# Favorite AIM Software? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 2, 2004, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143 "2004-05-02T13:35:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/1 "2004-05-02T13:35:19Z")
I’m growing tired of the AOL AIM software’s spyware, memory leaks, and ads. Anyone have a suggestion for a good, third-party, AIM-compatible chat client? I’m looking at Trillian, but I’m not sure it’s worth the $25. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/2 "2004-05-02T13:41:06Z")
I use GAIM, from [http://gaim.sourceforge.net](http://gaim.sourceforge.net) . Mainly, because it also connects to all the major instant message systems, not just AIM. It’s free. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/3 "2004-05-02T13:48:46Z")
Trillian’s free, too. Well, Trillian Basic, anyway. The Pro version must have some neat things, because I like Basic just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/4 "2004-05-02T14:26:38Z")
I’m another Trillian Basic user. I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not as taken with it as I was prior to the launch of Trillian Pro, but it’s still a better program than AIM. However, Trillian doesn’t support some features that AIM does, and that’s something you should consider. The biggest thing for me is that Trillian doesn’t display HTML in a person’s profile, so if they have a link that’s coded like this: ```auto Click here ``` it will just look like the text “Click here” sans link. Aside from that, I’m not entirely certain if you can block other AIM users…I’m leaning towards no, it’s been a while since I experiemented with that. My biggest gripe with Trillian, nowadays, is that all of the plug-ins are for Trillian Pro and it doesn’t seem like Cerulean (the maker of Trillian) is overly concerned with fixing the bugs that are in Trillian. Still, it gets my vote as being better than AIM/MSN/ICQ (It also supports Yahoo messenger and mIRC, but I don’t use those, so I don’t know how it compares to those clients). ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/5 "2004-05-02T14:35:08Z")
> [@Call me Frank](#): > > …it doesn’t seem like Cerulean (the maker of Trillian) is overly concerned with fixing the bugs that are in Trillian. I should clarify that… Cerulean _does_ release patches for Trillian Basic as frequently as they did before the release of Pro, but I just get the feeling that they concentrate their efforts on the commercial version. For as large as the exe is to download, if you’re interested in migrating from AIM to something else, I’d recomend just DL’ing the free version and trying it out for a while, see if you like/hate it… ---
**Author:** ![Andros\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Andros\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andros_X)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/6 "2004-05-02T15:50:23Z")
> [@Call me Frank](#): > > Trillian doesn’t support some features that AIM does, and that’s something you should consider. The biggest thing for me is that Trillian doesn’t display HTML in a person’s profile, so if they have a link that’s coded like this: > > ```auto > > Click here > > ``` > > it will just look like the text “Click here” sans link. > > Aside from that, I’m not entirely certain if you can block other AIM users…I’m leaning towards no, it’s been a while since I experiemented with that. > > My biggest gripe with Trillian, nowadays, is that all of the plug-ins are for Trillian Pro… Trillian does support HTML in profiles with the minibrowser plugin. It also supports block lists in AIM. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/7 "2004-05-02T16:17:06Z")
> [@Andros\_X](#): > > Trillian does support HTML in profiles with the minibrowser plugin. It also supports block lists in AIM. If I try to block a contact I get this message “Block: Privacy settings must be imported from the AIM servers, and it appears they are not created on your account yet. This means you will need to logon to AIM with WinAIM once to fix the problem. Blocking will not work until you do this. This behavior will be fixed in a future release of Trillian.” I should have been more specific when I said I didn’t think you could block contacts… Also, plug-ins are only available for Trillian Pro ([http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/downloads.php?d\_type=Plugins](http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/downloads.php?d_type=Plugins))… ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/8 "2004-05-02T16:27:57Z")
I definitely don’t have trouble blocking AIM users under Trillian, and I did have my original AIM set up for it. ---
**Author:** ![citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/9 "2004-05-02T16:37:46Z")
Just use DeadAIM, courtesy of your P2P of choice. I don’t know how I could live without it. And make sure not to get the newest version of AIM with the hidden audio advertisements. :smack: Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![WCOT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e5b9ba/32.png) [@WCOT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WCOT)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/10 "2004-05-02T19:26:04Z")
another vote for GAIM, but i havent used anything but GAIM and AIM, so i cant really comment on the features of the other messengers, but i do appreciate GAIM’s tabbed texting. ---
**Author:** ![Improbability](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Improbability](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improbability)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/11 "2004-05-03T15:12:50Z")
I have not tried GAIM (although I may now), but I used Trillian all the time until recently, when I got tired of the bugs and crashing. I’m not sure if it’s something that I was doing wrong, but a number of people on the Trillian forums seemed to be experiencing the same issues, and no one had any resolutions. ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/12 "2004-05-03T17:43:58Z")
Satisfied Trillian Pro user here. The plugins for stock quotes, weather, and POP3 mail checking are nice too. ---
**Author:** ![Improbability](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Improbability](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improbability)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-aim-software/243143/13 "2004-05-08T22:21:48Z")
I downloaded Gaim and liked it. I still prefer the seperate programmes though.