Adium is okay. But most people prefer the ability to voice/video chat if they need to. On that note, Skype can now do both voice and video and its cross platform. In addition, it can VOIP out to landlines. It's free, cross platform and looks good too. No reason not to use this.

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What version of Skype is cross platform? I have not see this functionality.

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I was a longtime user of Adium, but I grew tired of the lack of reliability in file transfers. When I got my new MacBook, I gave Chax a try. Needless to say, I've been extremely impressed, and as most of my friends use AIM, I haven't looked back.

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Perhaps I'm in a serious minority, but why wouldn't voice and video chat be a big deal to you? I mean, it's really the best thing about iChat and really the only reason I still use it over Adium.

Who wants to have a built-in iSight and have no way to use it in the one of the only applications its actually useful for?

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screenshotting adium is a lame thing to do, considering that the application brilliantly looks completely different for each user. that said, go grab the beta and try it yourself, its very stable.

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I really enjoy the heck out of Adium. My only regret is that it does not work on Windoz for when I'm at work.

Video doesn't matter to me. I really don't want to be on the camera.

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Someone link to the Beta please, i was all over that site and could not find a link to actually download it. kthxbai

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naw, ichat is better than adium. Once you try a 3 or 4 way video ichat, you won't go back.

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Daniel, google for "adium beta" and you get this:

http://trac.adiumx.com/wiki/AdiumBeta

(google is your friend...)

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the new ichat will be excellent. there won't be a reason for adium. I tried it and didn't like it. if I had to go away from ichat, i'd suggest Skype since you can chat, call, and video to anyone. my $0.02

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I use Adium for text IM simply because I hate iChat's stupid bubbles and the way it handles your buddy list. Video chat would be nice in Adium, but I use it so rarely I don't mind switching over to iChat when I need it.

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Don't forget that it has OTR (off the record) built in as well. You have to turn it on in the preferences of each account but it will encrypt your chats with others that use OTR enabled clients (GAIM).

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I would be all over iChat....if only it supported MSN

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Thanks tcp >.>

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I might be a minority here, but i feel that Adium is terrible software, it actually reminds me of all the reasons why i left the windows platform in the firstplace. Ugly custom user interfaces, and far too many features that i don't want or need. And the duck i'm sorry, just has to go!

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Been using Adium since forever.. love it, I could never go back to msn for mac, or aim for mac, or anything else.. it's just so well built. Yey adium, I love thee

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If iChat supported MSN in addition to iChat and had a way to make a minimalistic userlist (without window borders and everything) like Adium I would be using that.

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I have friends on all of the IM services (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Skype, and yes even ICQ too - remember that one?) So having them all supported (well, with the exception of Skype of course) in one program is very handy. That way I don't have to click back and forth between 3 or 4 different IM programs. The only people I video chat with all have Macs anyway, so they use iChat, which is why I still drop into iChat every now and again, for voice/video stuff. But yeah, the Adium icon has to go. Even the Disco icon looks better than that butt-ugly duck!

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Adium, fix your file transfer issues and I'm all yours.

Do it. Do it.

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