectly.
posted by Danelope at 10:31 PM on September 14, 2004

Another vote for MirandaIM (on XP) and Gaim (on Linux).
posted by PenDevil at 2:13 AM on September 15, 2004

Trillian Pro here too. The default skin for that is nice (unlike the default skin for the free version, which is awful) but I use this one which is great.

I use it in a configuration like this, but there are many options.
posted by cell at 4:11 AM on September 15, 2004