Fire, Proteus... what are you using?

flick justiceflick justice
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hello.

Fire, Proteus. Alternatives?

Like most things in life its impossible to make everyone use the same service. its impossible to make anything standard. So I was ecstatic to find out that I could talk to everyone with just one piece of software. ICQ MSN AIM.. under one little roof. the Idea is great, and is getting better. But I'm not convinced that that I'm getting the best service here. I can never receive files from anyone on any platform using any instant messenger. Also oddly Alison <my girlfriend> can chat with me unless I send her a message, she has to log on and off so I get that beep so I know shes there. Just now I set my mom up with MSN on her eMac so she can chat with single men who claim to be something they probably are not .. but I can't receive any of her messages, it tells me she is typing.. but I never get them, her mac is in the same room as mine..

anyway..



is fire the best? do you folks use these sorts of things? what am I to do?

switch? calling out for feed back.

thanks.

b.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    I'm using Fire. But I'm not 'online' very much, so it doesn't get used very often.



    I chose Fire because it was way better than mirabilis' own ICQ for X client. (the company was named mirabilis, no?) And also because Gerry's ICQ wasn't very stellar on Mac OS X? sniff
  • Reply 2 of 6
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    i tried using proteus for a while. features out the wazoo, BUT it was a bear to get set up (the GUI is very pretty, but disorganized and there are many critical features buried in non-intuitive areas, i.e. the only way to verify if accounts are working and connecting is to "view" the accounts palette, which is not on by default). it's also perpetually in beta (even if he says it isn't), which can cause some strange disconnects. but like i said, it is the best way to keep in touch with lots of folks on different IM protocols).



    never tried fire... when i was looking around, fire was still in its early stages, and the known issues list was just too long for me to get involved with the app.



    i hate msn because a.) it's microsoft and b.) man, for an instant messaging client, it really sucks a LOT of processing power. unfortunately, my last job recommended msn messenger for our workers, so many of my friends from there are on it often.



    i really like ichat, except that hardly any of my friends have an aim account (or an ichat user name). so i can talk to all of one person when ichat is running. yippee.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    I use plain ol' iChat.



    PS, thaks for not making this another****inggoddmanboody poll! AI sighs in appreciation.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    connyconny Posts: 18member
    I have tried both Fire and Proteus and I have to say that Proteus is the better one. The UI is cleaner, you can configure it to be very minimalistic. But the best feature is that you can group a user that has many accounts into one item and link that item to the address book. It's very well integrated with the OS and just feels right. I keep trying Fire just to see if it there are any new killer features but I'm always coming back to Proteus.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    flick justiceflick justice Posts: 632member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    I use plain ol' iChat.



    PS, thaks for not making this another****inggoddmanboody poll! AI sighs in appreciation.



    high five.



    on topic.

    I think I'll try Proteus.

    I like fire.. but it just isn't working right..

    anyone know of alternatives to these Two IM clients?

    flick.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    amoryaamorya Posts: 1,103member
    I use Fire. I've tried pretty much every other program, but I always come back.



    For me, Proteus was too cluttered and unintuitive. I liked the interface even less than MSN Messenger, and that's saying something! Fire just seems a lot simpler - everything is exactly where I'd expect it to be.



    (Although I wish they'd make double clicking on an account the shortcut to connect, not edit it. And fix the file transfer bug. And allow multiple people in a conversation on MSN. Can any client do that?)



    Amorya
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