Some of you may wish to skip the next paragraph, as it is ranty and not vital to my request.
I recently gave in to AIM’s “upgrade, or we’ll interrupt you with pop-ups forever” strategy. I upgraded last night, then went about my usual routine, putting my computer into sleep mode at about 10:00-10:30. It was still asleep at 5:30 AM when I got up for work. At 5:30 PM, when I got home, it was not asleep. The screen saver was on. “What woke up my laptop?” I thought, “Could someone have been using it?” Firefox was open, to the AIM homepage. That was the straw that broke the dromedary’s back. I will not use a program that opens other programs with no prompting from me.
So, to the point, what program would you all recommend for instant messaging? One that won’t annoy me with pop-ups, ads that have sound, or other such crap. Easy buddy-list importing and being allowed to keep my screen name would be nice, but are not necessary. I just want to be able to talk to my friends without being irritated by the medium of communication.