Gaim vs. Trillian?
 

Which do you use?

Which is better?

never heard of gaim but I use trillian and i love it. It saves alot of time and some disk space...plus it has a chat logger :D

Based on absolutely nothing more than personal preference for the UI, my vote is Trillian. My eyes don't like what GAIM looks like. *shrug*

Trillian looks better, and they have faaaar better sound effects, but gaim is so simple and seems less .... commercial. It's open source which always gives me a good feeling.

I never could get into Trillian. Once I moved over to Linux though, it was a no brainer--GAIM ;)

Gaim on Windows is probably something to avoid. Trillian is great but Miranda is free and lightweight and stands well on its own. I would recommend it for Windows.

Yep same here.

I find gaim pretty nice and use that when in windows. In Linux I usually go with kopete instead. Trillian isn't bad though.

Since I have both Linux and windows systems, I use gaim just to have something more consistent.

I used to use Trillian and even payed for the pro version. I liked, but it was just too many options. I just didn't need that much.

Hate to be a drag, but I use the default AIM client. I've picked out the spyware and tweaked it so it suits an advanced user such as myself. Aside from XFIRE, AIM is the only P2P protocol I use. I suppose it would be handy to use MSN and ICQ and whatever, but AIM is suitable and 99% of my peers use it.

Trillian was fun for about six months. I think it's fair for me to say that I have had a decent amount of experience with trillian. I'm not sure what it was, but AIM just suits me more. I really can't explain it. Perhaps it's the rediculous simplicity, but I simply prefer it.

With that said I might switch back to trill if AIM puts another ad in an IM window.

I actually agree. Theres just something about the AOL client that I like better. I still use it when I boot into Windows.

Trillian for Windows and Gaim for Linux. There's a client for Linux that works like Trillian. I forget the name but that was was very cool too.

I like Trillian for two reasons. Skins and privacy. I use it at work and at home and I can hide it pretty well ;)

I use Trillian...I've used Gaim in the past, but just prefer the look/functionality of Trillian.

i use GAIM @ work, simple and alot lighter than trillian.... the looks of programs are really nice but when it comes down to them, they arn't nessassary and i get bored of them... i used to have trillian on my work computer, but after re-registering the trial version every week and stuff, i got bored and installed miranda, that stoped working and i put gaim on, and been using gaim since... at home i use standard AIM 5.9 just for the fact that it's the only program that works like AIM should work, with direct connect and file sends, and i'm big on sharing pictures and stuff

Kopete is the Trillian clone for linux. Very nice too.

Gaim is all I use, Windows or Linux. It just looked so much... cleaner.. than Trillian to me. I like a more minimalistic setup, generally. Gaim gave that to me.

I've tried Trillian a few times and never really liked it. After using Linux for a while, I have become accustomed to Gaim. Like others though, I stuck with the regular AIM client on Windows until recently. I'm starting to use Gaim most of the time now, so we'll see how that goes. Gaim actually looks pretty nice if you have a program like WindowBlinds to skin Windows XP.

For those die hard AIM client fans, you can download a program called <a href="http://aftermath.dyndns.org:8888/~aimadhack/">AIM Ad Hack</a> that will get rid of all the ads and pointless "features" included with AIM. I've been using it for a while, and believe me, you won't miss the ads. You can get the old AIM client or the beta version of AIM Triton, which finally incorporates a lot of features that have been available in other chat clients for a while now.

GAIM is okay but I've been using Trillian for a long while... even paid for the "Pro" version just to support the project. It's updated regularly, looks good, has some great skins and has a great UI, IMHO.

I use Gaim on Linux, but I used it on windows because Trillian was a resource hog.

If I ever get around to backing everything up and turning this thing into a dual-boot Win2k/Fedora box (as is the plan) I'll probably use GAIM on both. For now, I use Trillian. I'm happy with either.

I really think that's the same reason why I didn't like trillian. It's just so... busy. I don't need or want any of that stuff cluttering it up.

I think there is only one moral to draw from this thread - give both a shot and see which one you like best! :)

I use Gaim, and it has a chat logger too.....

i love trillian been using it for years and i cant imagine why people say it looks too busy or whatever when you can get skins to make it look like whatever you want. i have a very minimalistic skin for mine and it hardly takes up any space at all. much less then normal aim does thats for sure. and i use it for aim yahoo and irc all the time. its nice when irc chat is the same size window as a normal tiny instant message.
Never tried gaim though but i have never had a reason to stop using trillian. its exactly what i want and need.

Gaim in both Linux and Windows (primarily Windows). Ya, it's not pretty, but so what. I also turn off all the fancy sliding/animation/skin shit in Windows as well. I like my machine to PERFORM rather than look pretty.

I use Gaim since I don't need the "all-in-one" functionality of Trillian.

I haven't used Trillian in a year or so because I've enjoyed the simplicity of Gaim. Although I don't have a webcam at the moment (I may get one soon), Gaim does not support the webcam feature - that I know of. Does Trillian have that option, or is there a plugin for Gaim for when I do get a cam?

gaim -- I use open-source whenever feasible

open-source often has a much smaller resource footprint, and that's what I like

I've never liked Trillian when I tried it - has a lot to do with the "all-in-one" mentality. Voice and video (vv) support are in the works for Gaim. Unfortunately, it seems it will miss version 2.0 but should be in the next major version after that. Plus, as meembo pointed out, Gaim is open-source. That adds another reason I like to use it on principle.

After AIM decided to never work again on my laptop, Spectre got me hooked on Gaim... i like it -- the only feature that I wish it would have... is where I can only get IM's from people on my buddy list.. I get tired of the IM's from Bambi wanting me to come watch her and her best friend get busy... :)

I dunno, I personally kinda like those IMs :)

I've been using trillian for years and it's does what it's supposed to so no complaints. It does use some resources but that's the least of my worries when surfing the net, and I turn it off anyways while playing games so I don't get alt tabbed in the middle of something.

Actually, Gaim has the "all-in-one" functionality too. You can add your Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, etc. accounts to login at the same time.

Gaim 2.0.0 is in heavy development (beta 2 is released to the public already), and one of the goals (I believe) is to merge back in gaim-vv, which had webcam/mic capability.

One of the biggest Gaim developers used to frequent the TFP. He left a couple years ago though, haven't seen him on here since (unfortunately).

What we mean by all-in-one is all the OTHER things Trillian has.The most recent word is that it won't make it into 2.0.0 but will be in the next major version after that.

Ah, now I remember reading that! haha, Thanks.

It does have that. It's not in the right place (you'd think account settings), but it is there. Goto Tools->Privacy. Select your account and select the option "Allow only the users on my buddy list".