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huxbnw · May 19, 2004, 04:03 AM

Which app. do you like better and why?

nooon · May 19, 2004, 04:54 AM

I'm a fan of Proteus. It seems more slick, stable and blends in well with the rest of OS X. But I guess this is just a matter of personal preference.

I'm currently using iChat, though. I need my audiochats and filetransfers.

iNeusch · May 19, 2004, 07:44 AM

I use Proteus too
I miss Audio/Video...

RevEvs · May 19, 2004, 08:17 AM

II used Proteus for a long time, but now am on dMSN 100% of the time. Being as nearly everyone i know uses MSN. Its java, so not totally fitting with OS X, but it is improving with each version, and the developer is open to suggestions.

revs

spiney · May 19, 2004, 09:15 AM

I'm using fire, it talks to all of my contacts on multiple networks, and you cannot beat the price.

jguidroz · May 19, 2004, 09:19 AM

Adium since the beginning. Just keeps getting better.

mdc · May 19, 2004, 09:40 AM

proteus

(btw. do a search, you will find numerous arguments over each client

)

threestain · May 19, 2004, 10:03 AM

Started with fire, then moved to proteus and currently investigating adium - seems the best to me. Also how do you change the ducks?

resImadA · May 19, 2004, 11:08 AM

I'm definitely a fan of Adium, it's the only one I use!

(But then again, I may be a little bias

hehehe)

Threestain - We've got a bunch of alternative icon packs on the xtras site.

hosince · May 19, 2004, 11:14 AM

Adium. Because it's so smart. Futility is seldom in a design. (However, it may be too simple)
Fire is too buggy.... Proteus is too slow and shareware.

And Adium Developers are so cool. Because, they make various reports brisk.

Tick · May 19, 2004, 11:15 AM

Adium, the developers are easy to get ahold of

AlphaQuam · May 19, 2004, 11:17 AM

I vote for Adium... I love having a borderless transparent buddy list (not to mention all the other great features)!

kashirat · May 19, 2004, 12:13 PM

Adium is the first one I've tried, and its the one I've stuck with so far. I love how the contact list resizes. The program, aesthetically is well designed and the interface is clean.

Having said that though, the MSN support on adium is a little less than I'd like, and that's the protocal that everyone I know uses. I have proteus and Fire installed on my machine but we'll see when I get to tryiing it out.

'kash

threestain · May 19, 2004, 01:13 PM

cool thanks. What I really want to know is how do you set the icons for other people? as in I'm talking to a friend who's on a pc - how do I set his icon to a particular duck?

C.J. Moof · May 19, 2004, 02:10 PM

Fire. Built in PGP integration let's my buddies and I pretend we have something important and secret to say in our chats, and wave our "look- I'm a bigger geek than the next guy" flags.

beno · May 19, 2004, 03:30 PM

Proteus, because Adium doesn't do Rendezvous.
Ben

ambush · May 19, 2004, 03:56 PM

Adium - I think rendezvous is coming on adium soon... correct me if I'm wrong tho.

Zimphire · May 19, 2004, 04:27 PM

I had been a big Fire user. Still a great app.

But since Adium switched over to all the protocols, I have been using it.

I love the GUI options it has that Fire or Proteus doesn't offer.

Plus it's free.

Nightly CVS builds a cool too. I used to get the Fire builds that way as well.

eevyl · May 19, 2004, 05:48 PM

Adium, of course. Why? Beacuse it has ducks, of course.

sushiism · May 19, 2004, 06:45 PM

Adium 1.6.5

Stradlater · May 19, 2004, 07:31 PM

Adium.

Turnpike · May 19, 2004, 07:45 PM

At first I was comparing only Fire and Proteus (adium was only aim at the time) and I chose Fire, because it was more stable and wasn't shareware. Then I moved to Proteus because it became more stable and it used a drawer to hold chats. I stayed with Proteus for a long time, but it began to get old and I was tired of bugs I had reported not disappearing ever, so I looked back into Fire, and looked at the new release of Proteus that was on the horizon. During this time, I heard that Adium had gone poly-protocol, so I gave it a try... couldn't be happier.

Horsepoo!!! · May 19, 2004, 09:44 PM

Proteus. Just works better and is more functional than the rest.

Zimphire · May 19, 2004, 10:20 PM

Originally posted by Turnpike:
At first I was comparing only Fire and Proteus (adium was only aim at the time) and I chose Fire, because it was more stable and wasn't shareware.

The exact same reason I used Fire.

During this time, I heard that Adium had gone poly-protocol, so I gave it a try... couldn't be happier.

Same here. I haven't liked a IM so well since Fire first came into the scene. I believe Fire was the first "poly-protocol" app out. It was also one of the first OS X Cocoa apps.

I still like it. I just prefer the way you can customize Adium's GUI. You can't get that from Fire or Proteus.

SteevAK · May 20, 2004, 02:04 AM

Adium. Lots of customization, few headaches, and the ducks.

[APi]TheMan · May 20, 2004, 02:10 AM

Adium. It's just got that contact list that's so blang. Proteus and Fire handle the buddy lists so differently. Adium's got the most open source, friendly, cocoa-ey feel to it. I just can't get enough of it.

Zimphire · May 20, 2004, 02:17 AM

I need to come up with an idea to make my own Adium icon. It want a variation of the duck.

Just haven't figured out what to do yet.

proton · May 20, 2004, 11:48 AM

Originally posted by ambush:
Adium - I think rendezvous is coming on adium soon... correct me if I'm wrong tho.

I've started porting my Rendezvous code (originally written for Proteus) over to Adium, but it's currently on hold (at least from me) while I've got some assignments to do. I might get a chance to have a go at it this weekend, but who knows...

After I finish the port to Adium, I'll start the port to Fire, and then all the multi-IM clients for Mac I know of will have Rendezvous support, and everyone can be happy

For me, I use Proteus, but everyone should give them all a shot and use what they like best.

- proton

Thain Esh Kelch · May 20, 2004, 02:13 PM

Fire - Dont use it.. Ive tried it several times.. Never got it to work properly due to maaaannnnyyy bugs!

Proteus - Easiest to use, VERY nice GUI. My favorite! But it doesnt come cheap.. :/

Adium - A bit crowded preferences.. Doesnt look as good as Proteus. (I havent played THAT much with the preffs though).

Turias · May 20, 2004, 02:18 PM

It's all about the duck.

Zimphire · May 20, 2004, 10:38 PM

Originally posted by Thain Esh Kelch:
Doesnt look as good as Proteus. (I havent played THAT much with the preffs though).

I think the reason you think the first thing, is because you haven't done the last.

I used to think Adium was ugly till I messed with the prefs.

It's the best looking one out there. Hands down.

mindwaves · May 21, 2004, 12:42 AM

Adium without a doubt. Main AIM client since v1.2.

waffffffle · May 21, 2004, 02:21 AM

I've been using Adium 1.6 until about 2 months ago when I finally switched over to AdiumX. I'm still missing some of Adium 1.6's features and some of the bugs really get to me (every time I open the log viewer it crashes, and has for months). But AdiumX is the best oscar client out there. Everyone I know is on AIM. I started using Adium 1.x over 2 years ago. Before that I was using AIM, which was pretty bad. I remember I used IM a lot less because AIM was so terrible in OS X.

dampeoples · May 21, 2004, 09:55 AM

Fire, because it's the first one I tried

huxbnw · May 23, 2004, 11:12 AM

Don't really have a good reason, other than it looks better on the desktop. I wish one of these apps would have options for the appearance of the buddy list. In Adium, the buddy list is so small and OS9 like, a far cry from the looks of iChat. I love the way it works and file transfers, but the aesthetics could be better. I love the ducks -- only wish that when they flash info about a buddy that the entire name would appear!

kpne1home · May 23, 2004, 01:04 PM

I use proteus over adium because proteus can hide the incoming messages if you are away by hiding the app. Adium doesnt do that, at least i think it doesnt. When adium comes out with a feature like that i will probably switch because you can customize it so much better than proteus.

Chinasaur · May 23, 2004, 01:06 PM

huxbnw,

Have you checked out the extras portion of the adiumx.com site? You can make the buddy list look like whatever you want and as big as you want.

Lot's of downloadable themes and webkit views.

Horsepoo!!! · May 23, 2004, 02:01 PM

I find people talking about Adium being more customizable to be a hoot and a half considering Proteus had amazing customizability since version 1.0. Proteus always had the best customizability (and still does) when it came to status icon themes, sound themes, events, and toolbars. Proteus 4 toned it down because it was considered bloat by some people. Proteus 4 brought in some more functional customization such as buddy picts in the contact list and status text in the contact list.

Most 3rd-party IM clients didn't have much customizability until recently.

I also find it very funny how people prioritize visual options over functional options. 'till this day, Proteus is the only multi-IM client that allows easy meta-contact creation, allows itself to be quit while remaining connected (thanks to the daemons running in the background).

I find Adium X very lacking. The status system is very sub-par compared to Proteus since it only offers 'Away' and 'Idle' and doesn't offer Invisible among other things. Adium forces a tab interface for the message window...Proteus at least offers separate windows. Adium's history system is very poor compared to Proteus' history system.

Adium X is unfortunately too AIM-centric with it's status system. It's great if you use AIM exclusively...but not if you don't.

My opinion is that Proteus is better if you use other protocols and very customizable if you need useful features. Adium has the best contact list customizability, but that's pretty much it.

Proteus wins in most other departments. And I say this as a fact and not an opinion. If you do not use such useful options and remain enamored with contact list customization, then Adium X is probably the best client for you.

resImadA · May 23, 2004, 02:50 PM

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
Adium forces a tab interface for the message window...Proteus at least offers separate windows.

Adium offers separate windows

eevyl · May 23, 2004, 05:47 PM

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
Adium forces a tab interface for the message window...Proteus at least offers separate windows.

Do this with Proteus and report back:

http://homepage.mac.com/eevyl/separatewindows.mov

Horsepoo!!! · 06:26 PM

That's pretty slick.

Proteus can do the same though...not as neat looking but windows can be detached and attached to the Message Center as it's called.

But where is the option to have all incoming messages open in separate windows?

But damn, that's the slickest tab detaching I've seen ever. Really smooth and natural feeling.

King Bob On The Cob · May 23, 2004, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
That's pretty slick.

Proteus can do the same though...not as neat looking but windows can be detached and attached to the Message Center as it's called.

But where is the option to have all incoming messages open in separate windows?

But damn, that's the slickest tab detaching I've seen ever. Really smooth and natural feeling.

Under the Message pane in preferences, the Checkbox labeled "Create new messages in tabs"

Zimphire · May 24, 2004, 12:22 AM

I tried Proteus again. I don't see how it's any better than the others. Esp being that you are expected to pay to use it.

I like Adium's customizable GUI.

Something I can't get with Proteus.

underwood · May 24, 2004, 01:40 AM

proteus. best thing to happen to im.

proton, you're everywhere, aren't you.

superfula · May 24, 2004, 05:42 AM

Originally posted by Zimphire:
I tried Proteus again. I don't see how it's any better than the others. Esp being that you are expected to pay to use it.

I like Adium's customizable GUI.

Something I can't get with Proteus.

You can customize Proteus' gui quite a bit. Maybe you really should try it first. Proteus has been like that for quite some time now.

huxbnw · May 24, 2004, 08:13 AM

How can you customize Adium to look more like iChat? Many of the extras are, in my opinion, not so pleasing on the eyes.

neoTony · 09:43 AM

I use Proteus. I would use Adium if not for that fscked up duck. *shudder*

It's just so... duck-ish... WTF does a duck have to do with instant messaging?

Edit: Whoever started this topic needs to be taken outside and beaten with a stick. Adium vs. Fire vs. Proteus is one of those issues that brings out the troll in many, many users on this board (yours truly included according to my post above *grin*)

Horsepoo!!! · May 24, 2004, 09:32 AM

People need not look further than here to see just how much the list can be customized.

IMO, the only thing Adium might have over Proteus is good font size and vertical spacing customization and maybe that silly borderless, invisible background, and rounded-edge list items that people seem to be so happy about.

But I think Proteus 4 is the winner when it comes to buddy picts in the contact list (none of that in Adium X), typing notification in the contact list (not in Adium X), status labels, status icons in contact list (nope for Adium X), service icons in contact list (that either...unless you count the tooltip...and no, that doesn't count), status message in contact list (again, no), group flattening (is this in Adium X? I couldn't find it), status changing from the contact window...history from the contact window, account connections from the contact window...

...that pretty much covers it. I hope someone lets me know when Adium X can do all of these things.

Also...I'd like to know when Adium will allow adding buddy picts to contacts not in the Address Book. Thats also a biggie for contact list customization to me.

Zimphire · May 24, 2004, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by superfula:
You can customize Proteus' gui quite a bit. Maybe you really should try it first. Proteus has been like that for quite some time now.

I HAVE tried it. I just did.

It's not as customizable as Adium. Not even close.

Zimphire · May 24, 2004, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
People need not look further than here to see just how much the list can be customized.

And then compare it to..
http://www.funmac.com/showthread.php?t=6218

IMO, the only thing Adium might have over Proteus is good font size and vertical spacing customization and maybe that silly borderless, invisible background, and rounded-edge list items that people seem to be so happy about.

That silly invisible borderless view is what keeps me on Adium.

BTW Adium DOES have contact list typing notification.