Chat programs

[ejn74]

What is a good chat program that does not load junk on your computer. My wife and I are apart for a while do to my job. I do not like Aol, yahoo, or Msn Mess because of the junk in them. Thanks

 

[madmatt]

Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging program. No malware, no bloatware.

http://gaim.sourceforge.net

Supports AIM, YIM, WM/MSNM, IRC, and more.

 

[NetRyder]

Windows Messenger 5 (the one that ships with XP, not MSN Messenger) is pretty basic and lightweight too.

 

[dragonbeat]

i like Paltalk as you can have your own room which can be password protected if you wish,it gives you plenty of privarcy.
www.Paltalk.com

 

[Aprox]

I use gaim and trillian (swap back and forth) both are great applications for your needs.

Gaim
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

Trillian
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

 

[rotjong]

MSN Messenger - Good voice quality and video quality. Decent text messaging [for PMs... I never used the MSN rooms]. Downside is that w/o WLM 8 you can't do offline messaging.

Yahoo! - Good voice quality in rooms. With v7 I hate the new PM voicing system. Video quality is so-so. Text chatting in rooms is so-so but in PMs it's junk since I can't seem to receive or send any PMs lately from the people I want. The program as a whole is a pile of dung, IMO. It's one big bug riddled client.

Eyeball Chat - Good voice and video. You can do a lot of tweaking with how it uses bandwidth. Yucky text chatting. Unfortunately this free client hasn't been updated in a long time but it still works and it's great if you have problems with firewalls, etc.

Camfrog - Great video and voice quality. Good text chatting. Nice solid program that is basically Yahoo on steroids and actually works. Downside is... no offline messaging.

ICQ - I haven't used it in a long long time. This had probably the best file transfer of any chat client.

mIRC - The old standby. Text-only but it works and does the job. Of course you need a decent IRC server to join but if you can't find one then you shouldn't be using a computer.

NOTE: My opinions were purely based on person-to-person chats and no using a "room" within the client if the client supported rooms.

rotjong

 

[VenomXt]

www18.meebo.com

or use trillian

 

[ejn74]

What about google talk? Has anyone used it?

 

[Admiral Michael]

Trillian here.

I tried Google Talk, seems good but I have no one that uses it.

 

[Xie]

On my Mac I use AdiumX and Skype. On Windows I use just Skype.

 

[NetRyder]

What about google talk? Has anyone used it?

Actually, for your specific purpose, it might be a very good choice.
Clean, spartan UI, and the only things it can do are text-based chat and PC-to-PC voice sessions (which actually work very well).

 

[ejn74]

THanks Netryder It is the one that I already decided to go with.

Thanks for the opinions all.

 

[Johnny]

Trillian and Windows Live Messenger Beta are the only ones I use .. Ohh, I also use neemo.com at school ..

 

[Cosmin]

Trillian 3.1 Professional all the way ..
Cosmin