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Chat Client Alternatives

MATATATMATATAT
in Technology
So at work I use two different gchat names (I could probably migrate to one) and also skype to communicate with people. Because of this I was using Digsby to aggregate all my chats for easier access. For some reason Digsby just keeps freezing up on me. It happened over the last couple days and I'm not sure what is happening. Also apparently the code is open source but I'm still connecting to an account server somewhere? Wasn't aware of this.

So I'm looking for an alternative to Digsby. There's a couple reasons why I can't really just go to using native gchat. The first one is that the email I made to give all my work people (so they aren't on my personal email) is the one I also use for a lot of important stuff so I don't really want it just up all the time on my PC. I also have a habit of closing tabs and windows out because I always have so much shit open for work stuff it gets annoying. So an application would be preferable. The most obvious response would probably be use pidgin but for some reason when I installed pidgin yesterday all of my accounts kept disconnecting after ~5 minutes or so. So I uninstalled that as well.

Anyone know any good options?

Comments

  • Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)
    Irssi ;)
  • MATATATMATATAT
    edited December 2014
    Thanks, I'll give that a try.
    Post edited by MATATAT on
  • MATATATMATATAT
    Oh I didn't realize it functions like IRC, not sure if that is what I'm looking for. I'm gonna give Trillian a shot.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    I like Pidgin on Windows and Linux. On Mac, I like Adium.
  • MATATATMATATAT
    Yeah I mean, I gave Pidgin a try but for some reason the accounts would be up and going for a while then they would just disconnect. Not sure what was happening. Trillian has been pretty solid so far so I'll probably just stick with that.
  • AprecheApreche
    Just use the official Google Hangout Chrome extension. On OSX you can alternatively use Adium. Then stop using any chat that isn't Google Hangout.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    Apreche said:

    Just use the official Google Hangout Chrome extension. On OSX you can alternatively use Adium. Then stop using any chat that isn't Google Hangout.

    Last I checked, Adium used the same underlying IM library as Pidgin.
  • AprecheApreche
    Dragonmaster Lou said:

    Apreche said:

    Just use the official Google Hangout Chrome extension. On OSX you can alternatively use Adium. Then stop using any chat that isn't Google Hangout.

    Last I checked, Adium used the same underlying IM library as Pidgin.
    But the interface is so much worse.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    Apreche said:

    Dragonmaster Lou said:

    Apreche said:

    Just use the official Google Hangout Chrome extension. On OSX you can alternatively use Adium. Then stop using any chat that isn't Google Hangout.

    Last I checked, Adium used the same underlying IM library as Pidgin.
    But the interface is so much worse.
    Adium's or Pidgin's?

    I assume you mean Pidgin's interface is crap (though so's Trillian's, IMHO), and I really can't disagree with you there. Part of the problem is using GTK+ as its GUI toolkit, which has all sorts of problems. There is a reason why many formerly GTK+-based projects that aren't tied up with GNOME are porting to Qt (WireShark, SubSurface, etc.).
  • AprecheApreche
    Dragonmaster Lou said:

    Apreche said:

    Dragonmaster Lou said:

    Apreche said:

    Just use the official Google Hangout Chrome extension. On OSX you can alternatively use Adium. Then stop using any chat that isn't Google Hangout.

    Last I checked, Adium used the same underlying IM library as Pidgin.
    But the interface is so much worse.
    Adium's or Pidgin's?

    I assume you mean Pidgin's interface is crap (though so's Trillian's, IMHO), and I really can't disagree with you there. Part of the problem is using GTK+ as its GUI toolkit, which has all sorts of problems. There is a reason why many formerly GTK+-based projects that aren't tied up with GNOME are porting to Qt (WireShark, SubSurface, etc.).
    Yes, Pidgin.

  • MATATATMATATAT
    They all seem more or less the same to me from an interface standpoint. Pidgin probably being the worst. Trillium, from my recent experience, isn't too far off from Digsby so I've been enjoying it so far.
  • AprecheApreche
    MATATAT said:

    They all seem more or less the same to me from an interface standpoint. Pidgin probably being the worst. Trillium, from my recent experience, isn't too far off from Digsby so I've been enjoying it so far.

    All of them are clones of AIM, which is just an awful design for the year 2014. Like using WinAmp in 2014.

    The Google Hangout Chrome extension is great, except for the annoying always-on-top bubble they have now. Who thought that was a good idea?
  • MATATATMATATAT
    The Hangouts extension seems pretty good actually but its missing some configuration settings I would like. Also it appears you can configure the always on top maybe from the settings.
  • MATATATMATATAT
    So I got tired of Trillian being kinda shitty. For no reason it started saying when clicking on links that "Chrome stopped responding". Went back to hangouts app.

    Mostly what I wanted to say was that I am surprised that you can "switch" people on Chrome, install the hangouts extension, then just close the session for the previous person. Now I have hangouts chats from one account while maintaining all the bookmarks and plugins from the other account.
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