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Juggler · Sep 17, 2003, 03:23 PM

Is there any advantage in using AIM (from AOL) instead of iChat?

(I just noticed that there is a version of AIM for the Mac and this puzzled me.)

mishap · Sep 17, 2003, 03:42 PM

Originally posted by Juggler:
Is there any advantage in using AIM (from AOL) instead of iChat?

(I just noticed that there is a version of AIM for the Mac and this puzzled me.)

Maybe AIM has more options, but i think it is just a stylistic choice of interfaces and the way IMs are displayed.

Stradlater · Sep 17, 2003, 04:40 PM

Originally posted by Juggler:
Is there any advantage in using AIM (from AOL) instead of iChat?

The only real "advantage" is bloat such as advertising, stock tickers, news tickers, other things you don't need in a chat program, et cetera. Oh, and iChat has audio and video while AIM doesn't. Stick w/ iChat

Arkham_c · Sep 17, 2003, 05:25 PM

If you were going to abandon iChat for an alternative, go with one of the multiplatform clients like Fire or one of the others. Fire has other neat features like real-time language translation and encrypted conversations.

Alex00087 · Sep 19, 2003, 01:32 AM

Originally posted by Stradlater:
The only real "advantage" is bloat such as advertising, stock tickers, news tickers, other things you don't need in a chat program, et cetera. Oh, and iChat has audio and video while AIM doesn't. Stick w/ iChat

you can turn off the stock & news ticker to made the buddy list window more cleaner.

Stradlater · Sep 19, 2003, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by Alex00087:
you can turn off the stock & news ticker to made the buddy list window more cleaner.

Yeah, but then you still have a hackish port on your hands, and no more than what iChat can give you. All I was listing were the advantages, and I don't think iChat gives you the options of stock tickers and news tickers

VEGAN · Sep 19, 2003, 11:42 AM

Originally posted by Stradlater:
Yeah, but then you still have a hackish port on your hands, and no more than what iChat can give you. All I was listing were the advantages, and I don't think iChat gives you the options of stock tickers and news tickers

Well, you can't join AIM chat rooms like "International" as far as I know, with iChat

Apfhex · Sep 19, 2003, 04:49 PM

iChat has spell check.

The only thing missing I've noticed is that iChat doesn't care about AIM user profiles (not that I really did either - no one really uses them).

BurpetheadX · Sep 21, 2003, 05:38 PM

iChat is garbage. It's not customizable at all, and is bulky and complicated. Fire is the best AIM cient for mac, its beautiful and a joy to use.

ambush · Sep 21, 2003, 05:47 PM

iChat is NOTHING compared to Adium 2.

http://adium.sf.net

CheesePuff · Sep 21, 2003, 07:05 PM

Adium 2 is very nice... but currently I can see no way to view an away message?

Lordx_ · Sep 21, 2003, 10:03 PM

Originally posted by CheesePuff:
Adium 2 is very nice... but currently I can see no way to view an away message?

Since Adium 2.0 currently uses TOC2 to connect to AOL, there is no way to view away messages without actually IMing the person. With Adium moving to libgaim in a few months it will bring a ton more features to Adium.