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·Use nuTsie to play iTunes music on your high-speed 3G cell
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sw_pc_wi_p2: Multi-IM shootout between Trillian, Gaim/Pidgin and Miranda
Posted on Sunday, June 24 @ 23:08:31 EDT
Topic: tiplabs tech tip

Being a long time trillian and linux user, friends continuously hound me to look at other options such as gaim/pidgin. Finally under the pressure I decided to give them a shot, here is what I found:

Trillian:

Being a long time user I have come to use this as the defacto standard for Multi-IM clients. While there are the occasional problems where AIM will always change their protocol to keep Trillian users out of their network, the guys at Trillian always get it back usually in a day. Very impressive. Pros and Cons:

+ Setting a custom away message
+ Ability to see all users whether online or not
+ Setting timestamps on in the chat window to know when messages arrive
+ Supports last time seen on-line, a feature I use often

- Professional version is not free
- Limited number of protocols (only majors AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, IRC)
- Does not immediately put you away when locking the computer

Trillian: http://www.trillian.cc

Pidgin (formally GAIM):

In latest rankings this has come in at #2 among users. I loaded this up and found install and setup to be straight forward. I played with it for a while and found it to be more lightweight than Trillian. Pros and Cons:

+ Supports most number of protocols including Google Talk and Sametime (15+ total)
+ Light-weight

- Problem joining MSN chats, which was a show stopper for me
- Not clear on which network buddies are on without mousing over buddy
(for example Trillian puts colored dots next to each to show network and status)
- Offline users are not displayed

Pidgin: http://pidgin.im

Miranda:

Multi-IM users rate this as the #1 client. However it must be hype that many people claim this is number one. The reason is that Miranda by far has the least features in it. It is tiny in size and resources making it the most light-weight of the bunch. Pros and Cons:

+ Offers good number of protocols including Jabber (10+ total)
+ Most light-weight of all

- Very limited feature set
- No last time on support
- No emoticons!

Miranda: http://www.miranda-im.org

Meebo:

Dont forget when your out and dont want to install any client Meebo turns your web brower into a multi-im client. Good for on the go. See our previous story on it here:
http://www.tiplabs.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=166

http://www.meebo.com

IM multiclient shootout between Trillian, Gaim, and Miranda:
Review:
http://paperkingdoms.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/gaim-vs-miranda-vs-trillian

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