Adium or iChat?

[sockeatingdryer]

I know of the thread on Adium .59, but there's a new version now.

What I would like to know is if one should stick with iChat, or go to Adium.
- or -
Which one do you use more?

 

[blue&whiteman]

ichat can only use aim and icq accounts. adium can use all 4 major im services. adium is a much more elegant app also.

 

[mj_1903]

Tabs! That's the main reason I cannot go back to iChat, other than multi-service support.

 

[beg_ne]

I know of the thread on Adium .59, but there's a new version now.

What I would like to know is if one should stick with iChat, or go to Adium.
- or -
Which one do you use more?

Depends on what you use it for i guess. I use Adium almost 100% for MSN chat since MSN Messenger is severely lacking, and since aMSN cant input Japanese.

I use iChat exclusively to chat on AIM since almost all of the time i'm on AIM i am using voice or videocam features.

 

[PlaceofDis]

i tried aduim to see how cool it was. and i loved it for text chats ect. but ive found that im starting to use my iSight a lot more lately, and i love the balloon convos in iChat and i like the interface of it a lot as well. So even though adium is on my computer i wont be using it very often. But if you have a lot of friends that use different services than aduim is awesome for you. if you dont need or want the a/v aspect of iChat, then aduim is for you. it all ends up being about what you use the messenger program for and what services you need to connect to.

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

adium - text chats. customizable. tabs. any service. free.
iChat - voice. video.

i use adium.

 

[MacFan26]

I just like Adium because of the interface. I only switch back to iChat for file transfers. I'm sure I'd use iChat if I ever did voice or video chat, but I don't do either. I also like being able to update my profile in Adium.

 

[intrepkid21]

I'd like to use my Adium all the time, but file transfering is horrid on it..always crashes the program..they need to fix this..

 

[blue&whiteman]

I'd like to use my Adium all the time, but file transfering is horrid on it..always crashes the program..they need to fix this..

fire is the only multi service app I have been able to get transfers to work on. this wasn't until they declared 1.0 though.. the beta never worked. adium is still beta and is made by good coders so i'm sure we will have good transfer one day.

 

[Windowlicker]

ichat can only use aim and icq accounts. adium can use all 4 major im services. adium is a much more elegant app also.

correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't ichat support aim and msn instead of aim & icq?? :Q if it supported icq i'd have been using ichat now because adium is pretty unstable on my current system for some reason (0.61).

 

[blue&whiteman]

correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't ichat support aim and msn instead of aim & icq?? :Q if it supported icq i'd have been using ichat now because adium is pretty unstable on my current system for some reason (0.61).

sorry but you couldn't be more wrong.

aol owns icq also so both aol im and ichat support icq. I think you can do it the other way around with the icq client also. ichat cannot use msn or yahoo im.

 

[jared_kipe]

In my opinion, Adium's interface is... less than elegant. I absolutely adore the bubble windows that come from the opposing sides of the screen, makes it way easy to instantly see who said what. I'm sure most of you know how to do this, but if you go up to the preferences in iChat, on the General tab, if you check the box that says "show status in menue bar" then a little voice bubble will suddenly appear in the upper right. You can now close your buddy list, because you can do all your stuff from right there. This also means, that (barring from being open) you have one less icon on the dock.

 

[Whigga Spitta]

After switching to a Mac, I tried using iChat, but I was too used to the Windows AIM client to switch. So I downloaded the OSX version of AIM--- let's just say I won't be using anymore AOL services ported to the Mac. Then I found Adium X, an elegant (IMO), intuitive, and tabbed (!) instant messaging client. Like previous posters mentioned, if I were using Audio/Video chats, I woul definitely stay with iChat, but for a very nice text messaging program, Adium is the way to go.

 

[tedger]

In my opinion, Adium's interface is... less than elegant. I absolutely adore the bubble windows that come from the opposing sides of the screen, makes it way easy to instantly see who said what. I'm sure most of you know how to do this, but if you go up to the preferences in iChat, on the General tab, if you check the box that says "show status in menue bar" then a little voice bubble will suddenly appear in the upper right. You can now close your buddy list, because you can do all your stuff from right there. This also means, that (barring from being open) you have one less icon on the dock.

First off, if you don't like Adium's message view go to http://www.adiumxtras.com and you can download tons of xtras including different message views, many of which include opposing contacts and several have bubbles like iChat's (if you are running 10.2 you are out of luck when it comes to message views).

Next, if you Ctrl+Click (or if you have a multiple button mouse right-click) on the dock icon you can get everything that is in the iChat Menu item. So barring wanting one less icon in your dock Adium can handle everything you have discribed.

As far as people talking about file transfers, Adium file transfers work well, they just aren't completely polished. If you open Applications/Utilities/Console.app you can see the progress of an Adium file transfer. This is something that does need work to be finished off but the Adium Developers are on it.

The biggest problem I have with this thread is the lack of information on Adium. Adium is a work in progress so if you don't have the most recent version (.61, .62 is due out tomorrow) then I suggest you download it first before taking sides. Also if you try out Adium and don't like it visit http://www.adiumxtras.com and you can customize Adium all you want. Lastly if you try it out and have some kind of problem I suggest that you visit http://www.funmac.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38 which is the official Adium forums, the developers check it several times a day and are always happy to help.

 

[kewp04]

I tried to install adium on my G4 ibook. But my comp always tells me that there's no default application to open the .dmg file. Does anyone know how to fix that?

 

[Windowlicker]

sorry but you couldn't be more wrong.

aol owns icq also so both aol im and ichat support icq. I think you can do it the other way around with the icq client also. ichat cannot use msn or yahoo im.

well that's certainly good news now the problem still is that ichat doesn't get connected to aol.. I checked the server and it's the same my adium has, so it should be working. is there a way to work around this or do I just have to wait for the next adium release?

 

[FredAkbar]

See my sig. Adium user since 2002.

Specifically, I agree with most of the posts in this thread about Adium's tabs, customizability, and support for many protocols.

I don't really even consider iChat to be an AIM client. It's a client for talking to other people, sure, and the AV is nice, but it doesn't properly support groups, you can't add people to your buddy list without adding them to your address book (which is completely ridiculous), you can't have a profile, etc. Sure Adium is missing some AIM features too but at least the Adium devs don't insult us AIM users by calling their product a finished app.

 

[FredAkbar]

well that's certainly good news now the problem still is that ichat doesn't get connected to aol.. I checked the server and it's the same my adium has, so it should be working. is there a way to work around this or do I just have to wait for the next adium release?

Can't help you with your iChat connection issues, but the next release of Adium should be within a day or two (they're already editing the plist files and such on CVS to reflect the new version number, and they usually don't bother to do that until right before they release).

Adium usually releases weekly; they just skipped a week this time for whatever reason, maybe they were in the middle of some important changes and couldn't just stop in the middle to make a public release.

[edit: sorry tedger, didn't see your post about .62 being due out tomorrow, but that's probably true.

...but after reading tedger's post some more, I agree that you guys should make sure you have the latest version (normally you can check out from CVS and build from source if you're into that sort of thing, though I tried that a day ago and it wouldn't build), and check out the forums, tedger and I go there frequently (right tedger?) and the devs and many other users go there often as well.]

 

[tedger]

Yeah Akbar this is the same Tedger on the Adium forums.

Here's something to note for those of you who use iChat because of it's AV capabilities. I also use iChat's AV capabilities every once in a while but all it takes is saying to the other person (if they also don't use iChat full time) "hey want to launch iChat for a voice/video chat?" or visa versa if they use iChat. Then all you have to do is launch iChat, you don't even have to log out of Adium because AIM allows you to connect in more than one location. I'd recommend that everyone give it a shot, but to each their own, and if you like iChat more so be it. Even if I think you are wrong .

 

[howard]

adium is one of my favorite apps of all-time

i can honestly say i don't know of anything i can complain about it.

now with webkit message displays you can make it look however you want, its absolutely amazing.

 

[question fear]

i like adium for the away messages/profiles/tabbed browsing.
the tabbing is great when you're on a laptop, esp a 12incher.
-carly

 

[Whigga Spitta]

The tabbed conversations in Adium made me look into tabbed browsing in Safari-- and it is so fresh and so clean!

 

[question fear]

once you go tab, you never go back.

 

[blue&whiteman]

once you go tab, you never go back.

yes. tabs help save a lot of screen real estate and thats always a good thing.

 

[ratspg]

clients lack the look!

ive tried adium, proteus, fire, whatever... yes tabs are nice... but their interfaces just lack that 'ooh im a finished product' feel. They just seem like something isn't certain about them all. If someone makes an 'iChat skin' like exactly with the contact list, exactly with the window, then i'd switch in an instant! , but is it possible to add tabs to iChat AV with some sort of built-on-top app?