Adium

My work requires use of instant messaging; as a globally distributed company, I don’t think we could function without it. Furthermore, I definitely needed something with which to ping Sensei Patrick with inane new user questions.

One option was iChat, which ships with OS X. It’s got AOL and Jabber support, and will work with a camera. However, it doesn’t support SameTime, which is a requirement for me.

The last thing I wanted to do was go back to using five IM clients, one for each protocol. Invariably these chew up memory I’d rather be using for something else, and the worst of them tend to install crapware such as browser toolbars without asking.

I’ve handled this for years on Windows via use of Trillian. Trillan sports the following must-have features for me:

• A single program handles all protocols
• Does not install crapware
• Maintains history of chat communications. Many times, important information is discussed in a chat, and it’s key to save it for posterity in a searchable manner.

Trillian is a commercial product, but they get my money every year, without fail. Trillian doesn’t support the Mac, so an alternative had to be found.

Enter Adium.

Adium is GPL-licensed freeware, and might be a better Trillian than Trillian itself. Protocol support is extensive:

• AOL Instant Messenger, including ICQ and .Mac
• Jabber, including Google Talk
• MSN Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger
• Bonjour
• Gadu-Gadu
• LiveJournal
• Novell GroupWise
• QQ
• Lotus Sametime

Chat transcripts are saved, with full Spotlight support. Use of the UI is excellent, especially in how the dock icon is used to convey information. Adium also uses Growl, which is cool enough to rate its own posting; more on it later.

The last time I was this impressed with free software, it was Firefox. An outstanding product.