does this only work with aol mess and .mac, or can u work it like trillium, for example, run messenger. i think its a much nicer interface with better features, but its seems like a bit of a waste if it can only connect those two programs.
why would they only make it work with aim? that just seems really stupid. i dont know a single person who uses it, let alone aol as a service provider. iChat would be much more effective as a trillium type program.
Umm...AOL IM and Yahoo IM are probably the two largest IM providers. I mean...I could be wrong, but I think by using AOL's IM system they were targeting the largest user base. EVERYone I know uses AOL IM. Even people who don't use them as an ISP. You go where the people are.
Does anyone have know how to get iChat to automatically reconnect when disconnected instead of popping up an error message and just sitting there doing nothing, until you have to manually tell it to reconnect?
I get disconnected at least once and sometimes several times a day and its very very annoying, AIM will just try to automatically connect every minute or so if disconnected, which is the kind of basic functionality I'm looking for from iChat...
why would they only make it work with aim? that just seems really stupid. i dont know a single person who uses it, let alone aol as a service provider.
Well, I don't know a single person that doesn't use AIM.
Tit for tat.
If you want something that works with multiple clients, there are several apps available.
Fire is free. It supports AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger. It's certainly not exactly the prettiest of apps, though.
Proteus is $25. It supports AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, and iChat Rendezvous.
Adium 2 is free, but is still very early in development. It is in alpha-level development and should be treated as such! It currently supports AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, MSN, and Napster.
Once the developers work out the kinks for initiating file transfers, Adium 2 will instantly be my full-time personal favorite. I've been tinkering with it from time to time and it is shaping up beautifully. It has an interface that can't be beat, IMO, and an excellent feature set. Until then, I'll still be using iChat.
MSN is by far the biggest IM app around here. I guess i'd put ICQ as a distant second. I've been using ICQ for years, but am now forced to use MSN because everyone on campus uses it (this seems to go for most campuses around here).
I wish more people would use AIM, but no one seems to use it.
Maybe because no one around here uses AOL as thier ISP...
iChat supporting MSN would be great, but i don't see it happening
ICQ? Pfft, that's just AIM, except it tries to simulate geekiness by making you use impossible-to-remember numbers and poorly written clients to access the network.
You want g33k to the nth degree, you have to use IRC. It's been around a lot longer than any other internet chat service.
BTW, although a number of people I know use MSN Messenger, I only know one person who uses Yahoo!, and very few of my friends don't have AIM.
I hate the official OS X AIM client. I use Adium because it is wonderful. I'm using 1.6.x till 2.0 gets its legs on a little better (and I can't wait). I keep the official client signed on to check people's profiles and away messages because (for now) Adium is bad at that, and I've kept iChat signed on since I got an iSight. Once Adium 2.0 goes beta, though, good bye to the official AIM.
I've been using Adium 2.0 Alpha as my full-time client for over a month now, and I love it. Most daily binary builds are very usable. There were only a few that were too buggy for regular use. Since Adium2 got OSCAR accounts working via GAIM, away message checking and all works quite well. The only reason I keep the official AIM client around is for file transfers and contact list editing, which I don't do very often.
BTW, I only use AIM, although I tried getting MSN once because a guy I worked with only had it, but MS never sent me my confirmation e-mail, so I can't sign on. Oh well, MS's loss.
i guess aim is an american thing cuz everyone i know uses msn. i used to use icq and msn, but anyone who had icq converted to msn so there was no point in keeping both going. anyways, my point was that it should be used to work more than just aim. i would say in canada (or at least in ontario and quebec) its basically useless. brad, thanks for the links but i was just ranting about iChat specifically. so, u guys dont use msn primarily then? this got me curious as to who uses what now.
Adium 2 is so much better then whatever the other version is. It needs work, but it's definitely pretty nice now. It seems really plain though, like windows are just so blah. I wish he'd add buttons to the IM windows making it possible to get info from there.
You want g33k to the nth degree, you have to use IRC. It's been around a lot longer than any other internet chat service.
Huh? I guess it depends what you mean by "chat service", but some of us were using write and talk (and ytalk) on unix boxes well over a decade ago. There were plenty of methods out there that offered crude buddy list type support too.
FWIW, everyone I know is using AIM (US and Canada mostly). iChat works well for me.
Comments
.Mac doesn't actually have a IM service, Apple just set it up with AOL so that you can use your .Mac email as an AIM name.
I get disconnected at least once and sometimes several times a day and its very very annoying, AIM will just try to automatically connect every minute or so if disconnected, which is the kind of basic functionality I'm looking for from iChat...
Originally posted by Cam'ron
why would they only make it work with aim? that just seems really stupid. i dont know a single person who uses it, let alone aol as a service provider.
Well, I don't know a single person that doesn't use AIM.
Tit for tat.
If you want something that works with multiple clients, there are several apps available.
Fire is free. It supports AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger. It's certainly not exactly the prettiest of apps, though.
Proteus is $25. It supports AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, and iChat Rendezvous.
Adium 2 is free, but is still very early in development. It is in alpha-level development and should be treated as such! It currently supports AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, MSN, and Napster.
Once the developers work out the kinks for initiating file transfers, Adium 2 will instantly be my full-time personal favorite. I've been tinkering with it from time to time and it is shaping up beautifully. It has an interface that can't be beat, IMO, and an excellent feature set. Until then, I'll still be using iChat.
AIM is for kiddies.
I wish more people would use AIM, but no one seems to use it.
Maybe because no one around here uses AOL as thier ISP...
iChat supporting MSN would be great, but i don't see it happening
Originally posted by alcimedes
real geeks use ICQ.
AIM is for kiddies.
ICQ? Pfft, that's just AIM, except it tries to simulate geekiness by making you use impossible-to-remember numbers and poorly written clients to access the network.
You want g33k to the nth degree, you have to use IRC. It's been around a lot longer than any other internet chat service.
BTW, although a number of people I know use MSN Messenger, I only know one person who uses Yahoo!, and very few of my friends don't have AIM.
I like the AIM client for OS X, the only problem I have is that there is a big freak'n add in my window that not only takes up space but is ugly.
BTW, I only use AIM, although I tried getting MSN once because a guy I worked with only had it, but MS never sent me my confirmation e-mail, so I can't sign on. Oh well, MS's loss.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
You want g33k to the nth degree, you have to use IRC. It's been around a lot longer than any other internet chat service.
Huh? I guess it depends what you mean by "chat service", but some of us were using write and talk (and ytalk) on unix boxes well over a decade ago. There were plenty of methods out there that offered crude buddy list type support too.
FWIW, everyone I know is using AIM (US and Canada mostly). iChat works well for me.