Comments on: Open Thread: What is your favorite IM?

By: mossman

mossman — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 17:10:21 +0000

iChat, Gtalk and Skype – need something to cover the lot! Fave is iChat, nice interface and works very well.

By: gregg

gregg — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 17:52:02 +0000

putting my 2c in a bit late, but i love bare-bones chatting and i love IRC. it's so simple and effective and secure and i don't have to rely on some 3rd party server. (i run my own server, so that adds to the security.) to talk to my friends who don't/can't/won't irc, i use bitlbee which is a service that connects to an irc server and allows me to chat with any of the major services through an irc client. i used to use yahoo IM, but it got so bloated, i just couldn't take it anymore.

By: Bernd Eckenfels

Bernd Eckenfels — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:01:21 +0000

Prefering Gaim on Windows to aggregate various MSN, ISQ, Yahoo and Jabber (jabber.org, google talk, google apps) accounts. Too bad it does not allow me to skype chat.

By: Sathya

Sathya — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:14:50 +0000

I generally have use yahoo, msn and gmail IMs. [though I pretty much prefer Gtalk, its difficult to have all ur contacts move there !!!]
But running each of the IMs separately started to hog my laptop’s memory.
That is when I came across meebo, but did not like having a browser window open for this sake and ended up with Trillian. Pretty much satisfied.

By: webwonk

webwonk — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:23:59 +0000

I will be looking in to using Skype’s SkypeCast for a working group I’ve formed. This would similar to 37Signals’ Campfire – only free.

By: webwonk

webwonk — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:11:48 +0000

I use the Gaim client for my work, family and friends (who are on various jabbers and Yahoo IM). I turn off everything except text – no file transfers, voice, etc.

For file transfers I use Pando

For Audio/Video conferencing I use SightSpeed Pro (total of 4 endpoints per conference)

For telephony I use Diax and an Asterisk VoIP provider (SightSpeed charges too much for their VoIP service.)

By: Diogenes

Diogenes — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:06:34 +0000

I use the GAIM client to stay connected with contacts on MSN, ICQ and Gtalk (Jabber). It’s a lot cleaner and lower overhead than Trillian. Skype for the voice and video with my Parents on the weekends.

By: kansaisamurai

kansaisamurai — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 07:01:45 +0000

I use Adium for usual chats, and iChat only sometimes for video/audio chats.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 05:20:28 +0000

At work, our internal IM system is Jabber, and it has the connectors to go to other services. I use the Adium client on Mac for this.

But, we are also making very heavy use of Campfire these days as well. I use the Pyro app for Campfire sessions. The team just all pretty much sits in Campfire rooms all day, and since we’re a distributed team, it gives you some of the same advantage of all being in the same room (without some of the disadvantages :)

By: Phoenix

Phoenix — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 07:55:38 +0000

Gtalk… Yahoo is too heavy! AIM is good for a local network…Skype is awesome for voice calls… Meebo rocks!

By: Krish

Krish — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:34:20 +0000

Since I use Linux 95% of the time, I use Gaim + Skype (for voice chat purposes).

By: Island in the Net

Island in the Net — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:48:01 +0000

I use iChat but have use the Jabber protocol to integrate my Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL accounts. I can access all my IM account with either Google Talk on Windows XP or iChat on the mac.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:51:01 +0000

As a mac user, adium is the way to go. I love it's multi-protocol capabilities and it's ability to be skinned. That being said, instant messaging does not increase my productivity by any means. Email and/or collaborative documents work best for me. Ryan

By: Adnan

Adnan — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:59:21 +0000

I am a recent convert to Campfire. It is a very useful tool to keep every one in your team updated on the day's progress and to have quick discussions. The good part about it is that I do not need to log on to a public IM network where I would continually disturbed by my personal contacts, or even other business associates. Gtalk does not work for me because it does not have group chats. However I am extremely glad for the automatic conversation logging.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:55:45 +0000

On my PC it’s Trillian and on my Mac it’s Adium.

Using just 1 IM client, such as ICQ, is too limiting. With Trillian and Adium I can log into just about any chat/IM service and do what I have to do. Of course to keep the distractions to a minimum I set my self to invisible permanently, but if someone *really* wants to get a hold of me they know to IM me anyhow.

By: Allen

Allen — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:46:39 +0000

AIM and Skype mainly, gmail talk for one buddy who can’t use the others.