What messenger client do you all use?

I've used quite a bit of messenger clients, and the most favourite of mine, interface wise, is Emesene, but it has HORRIBLE transfer rates to my friends with Windows using MSN Messenger. So does Pidgin.

Currently, for a long time as well, I've been using aMSN, since the transfer rates are faster than Emesene, but I still don't know how to access my hostel's LAN network, though, so it's slower than Windows-Windows transfers. My only gripe with it is that it looks... iffy.

Are there any other alternatives that look decent and have good transfer rates as well? And can someone teach me to access my hostel's network, since we're at it?

 

I use pidgin. I connect to Yahoo and Google's services and have had good luck, never tried MSN with it though.

 

Pidgin, I don't really like aMSN, I don't even notice when I get new messages....

 

I use Pidgin, I do prefer aMSN, but I hate the GUI... it looks so ugly. And none of the themes I tried make it look any better. I mainly like Pidgin because I don't have to have like 5 IM clients open and 5 contact lists, and 5 tabbed conversation windows, etc. It's just easier and more organized.
EMZ=P

 

I really don't like aMSN's interface as well, sadly, though, the transfer rates for Pidgin aren't the best..

 

Yeah, for me it's about 30 seconds-2 minutes for a 170 KB file, on the Window's MSN only takes about 15 seconds max.
EMZ=]

 

aMSN all the way. I actually like interface of aMSN .

 

pidgin, its ok.

 

Added a poll, because I thought this thread needed one I personally use Kopete, but I use KDE so it's just natural.

 

I am using Pidgin ( I have MSN , GTalk , ICQ , Yahoo , Gadu Gadu and Aim Connected )

 

That was the first option... why did you check "other"?

 

i use imo.im

 

did I Maybe that i am getting Old mate

 

I've been using Kopete for ~2 years. It fits in nicely with KDE, as Pitabred said. Also, Pidgin's interface is horrible ;/

 

Pidgin on PC
Adium on Mac

 

I used to use Kopete but the Kopete developers continue(d?) to refuse to implement access control (i.e., reject messages from people not on your contact list). After I got sick of the incoming spams I switched to Pidgin...

 

I forgot that another option is CenterIM (a command-line IM client), though it is rather lacking in basic features (screenname aliasing, logging into multiple accounts for a single protocol), though this is apparently going to be fixed in CenterIM 5. Using CenterIM in Screen would be awesome, as I already run rtorrent and irssi in screen anyway.

 

Thanks for the poll, Pitabred. I wanted to put a poll at first as well, but was afraid I'd miss out some clients.

If only Pidgin's transfer rates were faster, then I'd use that more.

 

really? pidgins have slow transfer rate?

 

Also naim, and bitlbee is an interesting gateway that lets you use your IRC client for messaging protocols.

I use Pidgin myself, mostly because it's gtk, is stable, and feature rich. I am eager to see how Empathy turns out, though. I haven't had problems with Pidgin recently, but it used to drive me crazy, and I hold a grudge. It was never anywhere near as awful as Kopete, though

 

Of course, consider how awful the latency must be, having to fly all that way...

Seriously though, it's not the best or proper too for the job. Using a network filesystem like nfs or smb for local networks, or ftp across subnets would yield much better results. It is disheartening that Pidgin is so inefficient, though.

 

Could you teach me how to access my local network?

 

I think this should help you get a share setup
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Samba

 

Empathy? I just removed it from my machine a few minutes ago. The interface is way too primitive; it doesn't support m e ta-contacts, it doesn't support filetransfers, etc. etc. etc...

I gave it a fair try, I had it installed for a couple weeks. But ultimately it has a long way to go. Too long to be worth considering right now. The fact that a lot of its backend code (telepathy) is written in Python is another huge strike against it. Python is a nice interpreted language, but its memory use and execution speed are still far worse than C. It may be OK for frontend work, but it's a bloated pig for backends.

I dunno why these guys delude themselves into thinking that it's OK to use bulky interpreted languages for low level backend work. Stupid.

PS: i tried to write "m e t a-contacts" without the spaces and it got censored. Since when is that an obscene word? Somebody ought to fix the checker on this forum.

 

Wow, I didn't realize they used Python for Telepathy, that's just dumb. I had come to the conclusion that it wasn't ready to be worth a try yet, but now I guess I'll be waiting for someone with some sense to take over Telepathy and rewrite it in C.