I’m always getting asked about software/gadgets and what I use and where to find it and how well does so-and-so’s program work, etc. So this will be the first of many posts about hardware/software/gadgets that I use and that I’d recommend using. You should be warned, however, that I am a Mac user and that most of the software I use is not available for Windows PC users. Sorry.
Adium is easily the best instant messaging application I’ve found. It connects to AIM, MSN, Yahoo and many more. It’s also open-source and free so that makes it even better. There are a ton of ways to customize it to your liking and so far it hasn’t crashed once or given me even the slightest bit of trouble at all even when using the beta versions. Yes, this one is Mac-only.
Audio/video chatting currently isn’t supported and most likely never will be. This isn’t a fault of Adium’s, however. Since each client (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) has it’s own way of defining how audio/video works, there’s really no way to make a “universal” instant messaging application that will do audio/video across the board. There are plenty of applications out there that will allow you to do audio/video chatting but you’ll be limited to which clients you can connect to.
So if you’re looking for a way to chat with pretty much anyone, Adium is your answer.
July 7th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Yes, Adium is the sheeot. As cross platform user I have always used a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client. I cannot stand having an AOL window running as well as MSN, Yahoo, etc. So for windows I use Gaim, an open source client. It contains all messages in a single window and is pretty streamlined considering it is for PC. When I got my first Mac Mr. Gill was kind enough to turn me on to Adium (which featured all those same cool features as Gaim) because of my instant frustration with iChat. It is sweet. I enjoy seeing that little green duck everyday.
Thanks Gill.
July 17th, 2006 at 12:56 am
I like when it’s eyes open in the dock. Totally rad and plenty of customizable features. I’m not totally, completely, 100% sold on it and so I alternate between iChat and Adium. But I haven’t found any reason not to use it either.