Adium or iChat?

[blue&whiteman]

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?

if you think ichat or msn or yahoo or whatever look nicer than adium then I think you need to cut back on the crack

look here and you will see you can make adium look pretty much exactly how you want.

 

[question fear]

if you think ichat or msn or yahoo or whatever look nicer than adium then I think you need to cut back on the crack

look here and you will see you can make adium look pretty much exactly how you want.

sigh...only on 10.3....bah, i know i need to upgrade....getting closer every day.

but yea, give adium a shot, its well worth it.

 

[Windowlicker]

...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.]

yeah well i'm pretty much addicted to updates (checking macupdate like 10 times a day) so i'm pretty sure to have the latest adium

 

[Windowlicker]

Adium 0.62 Out

Yes, it's out NOW.

get it here: Adium 0.62 Download

 

[rueyeet]

Whenever I let it be known I'm online, there are at least a couple of my friends (who themselves spend waaaay too much time online) who immediately open a chat session. Adium's tabbed interface beats having multiple iChat windows open.

Of course, I have absolutely no interest in video chat (takes all the relaxation value out of computing in my jammies) and find the speech bubbles in iChat condescendingly cartoonish, so your mileage may vary.

 

[jared_kipe]

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.

Having add-ins is hardly what I call elegant.

 

[MacFan26]

Of course, I have absolutely no interest in video chat (takes all the relaxation value out of computing in my jammies)

same here!

Just downloaded Adium 0.62!

 

[tedger]

Having add-ins is hardly what I call elegant.

If by elegant you mean looks exactly the same on everyone's computer then no Adium is not. But the definition of elegant is pleasing to good taste. Since obviously everyone has different tastes (and not everyone has the same taste as Steve Jobs and the Metalizing squad) Adium is incredibly elegant as it allows you to suit it to your own tastes. And if you like the metal, you can use it!

First off I'd like to clarify what the Xtras for Adium are. Here is a list
Dock Icons:
You can change the way your icon looks and have icons with animations instead of bouncing, of course if you like the bounce you can have that too


Emoticon Packs:
Change the way Emoticons in chats, use iChat's bubble like emoticons, MSN's Animated Emoticons, Yahoo's funky emoticons (several packs are included) in fact Adium allows you to mix these different packs together so you can have MSN's Animated and iChat's sleek other similes if you so wish.

Contact list styles:
Set your Contact list to appear like anything from simple white text on a transparent background with nothing else to disturb it, to lists with a myriad of colors and variations based on the person's current status. And of course everything in between. Currently Adium doesn't have icons in the buddy list or bubbles to display status (there are icons for this) but this is something that is being worked on and will come in the future

Message View Styles:
View your conversations the way you want to. iChat gives you two choices, bubbles, and bars. Adium gives you about 5 that are built in (with variations on individual styles) and then you can download ones on the xtras site. Which range from simple to styles that let you set a picture as the background to partially transparent views.

Sound Sets:
These are alternate sounds that you can download to get the audio feedback that you want. Even customize it so say you only want to hear if one person is logging on and could care less about everyone else, you can set it so you can hear a sound for one contact, and silence for ever. You can even go so far as to set an individual sound for each contact.

Lastly,
Applescripts:
Put scripts in your Away messages and messages that will do fun things like give a random Shakespearean insult to a countdown to a given date and/or time.

Something that is amazing about this is that this website is up to allow the users to upload the xtras that they create and share with everyone.

These extras are not add-ins that you have to download they are things that you can choose to download. If you only downloaded the program and only used the included xtras you could still be very happy with it.

So if you are suggesting that a chat client that can adapt to pretty much any given graphical environment (like different ShapeShifter themes to a simple change of desktop pictures) and fit in beautifully and not stick out like a sore metal thumb is not elegant I think that you are mistaken. But as I've said, it's all about choice, and if you want Adium to look metal like ichat it can do that too.

Bellow is a screenshot of my Adium configuration right now tell me if iChat would look more elegant here:

 

[ratspg]

contact list

sorry , but i dont find the contact lists in adium anything close to 'elegant', these rounded highlights around the SNs, and thats the only option, just change the colors and the fonts! ewwieee lol! adium lovers, enjoy it! when they can make nice contact lists as much as as their message views, then i will check it out again. and that will only be until tiger....when i can have multiple audio.

 

[MacFan26]

Here's mine :

 

[ratspg]

awesome site

macfan26: i checked out your website, thast awesome u were in jazz band? what instrument did/do you play? I'm out here in LA majoring in music in college now, lol. don't find many other musicians!

 

[MacFan26]

macfan26: i checked out your website, thast awesome u were in jazz band? what instrument did/do you play? I'm out here in LA majoring in music in college now, lol. don't find many other musicians!

thanks ratspg It's always cool to see a music major! (btw I replied to your pm)

 

[MondayNgt]

I used to use iChat because I loved the interface, but I found that contacting ICQ members on it was less than optimal. For example, one of my ICQ friends wanted me to explain something to another ICQ friend, but I didn't see him online. When I told him he wasn't on, my friend said he was. So I hopped on Adium and sure enough, there he was. I wish iChat and AOL's clients would seperately log into ICQ instead of reaching the ICQ network through AIM.

I've been using Adium since, but I sure do miss iChat...

--
Patrick Shannon
My War With Culture
The Positively Eclectic Online Comic!

 

[michaelrjohnson]

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.

...and because of this, I use iChat. (I dont' have buddies on other services than AIM, so it all works out)

 

[ToastCabbit]

Logs

And let's not forget another of Adium's great features – the built-in log viewer.

I know there are programs out there that can help you view and manage your logged IM's on iChat, but having it built into Adium is a huge plus for me. Also, Adium automatically makes the file format of my logs HTML for easy access and compatibility.

 

[DJY]

I donwloaded Adium a couple of days ago...
but can't work out why half my contacts appear under the title Individuals, yet half under a separate title called Other Contacts?

Yet they are all MSN contacts (as thats the only connection I've added so far?)
Anyone able to help?

 

[Sabbath]

I donwloaded Adium a couple of days ago...
but can't work out why half my contacts appear under the title Individuals, yet half under a separate title called Other Contacts?

Yet they are all MSN contacts (as thats the only connection I've added so far?)
Anyone able to help?

I don’t know how you got to that position but its really easy to change the groups, and pretty much essential if you have a variety of connections I find. Just drag the groups and/or contacts to where you want them and add new groups from contact > add group.

I love adium, but it is one of those things you have to play around with how it looks to get it to suit you. Tabs are great, I like the message windows, but that is one area where the sleekness of iChat does come out on top in my view. The only additional thing to want is the elusive video and voice.

 

[abc123]

i've been having contact list issues too. some of my contacts won't stay in the correct group, i change then but when i start up adium again they are back to the wrong place.
apart from that little hickup i love it, especially because half my contacts use aim and half msn

 

[DJY]

Ah thanks Sabbath!
I'm still looking for the hard way of doing things... only being a new switcher! Still getting used to the Mac way of doing things...
simple
easy
and intuative!

 

[MacFan26]

And let's not forget another of Adium's great features – the built-in log viewer.

I love the log viewer too. It's just nice to be able to access it without a plugin, and instead of iChat, it doesn't open a file, it shows up like it does in Fire (at least, I think so) in a window where you can view all of the logs.

 

[criana]

Adium

I've switched over to Adium, most of the time, but I still have problems with File Transfers.

They do not go through at all. I've opened up my firewall to those ports, I've opened up the ports on my wireless router. Still no go.

In iChat it takes 2-3 times with PC users to get DirectIM going, but when I use the OS X AIM client everything works on the first try.

I"m still holding out for Adium and the file transfer to work better. (yes I've had console open and watched the process - I've posted about this on the Adium forum).

There was also rumor of Adium supporting Rendevous, for me that would be great since we use iChat at work.

 

[MacFan26]

by the way, version .63 is now available for Adium users

 

[ratspg]

downloads?

can i send/receive downloads on AIM with adium? someone keeps trying to send me a file works great with iChat, doesn't work with adium... i'm new to adium and i want to switch but if i can accept files i can't anyone know?

thanks.

 

[fowler.]

I rediscovered Adium for the first time in a few months last night. It's come a long way since I first used it. I really really like the interface. I like the amount of customization possible on the menu and chat windows. It loses the bubbly osx feel and gets a sleeker designed feel imo.

I'm going to keep using it for a while.. until I find something that bothers me about it.

 

[comictimes]

Yeah, I just downloaded Adium several days ago, and so far I am liking it far more than ichat. ichat has a very nice feel to it, but between tabs and the amount that you can fiddle with Adium, I definitely prefer Adium. Right now I've got it using the metalgear solid look for the chat window, a theme called "subtle colors" for the contact list, a nice matrix-duck for my dock, and piano sounds... it's so much fun...

Oh yeah, and it supports msn, which is nice.