Yahoo vs. Trillian

[Rushyo]

Because of their refusal to have other companies using their programs... ok it's tight on the consumer but they are well within their rights to do it.

[thadbme]

Icq is my main instant messanger client. As many other AO users have stated the primary reason that I use yahoo, and AOL for that matter is because i have a convienent interface that combines them all into one. I'd much rather get rid of my yahoo account than get rid of trillian.

ICQ does work with trillian, i've used it since WAY back in the early days of trillian. However if your contacts are using older ICQ software it appears to be finicky on some of the users. I've got messages from trillian before saying something along the lines that "the user may be using an older version of icq". Anyways I think that by yahoo blocking users from 3rd party software they will lose alot of users, maybe they don't care anyway eh?

[PM8228]

Is there a client similar to Trillion, or DeadAIM for Linux? Also, does Trillion or DeadAIM include an Aliasing feature like GAIM?

[souleman]

Personally I hate Trillian. They use services set up by other companies and then bitch when the other companies turn off their access. Yahoo doesn't charge you to use YIM, AOL doesn't charge you to use AIM. So don't start talking **** about non-profit organizations. And Cerillian is NOT a non-profit... they charge you to use Trillian Pro. So they make money off leaching off servers that other people set up. Now maybe if they had their own IM stuff, it wouldn't be as bad, but they still make money off of the fact that they are using other peoples services and all they have to do is modify a little bit of code.

[RoadClosed]

They do have their own AIM stuff. I remember setting up a Trillian account. In fact you have to have valid accounts with all the other services anyway and trillian only offers scaled down access abilities anyway. The one thing I do like about that, is you don't have to download all the IM clients. I do agree with Soulman on the leeching part. If I was a security admin over at Yahoo I would be pissed that someone was connecting to my system without the client I intended them to use. They will keep trying to block 3rd party clients and eventually they will get around to encrypting them and alienating them more or (I hope) reach some kind of open standard.

[tfunk]

I haven't seen Jabber mentioned in this post so far. For those of you who are not familiar with the jabber protocol it is a open-source IM client. There are a lot of free servers and alot of free clients for both windows and *nix. ( http://www.jabber.org/ ).

Jabber has what it calls "transports" that tie into msn, yahoo, Icq (and other, but those are the only transports I've personally tried)

Another great thing about jabber is that it allows for SSL connections for secure communications. I've also read that it supports pgp, but as of yet, I have not tried to get pgp working yet.

There are various free and/or commercial cients and also many free/commercial servers, so you can set up your own IM server, tie it to the big 3, and have no/almost no out of pocket cost.

So if you like trillian because it allows you to tie multiple im clients together, I would advise that you try one of the jabber clients. As of right now, my jabber client is working fine with MSN and Yahoo.

Hope this info helps someone. =)

[Vorlin]

Originally posted here by souleman
Personally I hate Trillian. They use services set up by other companies and then bitch when the other companies turn off their access. Yahoo doesn't charge you to use YIM, AOL doesn't charge you to use AIM. So don't start talking **** about non-profit organizations. And Cerillian is NOT a non-profit... they charge you to use Trillian Pro. So they make money off leaching off servers that other people set up. Now maybe if they had their own IM stuff, it wouldn't be as bad, but they still make money off of the fact that they are using other peoples services and all they have to do is modify a little bit of code.

I have to disagree with this statement simply because of a few things. First, Cerulean Studios has *never* made a funtional-delimited version of Trillian, forcing users to buy the "pro" or "full" version. They've been not-for-profit ever since pre-beta and only took donations. Now if you donated, that would go into your user account database and when the Pro v1.0 came out, you were able to download it for free because you've already "supported" them. Trillian happens to be one of the more popular "all-in-one" programs that are out there. They're definitely no different than GAIM or others that use authentication servers that AOL hosts/owns/etc. Also, compare the number of Pro users versus the number of freeloaders out there that constantly insist on using "freeware" and never support anything. The reason I would rather support Trillian is because I can use a number of clients then, instead of being forced to use yet another IM client that has ads, stock option tickers, and a plethora of other crappy things I can't turn off. So personally, I hate AOL, Yahoo, and MSN for their methods of trying to force people to use *their* software.

[souleman]

I never said they "forced" you to buy the pro version. I said that there was a difference between Basic and Pro versions. And they charge for the pro version....

Trillian Pro costs $25.00 USD and includes a year of free upgrades and technical support

That isn't about a donation, that is a purchace. You will also notice that the Pro version has already been patched to work with Yahoo, yet the other versions patches will be "released soon". Its like Redhat. You don't have to buy the product, but if you want cutomer support and early releases, you pay for it. At least redhat doesn't leach off other companies. Unless I am wrong, GAIM and jabber and things like that are totally free. That is non-profit. Cerulean is trying to make money off of this. So if they are making money, then they should be purchasing access to YIM, AIM, ICQ, whatever. And yes, you can use the Basic version, so its not like mIRC where you can only use it for a set time, but the PRO version does have a lot more functions to it.

In all actuallity, I am surprised they haven't found a way to use the Patriot Act against them. I think that would be going way overboard as there are no signs of terrorism, but the point is, they are still using unauthorized access to the different IM systems.

[spools.exe]

Cerulean Studios has released a software patch that will let a version of its Trillian instant-messaging service communicate with Yahoo Messenger, according to its co-founder.

The patch, called Yahoo Patch Beta 1 applies only to Trillian Pro, the paid version of Cerulean's popular IM client. The company said it plans to offer patches for the older 1.0 version and its free 0.74 software, though it hasn't said when it will do so.

"A patch to resolve the recent Yahoo connectivity issue is currently undergoing beta testing," Cerulean co-founder Scott Werndorfer wrote in an e-mail message. "Once we are confident that the patch is functioning 100 percent, we will update the rest of our product lines."

A Yahoo representative declined to comment.

The software update to Trillian Pro was released days after Yahoo blocked the third-party client from accessing its IM "buddy" lists. Yahoo announced earlier this month that it would require consumers to upgrade to more recent versions of Yahoo Messenger in an effort to stem spam. The Web portal also said it would probably disable access to outside IM providers such as Trillian.

Trillian allows people to combine their chat buddies from various IM services into one master list. IM services such as Yahoo, MSN Messenger and America Online's Instant Messenger lose their distinct features when integrated into Trillian, because it gives them a common look and feel.

The ongoing skirmish between Yahoo and Trillian mirrors earlier conflicts between AOL and Microsoft.

In July 1999, AOL and Microsoft engaged in a similar cat-and-mouse game when MSN Messenger launched with the ability to communicate directly with AIM users. AOL considered the move akin to a hack into its network and blocked MSN from tapping its customers. MSN released software to regain interoperability only to be blocked again by AOL hours later.

Yahoo is not alone in plans to shut out Trillian. In August, Microsoft announced that consumers must upgrade to newer MSN software. Like Yahoo, the software giant said it would likely block out third-party IM services such as Trillian as part of the upgrade.

source(http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5083623.html?tag=lh)

[RoadClosed]

On a side note, I notices today that AIM now accepts my digital certificate I use for encrypted email. Interesting. I can now easily encrypt my AIM sessions.