Not even sure what the lingo is – I want to run all my various IM personae through a single whatchamacallit. Trillian, I think, does this – is that the best whatchamacallit for doing it?
We use trillian at work.
I think the new interface is too ‘showy’, but other than that it does the job. We’ve got it handling MSN, Yahoo, AIM.
ETA: Wasn’t aware there might even be a term for it. I’d just refer to it as “All your IMs in one app”
Maybe you could call it - ‘grouped’ or ‘combined’ or ‘centralized’ IM.
At home I don’t use IM at all… unless you count Facebook’s chat widget. But that’s not a self-contained app.
You can always revert to the old 4.2 version if you don’t like the current beta. There are also freely available skins that you can find with a quick google search.
It’s the best “multiprotocol IM client” I’ve seen – I’ve been using it for about 10 years now with nearly no problems.
I’ve never tried Trillian. Personally, I like Pidgin.
Trillian is, as far as I know, the most widely-used application for doing what you’re describing. Don’t know if it’s the best.
I used to use Trillian but dislike the new interface. too busy. I use Pidgen.
I tend to use Meebo since it’s in-browser and I roll like that.
I also didn’t like the new interface of Trillian at first, but the basic Cobalt skin is pretty decent if you strip out the unnecessary features.
I’ve been using Trillian since forever (in fact, I pay for it!) and I didn’t like the new skin either but I caught on quickly. I use Cobalt too.
I have my mom on Trillian, and she doesn’t always quite understand it but she is usually able to reach me in chat. So I wouldn’t say it’s beyond you, Twix.
Another one who uses Trillian at work. I like that - unlike MSN messenger - it keeps a transcript of IM conversations. Very, very handy at work, particularly for colander-brains like me. (“I think someone told me something about X. Lessee, no emails about X … did she just IM me about it …? Ah, here it is!”) That feature alone keeps me on it, though I use the free version.
I use Digsby, as prescribed by a Doper I am in contact with. Suits my needs and handles ICQ too I believe.
Chalk up another vote for Pidgin. I used Trillian several years ago, but it seems like it was having stability issues or something. So I ditched it for Pidgin, and haven’t looked back since. Pidgin also has some pretty robust plugins. In fact, one of the included plugins (though not installed by default) is a spellchecker, which does the squiggly red underline if you’ve misspelled a word. Quite handy.
I’m not using one right now but my son (the resident geek) uses Pidgin and loves it.
I use Adium on my Mac. My netbook runs trillian, but admittedly I only use it when Yahoo and MSN are giving me issues.
I used Trillian for years, but I’ve been annoyed at how each update gets flashier, more of a resource hog, and just overall irritating. So on my Windows desktop, I switched to Pidgin. I like it. It doesn’t have tons of bells and whistles, but that’s what I was looking for! It has a nice, clean interface, supports tabbed chat windows and works.
On my Macbook, I use Adium and love it. The appearance is a bit slicker than Pidgin’s but more streamlined and elegant than Trillian’s. I see that Digsby, that Bees mentioned, is an Adium-like client for Windows. I may check that out.
Another Pidgin user here. I love the spellcheck, the option to log all conversations, and (although I don’t really use it much,) the cross-platform-ness. I just use my old AIM account, but I have a yahoo account I sometimes use, and it also does IRC for the once-a-month I ever go into an IRC chatroom.
Also tabbed chat windows. It’s nice having ALL my conversations in one window and spot in the taskbar. And since I’m already “conditioned” to like tabs because of Firefox, it works out perfectly.