Any opinions on what the best AIM client is?

I have tried Gaim and Gabber, the free ones I know, and now I use Gaim.
It has all features I need for a Instant Messaging software.

Gaim here as well. Since not long ago it allows at last to set the encoding for ICQ, which helps alot when communicating with Miranda users.
There's also Kopete (altough it'll hardly ever be ported to win32 :), but it allows do that on per-contact basis.

I believe asking what is the best IM client is like asking what is the best Linux distro. Each person has his/her preference.

ICQ Lite here.

Sure. But that doesn't mean that they're all equal



I use Adium X on OS X, which I think uses the Gaim stuff underneath. iChat isn't bad though for no-frills chatting, but it doesn't do ICQ which I happen to have a lot of contacts on.

gaim is very nice to use.

Yes, I like Adium on OS X to. It's highly customizable and full-featured, not to mention FREE!

I'm a big Miranda zealot. It's kind of like a foobar2000 for instant messaging. It's complex like fb2k, and the authors have a much more lenient policy towards non-standard use (ie. what zZzZzZz calls hacks). As such, there are a few glitchy components, but if you steer clear of them you'll be okay.

v0.3.4 is going to rock, once the instabilities get worked out.

I dislike Gaim and Trillian because of their stupid obsession with skins (be it GTK or something else). If I was using Linux, I'd run Gaim, but I consider it kind of ludicrous to use GTK in Windows.

I got a lot of use out of Trillian. One client for all the major platforms (Y!, AIM, MSN, ICQ.) The Pro version (which I sprung for since I loved the program so much) allows great plug-ins like spell-checking and automatic message slicing (for messages that are too long.)

I'm currently using Miranda, which satisfies my basic IM needs, but is far from being my 'dreamclient'.
For jabber, which I use just because of technical curiousity not any practical reason, I've been using Psi and JAJC.

I use trillian pro since then I just need one program for IRC, MSN, ICQ, yahoo and AIM; I need all of those.

I'm a happy user of Miranda

Miranda IM - best choice for Windows users!

I was using gaim, but since it disconnects every 5 minutes because of the crappy proxy I'm using, I've switched to the very primitive Ayttm.

I vote for Miranda, too. Easy to use etc.

Out of curiosity, what do you find wrong with it?

gaim on slack10

I am using Trillian as well.

It features secure conversations over the Oscar protocol, web-cam streams for Yahoo!, multi-user conversations for MSN and file transfers for all protocols (ICQ and AIM don't work here for some strange reason, though). You can also add new features via plugins and with the "new" 2.0 version, new protocol handler can be added as well (Jabber, Novell, Lotus).

gaim for Windows/Linux consistency.

Thats why I use Gaim as well .

Gaim here as well, because the other windows clients I tried (Trillian & Miranda) don't support ICQ/AOL interoperability. Also, Miranda doesn't support unicode in contact list.

Can you elaborate a little on this? I think Cerulean Studios calls this SecureIM (correct me if I'm wrong). I believe an SSL transport is used, but I have no clue of how peers are authenticated. I've played with Trillian a bit, but found no way of confirming trust, i.e. no PKI fingerprints etc.

Adium!
Its highly customizable and support the most popular protocols (.Mac, MSN, AIM, ICQ...).

I used to be a big Trillian fan and I loved Trillian Pro until I found about a memory bandwidth bug which the developers have decided to ignore and not to fix. What's the point of saving memory by using a multi-IM client when it's going to hit your performance from another side?
The bug has been around since version 1.0 and AFAIK, it's still uncorrected: Bug Report thread at Cerulean Studios' forum.
Now I just use the two separate IM independently...

I've been using Trillian and then Trillian Pro for quite some time. I'm thinking about switching to Miranda for various reasons (mostly things I dislike about Trillian).

I see some have mentioned IRC here. When it comes to IRC, I'll stick to a client designed for IRC, such as ircII, ScrollZ, or EPIC. I've been using ScrollZ almost exclusively for ten years now. I'd stay away from all-in-one solutions that seem to do everything and nothing well, and (IMHO) bloated software like BitchX (or similar). irssi seems to be the favorite of everyone who loves perl - not I. If your looking for a more graphical cross-platform IRC client, give jIRCii a shot.

I was pleased with the idea of BitlBee, and the way it could seamlessly integrate different IM protocols with my IRC software of choice, but when I was using it I kept running into bugs. The author was responsive in fixing them, but it did detract from the experience. I really should try it again, since I miss it's functionality - http://www.bitlbee.org/

If you use Mac OS X, I'd recommend the open source Fire client. The only downside is the lack of a console interface. It has great GnuPG-based security implementation (as does Gaim) and is the IM client I use when I have to IM, which isn't often. I stick with IRC and classic talk (I use ytalk).

I value simplicity. I don't like great all-singing all-dancing do-everything software. SimpleAIM is a cross-platform console (Java) application that works well, but only supports AIM via the TOC protocol. It's useful if you want to create a bot or a service that takes input from IM's. If you use Emacs most of the day, TNT is still the best. I have a very simple TOC-based AIM script for Python-enabled Vim as well, inspired by VimIRC, the Vim IRC client.

There are also the "big three" classic multi-network console clients - naim, centericq, and the realative newcomer, pork. Should meet anyones needs.

I haven't tried using OpenGaim or Gaim for a long time. Around the time I tried using it, there was talk about separation of the UI and engine, which would allow for multiple interface front-ends. I don't know if it's gotten there yet, but if so, it would certainly be an option.

Hope this gives you some new options.

Miranda has ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber and IRC included with the installer. Other protocols, like Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, Tlen and other, are available through extensions.

I've tested Gaim, Trillian and Miranda IM. I like Miranda the best... the only things I dislike in Miranda are that it's a bit buggy and crashes sometimes, file transfers don't always work and the options are not really well organized. Other than that, it's excellent

Another Miranda User, The Best Choice, Flexibility, small, and a lot of things.

gaim rocks. can't beat it imo. they've been putting out new releases like its going out of style, and just released 1.0

Hmm, to answer the poster's original question, the best AOL client I've used so far is AOL Instant Messenger with DeadAIM (on Windows).

yeah, that's what i've been using too (AIM with DeadAIM), and it seems like the best one to me... i just wish there really was a foobar of the IM client world... oh well, maybe some day

It's a pretty good solution to me; doesn't really leave a lot to be desired.

i'm an intermitent miranda user. the worst problem with it is that there is no real "autoconnect" feature.

what OS?

what do you mean by "autoconnect"? do you mean autoconnect upon application startup or auto reconnect for when disconnects occur?

Edit: formatting

another Miranda IM user.

minimalist, small, lightweight, yet expandable. allows me to keep intouch with people over 5 different clients. for general IM use miranda cant be beat IMO

for IRC i use mIRC, although if you arent very picky the miranda IRC client should satisfy.

When I was running GNU/Linux (Gentoo), I tried a number of different clients, to find one with global hotkey support, but didn't find any. If I can't open incoming messages with a keyboard hotkey, it makes the IM program completely useless to me, despite what other great features it may have. I even tried running Miranda under Wine, but still no hotkeys.

For Win32 (which I usually use), I've been running Miranda since version <0.1, and I would never consider anything else (not zealotry, I just really like the program).

Sorry for not replying earlier. SecureIM uses BlowFish with a strength of 128 bits. The key exchange is done via Diffie-Hellman.

Anyone know if this still happens with the new trillian 3.0?

Hi,

Yes, you are right. However, as I suspected, Trillian does not authenticate the peer. An active MITM attack is easily mountable. See here. So I'm not surprised that you cannot configure/accept PKI options (i.e. a certificate or public key).

on disconnect, 99% of the time it does not reconnects msm

I remember reading somewhere (sorry, I can't find the exact URL) that it was fixed.

I'm quite happy user of Miranda IM but from time to time it suffers the problem which I haven't encountered in other clients such as ICQ full, lite and also SIM (for me the biggest competitor of Miranda).
The problem is "The message was sent time-out" so my message is not sent properly to the addressee but he/she mostly sees it.
I heard many users reporting the same problem and I was not able to find a solution.
In this case I'd rather use SIM but it frequently crashes on my Win XP system...
PS: Yes, I have a very slow connection 64Kbit/s...

iChat.

At home I use gaim. At work I need to be compatible with "sametime" so I use a program called "notesbuddy" It has built in text-to-voice, for people at work it displays their photo and other items from the on-line phone book, gives me a choice of sending IM, voice mail, or email. It also notifies me by voice when a new IM or email comes, and who it's from.

i have been using aim for a long time. it is what all my friends use. i dont like the program tho, and i like aol company even less. id like to switch to another aim client, but dont necessarily need support for icq or other messengers. i see miranda as being very popular here, and so am intersested in trying that out, unless there is something better designed to simply be an aim replacement. i looked into deadaim, but the fact that it is juat an addon to aim, not a replacement, and that it costs money (i know, its cheap, but so am i) turned me off to it. do you guys think miranda is my best bet?

ive been using miranda for a while and really like it, but for me a big, big part of instant messanging is file transfering. on my college campus, we get amazing file transfer rates from computer to computer using aim, and therefore we all use it alot. unfortunately miranda dosen't support sending of files, only recieving... a big disappointment. its clearly stated on their site.

so i decided to give gaim a try. interface is nice too. not as great as miranda, but still a huge improvement over aim though. i was happy to see that it would let me send files, but i can't get it to recieve file transfers! its really frustrating. so what ive been doing is swtiching between the two. miranda when i want to recieve files, and gaim when i want to send them. gaim's faq says that it supports sending and recieving of files in aim, but that it may be buggy. i just can't get the recieving to work at all... have any of you sucessfully gotten gaim to recieve file transfers over aim, and if so, how?

any other suggestions? maybe ill give trillian a shot. i used it years ago, but didn't care for it much. now that i have fallen in love w/ open source stuff, i would really rather use an open source one... thanks

that is not true AFAIR ... there is a file send command right there ...

none seems to be compatible with my pizza provider..., still have to use oldfashioned phone.

from the miranda site here
and from the gaim site here
as i said before, with gaim, i can recieve files, but have not been able to recieve them... do you guys know of another aim client that supports both sending and recieving of files, or of a way i can get one of these programs to do it? thanks

edit: added links