Filed under: Internet, Windows
Adam's Favorite Windows Apps: Trillian
by Adam Maras Oct 16th 2008 at 3:00PM
I've blogged about it before, and I'll blog about it again.Back when I was just a wee lad of the Internet, I found a most wonderful concept: instant messaging! At the time, I thought MSN Messenger was the coolest thing since the automatic bread slicer. Of course, my best friend preferred Yahoo! Messenger, and the majority of everyone else I knew would use nothing but AOL Instant Messenger. So, I had two choices: have three relatively bloated instant messaging running simultaneously on my computer, or lose electronic touch with the rest of the world. That is, until I found Trillian.
Trillian, like Digsby or Adium, aggregates multiple different instant messaging services into one relatively light-weight application. The Basic (free) version supports AIM, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo! service as well as IRC chat. The Pro version throws in support for Jabber (Google Talk and soon Facebook), Novell GroupWise, and Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous). Also, if you shell out the $25 for the Pro version, you'll get video chat support for the networks that support it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jon Niola said 3:06PM on 10-16-2008
You ever try Pidgin? I used both Pidgin and Trillian on Windows and found Pidgin to be a little more solid.
On Mac it's hands down Adium for me.
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Jamesey said 3:13PM on 10-16-2008
disgby makes trillian look silly.
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Matt said 3:25PM on 10-16-2008
Seriously, anyone that would still use Trillian is a dope. Digsby beats Trillian Pro hands down and is free.
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Zaxour said 3:36PM on 10-16-2008
Why anyone would pay $25.00 for a messenger client when you have the phenomenal Pidgin for free is beyond me.
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Aaron said 3:42PM on 10-16-2008
I gotta agree with the guys, Digsby is by far better than Trillian. In general, I find pidgin to be the best though because of its extensions and its control over notifications.
For anyone looking for a web/on-the-go app, you might want to try meebo. They roll out some pretty cool features every once in a while.
If you want the irc functionality that Trillian has, Digsby doesn't do IRC, but pidgin does. I use Mibbit for online irc.
Trillian really is an old product that never really gets any better. Heck, Astra isn't even all that great and it crashes constantly.
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mko said 3:46PM on 10-16-2008
Miranda anyone?
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marcus said 3:52PM on 10-16-2008
Yeah, gotta agree with other comments on this. I usually take DownloadSquad's word as scripture, but Trillian is way overbloated and generally just makes a mess of what should be a very simple app. Trillian used to be my IM app of choice, and I actually paid the $25/yr because it used to be worth it. But I finally ditched it over a year ago. Pidgin is my IM app of choice now. Gets everything right, does it very simply, it's free, and portable. Can't go wrong.
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Jeremy said 3:56PM on 10-16-2008
Just to toss in a pro-trillian voice... I'm currently using the latest version of Trillian Astra and it's been stable and solid. Though it is still in private beta(yes, I know it's been a gajillion years), I understand it is nearing a public release.
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Rob Dunn said 3:57PM on 10-16-2008
Agreed. I used to use Trillian way back when, but I have dumped it in favor of Digsby. By far a superior product.
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Josh said 4:00PM on 10-16-2008
I was a beta tester for Astra before I switched to OS X (and the infinitely better Adium) and it was easily the best I had found. Only thing holding it back for me was customization. If it could get to the levels of Adium and MirandaIM in terms of customization... it'd be a sure winner in my books. Granted, I've only used Digsby once or twice and Pidgin's interface was enough to scare me away.
Now if I'm using something other than my computer, I just use Meebo. So much easier.
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Trinsec said 4:08PM on 10-16-2008
I'd rather shell out money for Digsby (if it ever becomes payware) than for Trillian. I've used Trillian in the past, but man... Digsby seriously is a lot more intuitive. It just needs IRC added. And they update about every day, not finally after 3 years.
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Andrez said 4:09PM on 10-16-2008
Trillian does not support webcam in Windows life/MSN,
Does any of this IM app have webcam service ?
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chrisaroz said 5:08PM on 10-16-2008
I ditched Trillian forever ago (and I was alpha testing the new version). Trillian Pro has so many problems, and it's not nearly as integrated, smooth, and well designed as Digsby. It may have been the first, but it's gotten stale.
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Rob said 5:25PM on 10-16-2008
Disappointing article. I ditched Trillian about 2 years ago.
What's next? "Favorite apps: Morpheus"!!
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Justin Brown said 7:16PM on 10-16-2008
have to go with either Digsby or Pidgin.
Adium on Mac for sure!
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Marco said 11:06PM on 10-16-2008
Adam,
you write:
>> Also, if you shell out the $25 for the Pro version,
>> you'll get video chat support for the networks
>> that support it.
Well, this is wrong. Trillian HAD video chat support years ago. Since a very, very long time it doesn’t work video chat anymore.
There are hundreds of threads in the Trillian forum about it and the developers *try* to bring back video chat ... "when it’s time". It’s not very important for the developers. There are hundreds like me, who PAID 25 bucks just for cam support... to see that it doesn’t work...
There is no multi messenger around that supports "real cam to cam" with one of the "real" clients. Unfortunately. I will never understand it. Instead of building a working client with at least AIM, WLM and Yahoo-Cam support, the developers think it's more important to be able to encrypt a chat session or to be able to save the history.
STUPID world.
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cub3 said 1:57AM on 10-17-2008
trillian, ? wtf,
Digsby FTW. there is NO WAY in LIFE that i would EVER go back to Trillian ASStra or crappy pro. I just hope that Digsby doesnt end up like these idiots.
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Richard said 6:13AM on 10-17-2008
What is with the love for Digsby?
Whilst I like the fact that it integrates MSN and facebook (amongst others), the UI is messy, skinning is hit and miss (many of them not working properly and those that do being really rather ugly) and it is still a bit of a slow resource hog - even after the recent software update.
All in all, it feels really sloppy and unpolished.
The only thing that keeps me on it is the Facebook support. As soon as they support Jabber, I'll be checking out the alternatives again (Trillian, Pidgin or even Google Talk).
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idodialog said 8:09AM on 10-17-2008
Funny, I find the Digsby UI best of all the IM proggies, I love the skin I have applied (only took a few minutes), I'm running quite a few connections with memory usage just over 10 megs (which I would call a really tiny footprint), in 6 months I've never had a crash and the only thing that has troubled me is slowish file transfers. I love all the beautifully integrated functionality - for watching 5 emails it's peerless and I'd use it for that alone!
Superevil said 9:38AM on 10-17-2008
Pidgin is by far 100 times better than Trillian.
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