I recently upgraded my Trillian Astra 4.0 beta and when I was done, it told me to go vote in a polldaddy poll.
So I did. And then my brain does what it does so often: it locked up due to overthinking.
I actually answered without thinking at first, picking the only IM client on the list that I knew. I’ve been a Trillian user for, sheesh… a looooooong time. I’ve probably been a Trillian Pro user for 7 years, and I recently upgraded to Trillian Astra. I’ve been mighty impressed with it, I must say.
Anyway, the question got to me because… did I mention I picked the only IM client on the list that I knew? Since I’ve never used the other ones, how can I definitely say Astra was the best? (to be honest, I’ve heard of Pidgin but never seen it in use).
Sure, it’s the best for me. But I feel a little icky inside with answering because I don’t think it’s a fair question. Had the question been “Which IM client do you use?” or even “Which of these IM clients have you always been dedicated to?” it would be more clarifying.
Problem is, I’m happy with Astra and don’t even have an inkling of an urge to try something else. My buddy list is > 1000 people long, built over more than a decade of adding, tweaking and organizing. I use AOL, Yahoo, MSN, IRC, Google Talk, and JABBER. Oh, and Astra connects to Facebook. I still chat with some of the people on my list on a frequent basis, and I added them to my buddy list in 1998.
So can I get some forgiveness from the Internet? I could use it.
Adium is OUTSTANDING for just about any protocol you can throw at it… but it’s Mac only, so I don’t know which Windows client would work best. Perhaps you should listen to The One Yes Totebag and buy a Mac!
.-= Dave2´s last blog ..Bullet Sunday 142 =-.
I love Adium the best, but I use Digsby at work because it’s a (gasp) PC.
.-= Poppy´s last blog ..This post is not about my birthday! Imagine that! =-.
What’s this Instant Messenger thing? Is that like a training-wheels version of Twitter or something?
.-= Ren´s last blog ..Macro Monday #20 =-.
You are forgiven.
I prefer GTalk but I’m weird. I generally almost never do IM anymore except with my husband.
.-= Robin´s last blog ..To Be A Girl =-.
I first used Trillian years ago, I honestly don’t remember when, maybe 2002? I grabbed Astra several months ago when they were Beta testing it, I was curious.
It’s quite pretty but I’m back to Pidgin. It’s not nearly as fancy in appearance but I don’t use IM nearly as much as I used to and I just like it more, I can’t explain why.
.-= Kim´s last blog ..I forgot to mention… =-.
I admit that one of my favorite features of Trillian is how you can copy the user folder and be able to keep all of your users and settings and move them to another Windows system. It works very well.
This was with version 3. Not sure how this new Astra works.
.-= martymankins´s last blog ..Guest Posting Today For Karl =-.
I don’t really like instant messaging. This probably stems from the days when I was in grad school and got twenty aol instant messages a day from men who wanted to talk about intimacies best spoken of in person. I’d be trying to do something and there were all these men I felt obligated to let down easy… so, even now that I’m not on aol I don’t use any IM service. I don’t even IM on facebook.
I tried Trillian a few times, when Pidgin was experiencing growing pains and causing me grief. I like how plain Pidgin is, but Trillian had it’s own charms. Unfortunately, Trillian does not support Gtalk, and that was really the deal breaker for me.
.-= MeanOne´s last blog ..Let’s just call it all off, shall we? =-.