So to contrast the things that suck post, something that definitely doesn’t suck.
My requirements for an instant messenger were fairly trivial and the main one was that it needed to connect to the MSN messenger network but unfortunately that ruled iChat out.
So my search ended with Adium and I have to say this just an amazing little piece of software. One of the biggest pains for me in the Windows world was the lack of a decent network agnostic IM client (Trillian being the only notable exception, but it was not to my taste).
Why is it so good? Let me count the ways!
Connectivity – The only thing it can’t connect to is IRC, every other service is covered including some less popualr ones like Novell GroupWise and Gadu-Gadu.
Interface – Just lovely, customisable and neat.
Logging – Sensible logging on by default, opening a chat window shows you just the last few lines of any previous chat with that contact. It also has a really nice integrated log viewer.
Idle and Away Support – Nothing revolutionary here but a very nice implementation of support for both going away and going idle.
Xtras – Plug-in and scripting directory. Bliss.
To top it all off, it is FOSS… What more could you ask for! I wish there was an IM client this good for Windows!
Technorati Tags:
mac, os/x, osx, switching to mac os/x, rocks, os x, adium