instant messaging progs?
 

I havent used any IM progs in a LONG time. last one I had was, I think, MSN messenger.

but I have some friends I want to be able to IM with.

so, whats out there thats good?

specifically, Im looking for those that have voice capability.

thanks

msn is still out there...i believe 6.0 is out now...anyway it's got great voice and video capabilities...check it out

http://messenger.msn.com/

there is also an IM program that allows you to use all of the major IM programs all at once. it is called trillian and it is a FREE program to try and i think it is $25 to register. you can download it from

http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/trillian/index.html

I have been using it for close to a year now and it works great for me because i have 1 app up and are able to use ICQ®, AIM®, MSN® Messenger, Yahoo!® Messenger and IRC in a single, sleek and slim interface.

hope this Helps.

yeah, trillian kicks ass.

but i'm using windows messenger (basically msn messenger that comes bundled with xp) since that seems to be the cool thing to do and a lot of friends are on it.

trillian's a very nice program IF you have the need or all IM clients rolled into one, i personally usually only use AIM so thats all I have installed no need for all the other features of trillian, it however does work good

another option to a multi-IM program is GAIM, it comes on most default linux installs, but there is also a program for win32 systems, it is similar to trillian

*buzz* wrong. Trillian is similar to Gaim. (not GAIM or gAIM - legal issues) If I'm not mistaken, Gaim came first. And I do know that Trillian uses some of Gaim's code (Gaim is open source). Anyawy, ChipX86 knows more about this than I seeing as how he's a developer.

Anyway, I don't think Trillian or Gaim have voice capabilites but I could be wrong. I recommend sticking to the standard AOL AIM program if you're looking for voice capabilities - I know that works.

In my experience, gAIM is rather weak compared to Trillian. Of course, I've only used gAIM on a linux server that I set up once and will never touch again.

i use trillain pro

good program

I've been using Trillian Pro for some time now, and I've been really happy with the features & flexibility.

alright - just took a look at Trillian and it doesn't have voice capability.

I'd just find out what your friends use and use the standard client for that service.

I use MSN 6 to connect to MSN (obviously) and Trillian for AIM, ICQ, IRC and Yahoo!. Works out pretty well for me.

ICQ, MSN or AIM all work well. If you use multiple IM programs all you need is Trillian

I heard good things about Trillian. New msn messenger 6 has great audio/video integration. Not sure however if they still require upnp what isn't actually widely accepted by firewalls. I guess you use the IM that your friends use. My fav is messenger.

I use Trillian Pro but also have MSN 6 and ICQ installed on my computer for times when I need features that those have that Trillian does, such as voice convo.

Trillian Pro here. Works great!

I use the free version on Trillian, it works fine for the most part, but it seems to lack certain things (it makes up for them of course).

Another multi protocol client: Miranda IM
Its free.

Gotta be trillian. Only way to keep in touch with everyone who plays with MSN vs ICQ, and even has an IRC client built in!

This has been the best I've used so far

Using gaim for windows at the moment, works pretty well for the most part. The only thing I dont really like is you can't (or i can't find it) send files with it only recieve.

I'm running trillian pro right now! Yes, it wins.

I was using Gaim on xp for awhile, but it was acting soo buggy I had to delete it: It was conflicting with alot of my other programs. Gaim loses.

Even though I only use it for a msn client i still use trillian. It has a few features that can't be beat.
Meta-contacts are really usefull for those few crazies that use more then one account.
Also, if you chat to as many people at once as I do - containers are so, so usefull.
Check it out.

Trillian Pro hands down. Has much of the same in app features such as webcam connections and what not. And its nice to have one window with all your friends on it instead of having to open up 2 or 3 progs to converse with everybody.

Gaim or gaim, please. Legal reasons.

Almost all of Gaim has been rewritten in the past 10 months, with the first release of the beginnings of the rewrites in April. A lot has changed, and it's not weaker than Trillian (unless weak refers to not having skin support, which you can kind of do in GTK anyway).

Some new stuff is under-way in Gaim. One of the big changes is our core/UI split, which separates the UI from the backend logic, so there may be a native skinnable Win32 port in time. I'm working on a port for my Zaurus PDA, and there's a port being done (slowly) for MacOS X.

I can assure you that a lot of the time, Trillian is playing catch-up to the stuff we're working on, but use what you find easiest and best.

I'm working on this. It's coming.

A lot of these bugs have been fixed. These are issues with the UI library we use, and lately, we've been patching the win32 bugs ourselves. We release Gaim every 2 weeks, so don't say it loses because the pretty much new port to Win32 has a few bugs. It's improving quickly.

Trillian here, too.