AIM Alternative?

[BuzzKillington]

I thought I posted this a while back but I couldn't find it in search.

Anyway, it's really getting on my nerves that there are no GOOD chat clients. They all have varying pros and cons but honestly, why is it so damn hard to make one that's perfect?

Do we have any programmers here? I'm willing to pay for the project. Please PM me if interested.

[Datech]

Have you tried Digsby? I love it. It's like Pidgin, but a bit more flashy and IMO provides better integration. It also incorporates Facebook to a degree, and it is being updated all the time. I currently have my AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Gchat, and Facbeook all plugged into my Digsby account.

That last sentence is also what makes Digsby different. You actually have a Digsby account that follows you. Therefore, you can install Digsby on any computer, sign in with your Digsby account, and all of your presets, skins, personal lists and customized everything is automatically there.

[Omega]

I use trillian and it owns.

i also use Pidgin on my linux box and that's a pretty cool little app too.

[knowledgegranted]

Personally I think MSN is the best out of the bunch. I have used: IQC, MSN, AIM, Skype, aMSN, Digsby, Cardig, Aquirim, Xfire, Yahoo Messenger, google messenger, trillian and Mage IM (Developed by me and a few other guys!).

I am a Cpp programmer and a C^ programmer. I bet I could help you out some although I cannot dedicate time because I have some projects running that currently fill my house and its not good.


I have done an IM client before (mageim) but I did not do any direct programming on the project AT ALL. It was basically a learning experience for me.

[nevermind1534]

I've been using pidgin since I had to use linux for a few weeks. I'm still using it on windows.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

I've been using Pidgin on here for a while, and Carrier (formerly funPidgin) on the laptop. My only complaint is that if you tell it not to list offline buddies, but make a couple individual exceptions, you have to enable and re-disable offline buddies to get those few people to reappear. I use it for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Google Talk.

[mtekk]

I've used trillian before but now use GAIM (now Pidgin). I really have not had any problems with Pidgin, it used to have problems connecting to AIM (just before it switched from GAIM to Pidgin for the name) but now it works again. The only downside that I remember is 4 years a go GAIM to AIM and AIM to GAIM file transfers did not work correctly, not sure if the Pidgin folks fixed that yet or not.

[BuzzKillington]

I'm currently using pidgin as well but I have one main complaint. It doesn't support drag and drop and for some reason crashes when you try to send a large picture. It also doesn't show a progress bar so you have no idea when it finishes if you send the picture through the chat box.

[Drum Thumper]

I use the TBCS chat box. And I don't use it all that often.

[simon275]

I use MSN as all my friends & work mates use it. But pidign is very good

[luciusad2004]

I use pidgin as well. I think the reason i like it is that it blends in w/ my desktop instead of acting like a lot of the flashier chat clients that mistakenly think they deserve their own theme separate from the one provided by the OS.

My biggest beef with it is that i have trouble sending files. I use it primarily for AIM so i don't know how it acts on the other networks. I also hate that practically none of the third party chat clients support video and/or voice chat. Hence, I use pidgin but always have the official clients installed just in case the GF wants to see me while I'm away. I understand that the companies in control of the networks are more at fault for that than the third party devs, but... its just so frustrating that it makes me want to develop my own open source chat protocol and let anyone use it.

[progbuddy]

On my desktop, I use the regular clients (I got rid of the ads though. It was fun to do). On my laptop however, I use Kopete. It's a light client that does it all, but takes a little configuration to get rid of the pesky notification things that pop up in the corner.

[DaveW]

I wrote an Instant Messenger 2 years ago which you can play around with. We called it Iris, and it had encryption, profiles, file transfers, photos next to your name, group chat, smilies, etc.

It's written in Java, but it runs on its own server. I don't have time to devote to this (my hands are full with TBCS) but I think it would be ok if you wanted to use the code as a starting point, assuming you give full credit to all the original authors.

Bear in mind that it would need heavy modification to make it work with AIM, MSN, etc.

-Dave