Instant Messaging

[Alram]

As much as possible I endeavor to avoid cookies, ads and crud on my computer. I keep apps running in the background to a bare minimum. I have never used IM; never had the need or desire for it. My son is in Peru right now, working at a computer all day long and has talked me into it. I loaded Windows Live messenger up on my machine, and on my wife's I have Trillian. ( Windows Live messenger won't install on hers--she doesn't have ME--even though the page from which Windows messenger downloads states ME will work.) Trillian seems to be a clean ad free interface.

Is there any reason not to use it on both machines and ditch Windows Live messenger?
Or to rephrase the question, is there any reason to dislike or be paranoid about Windows Live messenger?

My inlaws have IM running at startup and constantly in the background and their computers run like crap. Of course they would probably run slowly even without IM. I'd like to use my machine without IM continually running, but then that defeats the purpose doesn't it? Any comments or feedback is welcome.

[ShadowHM]

I have never used IM; never had the need or desire for it. My son is in Peru right now, working at a computer all day long and has talked me into it.

I am in much the same position. My eldest son now lives in another city, and keeps MSN Messenger on through his work day. I have formed the habit of leaving it up on my computer through the day as well, so we can exchange messages/information/family happenings.

It doesn't seem to cause problems for me. In fact the only problem I have ever had with MSN Messenger was caused by another of my sons, who accepted a file transfer from a friend that he should not have. <_< He could only attribute it to a brain-dead moment where his finger clicked before he thought it through. :rolleyes:

[Chesspiece_face]

Are you just going to be using the software for Instant Messaging? or do you require any of the extra features that many of the IM programs come with now such as Voice Chat or Video Chat? If you plan to Voice Chat that i've found Trillian to be unstable.

If you just want to use it for IMs than I don't know of any glaring issues with any of the major programs. I would stay away from Yahoo Messenger because they like to add a lot of extra software with their installs. AIM has some of those issues but not so much anymore, and the pop-up webpage with AIM start-up can be disabled now so that isn't an issue. AIM does have the problem of ads which normally are ignorable but on occasion you will get an annoying expanding ad that keeps popping out or an ad with sound. :angry:

i've mostly used AIM because it has had the most successful Voice Chat out of the software that i've used. Although i'm thinking of checking out the new Windows live messenger

[Alram]

So far so good with Windows Live messenger except for some unobtrusive ads. I can't get Trillian to see any animations though. Any tips?

or do you require any of the extra features that many of the IM programs come with now such as Voice Chat or Video Chat? If you plan to Voice Chat that i've found Trillian to be unstable.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

[swirly]

I use instant messengers all the time without them causing any problems on my computer. I don't have any of them run on startup though. They all like to be set for that on install, but the first thing I always do is go in and uncheck that. Its not so much that I don't have IMs running all day on my comp, but that I like to choose when they load instead of it being default.

Generally I use one of the all in one messenger programs. I used trillian for a long time and currently I'm using gaim. Which you use is generally just a preference issue. The main problem you run into with the all in one messengers is support for extra stuff: file transfers can sometimes be hit or miss, webcams don't work in most, voice stuff generally isn't supported. For basic messaging they work fine though. So what I normally do is I have an all in one client running so that I can talk to the people I know on all of the messengers. Then I have the other standalone clients installed, but not running for the occassions when I need to use one of their extra features. Since they aren't running they don't really hurt anything other than taking a very small amount of harddrive space.

The only things, in my mind, to watch out for with clients is install, setting preferences, and ads. I know the last time I installed aim it asked if I wanted AOL Explorer and some other crap installed as well. I can't recall if the other clients do that, but I suspect some do. As long as you make sure to uncheck that stuff though then they aren't too bad on install. After install I always make sure to go in and fiddle with the preferences. Most of the clients have some kind of news webpage thing that they open when you start the program. This can pretty much always be disabled in preferences. As I said, I also turn off the auto-loading feature as well. I also tend to turn off most other things such as news/stock tickers and any other extra stuff I don't need that is on by default. The other worry I can see with some clients are the ads. I know that some versions of aim have ads (not sure about the new triton) and that they sometimes have sound which I find to be annoying. My computer should not be making noises that I don't specifically tell it to make. Aim is the only one I really recall having sound in ads, but many of the clients do have ads which you may or may not approve of. Most all in one clients don't have ads though so thats an easy way to get around that.

In the end I tend to think that the programs themselves aren't such a drag on a system. Its more about how a person uses them. If they install everything that comes with them...have them load on startup with all bells and whistles turned on...have 3-4 different clients running at once...it can grow into a kind of monster. If you are smart about it though...use all in one programs...tweak the settings in the programs...such like that...then I feel that there is nothing wrong with the programs.

[Mithrandir]

The primary benefit of instant messaging programs is that your friends now have electronic evidence of how drunk you were the previous night.

[Alram]

Thanks Swirly. Nice post.

[pakman]

The primary benefit of instant messaging programs is that your friends now have electronic evidence of how drunk you were the previous night.

I know that all to well, Mithrandir.

Besides knowing how drunk I was, I have AIM running all the time along with IRC. I only started using AIM when I was a freshman in college four years ago so I could talk to my parents. However, I don't use the latest versions of AIM because they are all chock full of crap and annoyances. I use an oooollld version where I can install DeadAIM and get rid of the junk I don't want (like the stock ticker and ads at the top and bottom), and I set up transparency, etc. You can get the older version of programs at http://www.oldversion.com. I'm also one of those people that if you get ahold of me by AIM you're lucky; I don't actually talk to people on AIM that much although I have it running all the time. One never knows if I'm at my pc or not because I rarely put up an away message. You're better off (now at least) getting me on my cell phone, which I just gave in to buying, or emailing me. It's only really a convenience if you want to leave me a short message.

There are people I know that have over a hundred people on their AIM lists. I am not one of them. I regularly go through and delete people I don't talk to often enough to be on my list, about every 4 months.

If you wanted to do VOIP, then I would suggest getting Skype. It's a program that does chat and voice and is free unless you want to pay for a service in which you pay something like $0.02/minute for an actual phone using your internet connection.

[Munkay]

Well said Swirly, great post.

Generally I use one of the all in one messenger programs. I used trillian for a long time and currently I'm using gaim. Which you use is generally just a preference issue. The main problem you run into with the all in one messengers is support for extra stuff: file transfers can sometimes be hit or miss, webcams don't work in most, voice stuff generally isn't supported. For basic messaging they work fine though. So what I normally do is I have an all in one client running so that I can talk to the people I know on all of the messengers. Then I have the other standalone clients installed, but not running for the occassions when I need to use one of their extra features. Since they aren't running they don't really hurt anything other than taking a very small amount of harddrive space.

Quoted for agreement:)

Cheers,

Munk

[Artega]

I use GAIM as well. Works for AIM and IRC and everything in between. I also tend to use Xfire, though it eats resources moreso than GAIM does.

[Mithrandir]

I'm also one of those people that if you get ahold of me by AIM you're lucky; I don't actually talk to people on AIM that much although I have it running all the time. One never knows if I'm at my pc or not because I rarely put up an away message.

Ah, you're one of "those":)I'm exactly the opposite - I often have an away message up even when I'm at the computer (or near it).

[Copadope]

However, I don't use the latest versions of AIM because they are all chock full of crap and annoyances. I use an oooollld version where I can install DeadAIM and get rid of the junk I don't want (like the stock ticker and ads at the top and bottom), and I set up transparency, etc. You can get the older version of programs at http://www.oldversion.com.

I'm the same way, but I use AIMutation because it's freeware. But it has most if not all of the same features: remove ads, remove buttons on buddy list, skinning, transparency, logging, and (my personal favorite) tabbed IMS. It's so nice to have only one button on the taskbar even though I'm chatting with 3 or 4 different people.

[ima_nerd]

X-Fire is definitely my favorite. It eats some resources up but I think it's worth it. I use Trillian to talk to people from high-school and all my non-gamer friends that don't use X-Fire. Trillian is like AIM but minus the 13-year old girl BLAH that drives me insane. I don't use it for file-transfers (www.yousendit.com) or for webcamming so I can't speak for either of those. As a chat program, it's been solid and problem free.