Why do people use nonstandard chat clients?

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-09-04 05:07pm

Does using Google Talk as a multi-protocol client count as an "official client"? I use it for google talk stuff as well

Honestly though, because the official clients suck ass, I just can't wrap my head around how anyone could possibly think they are quality software (MSN/AIM).

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2007-09-04 07:55pm

I talk to online friends on AIM, Yahoo and MSN. Why the hell would I want three IM applications open in the background as opposed to one?

Lisa · Post by **Lisa** » 2007-09-04 08:11pm

Ram - as mentioned
managing all your contacts in one program
transcripts in one place (if you log chats)
being able to sign in multiple times, i have a few msn accounts (1 for work, one for family etc).

granted on the mac Ichat will handle aim, jabber and i think ICQ leaving yahoo and msn.

the only time I ever load ichat or yahoo is for the webcam, and since msn doesn't work there's no reason to load msn ever.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-09-04 08:27pm

rhoenix wrote:
Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Meebo works fine as well. My only beef is lost connections from time to time.
An excellent, web-based client - I used it while at work before to handle multiple IM mediums.

On my laptop, I use Adium (basically GAIM for Mac os X) for the reasons others have described. I'm connected to AIM, ICQ, YIM, and three forms of Jabber, I believe. All through the same client, and together they have a minimal impact on memory usage...unlike using separate clients for all of them.

The best part is that it actually saves message logs. The added advantage of accessing them from any computer just adds to the near perfect portability.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-09-04 08:29pm

If using 'non-standard' clients pisses Shep off, that's really just another accolade.

The_Saint · Post by **The_Saint** » 2007-09-04 11:56pm

Trillian or Miranda.. surprisingly I don't think I've seen anyone yet mention Miranda..

Use both for the same reason: IRC, ICQ, AIM, Jabber, MSN, rss, email (I'm only after new email alerts) all in one nice small, skinnable package.

No ads, one process, low ram, lack of crap interface. MSN occasionally shits itself for no reason in Trillian but I find it perhaps the most annoying of all the im protocols/programs anyway.

I used Trillian for ages, then was tempted with Miranda... now for some reason I have Trillian on my main computer and Miranda on spare/server...

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2007-09-05 04:33am

For XP users which is the standard client for MSN ?

Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN messenger) or Windows Messenger ?

Besides the only 'problems' with the 3rd party clients I've had is that some features (like sending people a sound clip that plays instantly) simply don't work. But from what I've heard about them, I like it that I don't have to deal with those features.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-09-05 09:58am

Windows Live messenger, as Windows messenger is not feature complete acording to the latest capabilities of MSN.

EnsGabe · Post by **EnsGabe** » 2007-09-05 11:49am

Destructionator XIII wrote:
What would be really cool, and something that is on my to-do list at some point during my miserable life, would be an IM daemon and a selection of clients that can connect to it as part of an observer pattern like thing. It could be queried and batch scripted with pure command line programs, talked to real-time with an assortment of gui and tui (ncurses) clients, and it could log and be connected to from afar. The latter would be cool as I could go to another diskless box on my network and pick up my program, without needing to sign myself out of one place just to log back in from, as far as the outside world knows, the same computer.

Of course, that is a fair chunk of work for very little benefit; gaim is plenty good enough as it is.

I echo your desires. As far as ncurses clients go, I use Finch (written using libpurple, just like Pidgin) within a screen session and connect to that from wherever I go. It's not ideal- there's no way that I can tell to get notifications without explicitly checking the terminal.

The plus side is you've just inspired me to poke around with libpurple to see the feasability of your idea

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-06 01:31am

I use Trillian on my desktop and Meebo elsewhere. Both happily deal with multiple protocols and log everything for forever, both of which are important to me. Frankly RAM usage doesn't bug me a ton anymore.

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-09-06 03:42am

Trillian's nicer than having MSN, AIM, and Yahoo all open in separate programs that each eat RAM.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2007-09-06 06:45am

One IM prog that connects to five nets is by default superior to five IM progs.

An IM prog that BLASTS SOUND AT YOU AS ADVERTISING (!!!) is inherently vastly inferior to one that has no ads at all by design.

And yes, if it pisses Shep off, it's good. Although direct connect never had any hiccups for me.