I used to use MSN exclusively in the good old days, but now I mainly use a combination of Skype and Meebo and in some cases,  Digsby. I am not permanently signed on to any network, I do not like distractions, and I either see most of my friends every week, or email them or call them. For clients and firends abroad we also usually use email, or Skype, if any other networks come up, I use Meebo.

However, I like Digsby a lot, since it supports a lot of networks, has email and twitter built in and some nifty added extras which make it the best all round IM client out there in my opinion. Overall though I am a solitary kind of guy, especially when I’m working, so I don’t really need it a lot. Which is your favorite client, how do you use IM networks? Let us know in the comments!

Related posts

• Meebone – Desktop Meebo (0)
• Koolim Web Messenger (7)
• IM over a LAN (6)
• Digsby too Plain for You? (9)
• Dig Digsby, You Have Good Reason to (7)

The download comes with both the server and client of the chat program. All that needs to be done to establish a chat is to start the chat server and connect to it. The chat software works both in a LAN environment and on the Internet. The core chat functionality of ChatX reminds experienced users of IRC which uses a similar layout and /commands. The software does support private chats and file transfers as well.

It does not come near the functionality of a fully grown Instant Messenger client but that’s not something that the software developer is after. ChatX has been specifically designed for situations where a basic chat is needed instantly. The chat software is compatible with all editions of the Windows operating system.

Related posts

• Youtube Video Search Is A Barebone Youtube Downloader (2)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Networking Software Homedale (13)
• Windows XP: Default Internet Browser Per User Profile (0)
• Windows XP System File Checker (7)

Gobby was released in 2005 by the Ox539 developer group and features a client/server architecture that allows for easy remote connection between two peers. Gobby contains its own server (Sobby) so there’s no secondary installation or configuration.

Getting and Installing

As Gobby is very common, it is generally in repositories for every distribution. This makes installing Gobby simple. Open up your distributions’ Add/Remove Software application and do a search for “gobby” (no quotes). Once you find Gobby, select it and click Apply.

Once Gobby is installed you should find the executable entry in the Internet menu.

Starting a Gobby Session

When you first start Gobby you will see an empty Gobby window. From this window you can either “Create session” (become a host for a session) or “Join Session” (join a remote Gobby host).  Click on the “Create Session” button which will open up a session configuration window.

Create Session

If you don’t enter a password anyone starting up Gobby can join your session. If this is a “private” collaboration, it’s best to set up a password.

Now for those wishing to join an already running click on the Join Session button and the Join Gobby Session window will open.

Join Session

You can select your Gobby server from the list or you can enter the Host manually. Once you have entered the correct information click OK and you will join the session.

Once you have joined the session you will want to open up two extra windows: Document List and User List. The Document List window will show you all available Gobby documents available to you. If you are not the creator of a document you can click on a document and subscribe to that document. When you subcribe to a document a new tab for that document will open in your Gobby window.

Gobby Session

As you can, in the image above, Gobby does syntax highlighting. If you click on the Edit menu you will see a Syntax submenu. From that submenu you can select from any of the 65 different types of syntax highlighting.

Another nice feature of Gobby is that it includes a chat window. With a chat window you can actually communicate as you collaborate.

Gobby Chat

After you have done all of your work you have to  save  each document individually and, if you want, you can save the chat session. To save a single document just click on the tab of the document to save, go to the Session menu entry, and click Save Document. To save the chat session go to the Gobby menu entry and select Save Session.

Final Thoughts

Gobby has a number of possible applications from development collaboration to document collaboration. If you have a need for an easy to use, free collaboration software, this is what you want.

Related posts

• Yoggie PICO Personal Mobile Security Computer (3)
• With Ubuntu 9.10 Arrives Wubi 9.10 (1)
• Widgets for Linux: SuperKaramba (6)
• Widgets for Linux: gDesklets (3)
• Why you should switch your parents pc to ubuntu (19)

The client Coccinella takes the second path by adding new features like a whiteboard to the Instant Messenger. It can connect to any Jabber/XMPP messaging server (including MSN, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Google Talk). But first the basics. The client has all the usual standard features like client lists, group chat, file transfers, avatars, emoticons and secure connections.

Besides that Coccinella supports Voice over IP connections and the previously mentioned whiteboard. Take a look at the screenshot below to get an understanding of how the chat whiteboard works.

That feature comes in pretty handy if you want to visualize information or just draw a nice heart to your loved one. The chat client comes with installers for Windows (Windows 98 to Windows XP, no Vista support yet), Apple Macintosh and Linux. The source is also available at the download page of the website.

Related posts

• Koolim Web Messenger (7)
• Instantbird a Mozilla based Instant Messenger (5)
• Imo.im a Meebo alternative (8)
• Encrypt your instant messages with Pidgin (2)
• Dig Digsby, You Have Good Reason to (7)

Given the growing number of social networks, chat addresses and email accounts I had I found it a brilliant solution to keeping it all under check. I also liked the simple but effective design and of course there was that warm early adopter glow of being there to support a growing service from the very beginning.

6 months later and I started to use Pidgin.

This wasn’t a deliberate choice at first, I started dual booting Ubuntu and of course Pidgin is the default chat client. I was immediately impressed by what I saw, it was fast, a lot faster then Digsby and supported a whole lot more chat networks while additionally having some great plugins available.

While Digsby is great in the way it keeps track of social networks like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter the reality is I wasn’t actually using those features very much at all. When I did use them it was through Flock. It did have the very real advantage of Facebook Chat integration which I did use a lot, however I quickly discovered that Pidgin also had a plugin available to achieve this.

Also I found Pidgin had support for IRC Chat which is something I have begun to use a  fair bit lately.

The fact was I was using Digsby, a IM client which was way too resources heavy and susceptible to RAM spikes when Pidgin would do the job better.

I felt a little guilty, but I’m not writing Digsby off at all. I still think it’s great and I really like the direction it’s going in, but I just found a better alternative for my needs at this point in time. Digsby is still a very young client and has a lot of potential. A promised update is coming up to address lots of performance issues and hopefully introduce some new features and I’m looking forward to that.

For now however Pidgin is my stop-gap.

Related posts

• Dig Digsby, You Have Good Reason to (7)
• Hydra IRC Client (3)
• Encrypt your instant messages with Pidgin (2)
• Digsby Build 32 Released (1)
• Coccinella Chat Client With Whiteboard (8)

Hydra IRC is another client that I heard about only recently and it works pretty well. It does come with all the features that one would expect from an IRC client like DCC file transfers, multiple server connections, multiple user identities, channel monitoring and a wealth of other features.

Some would say that the initial layout of the IRC client is a bit messy with lots of information panels everywhere. At start you have the following windows: Server List, Channel List, Channel monitoring with three additional tabs, event log with three additional tabs and the main channel window. Another window is added to the mix when the user connects to a server. This one displays the connected users that are currently in the channel.

The good news is that every window can be removed or minimized to display only the needed ones. Beginners will probably be a bit lost at the beginning because of the sheer size of options and servers to chose from.

IRC is still a nice way to find information pretty fast. Almost every network has channels for programming languages or operating systems where users can receive help when they need it. I’m not sure about the file sharing scene on IRC though if it is still that active and I did not have time to check this out.

Hydra IRC is definitely a nice client for IRC, best of all it is completely free.

Related posts

• Torn between Pidgin and Digsby (16)
• Mibbit Web Based IRC Client (1)
• ZoneScreen Finally Gets 64-bit Update (6)
• Who is connected to your pc right now ? (5)
• Use Multiple Screens over Network (11)

Luckily Adobe Air was built exactly for these needs and a nice person has made us a desktop version of Meebo, called Meebone, which acts exactly the same way, but doesn’t have the rooms, banners, and stuff that have made Meebo a bit less appealing to me nowadays. There’s really not much more to say about this application, log on and use Meebo as you would normally.

To me this is probably the first application which shows the power of Adobe Air. Meebo is a fully browser based application and is taken off your browser seamlessly with it. This means that now people like me who love a browser based apps, but sometimes need desktop power can enjoy the apps they love.

Related posts

• How do you use instant messaging? (14)
• Use Twhirl for Adobe Air to twitter (4)
• Torn between Pidgin and Digsby (16)
• To-Do List Doomi (10)
• Time tracking with Klok gets better and better (2)

Dark Kosmos thinks “trillian is MUCH better (and looks better)” and I must admit the from the Trillian screenshot he showed it does look pretty good. I used Trillian for a while and wasn’t too taken with it, although that was a while ago now so maybe I should give it another try.

I’ve been using Digsby since it was in beta. I managed to procure a key somehow and I was really impressed by it. I’ve always been a fan of clean chats, like google talk and irc, and Digsby really does well. It used to have a problem a while ago where if you closed peoples chat windows too many times, Digsby just stopped letting you open new ones, but a quick bug report later, and within a few days the problem was fixed. Angelo said “It used to have a problem a while ago where if you closed peoples chat windows too many times, Digsby just stopped letting you open new ones, but a quick bug report later, and within a few days the problem was fixed.”

I would have to say this is something the Digsby developers have been impressing beta testers with, rapid responses and fixes to any reported problems and bugs, and consideration of all suggested features. It’s a great way to build a community up as you can see by Disbies.org which just recently started up.

Digsbies is a place for the Disby community to discuss the application and download new themes and find tools and tips. It’s only small but I’m sure with time and a official public release of Digsby version 1 it will grow.

A couple of my favourite themes are the Digsby Alive theme, designed to match Digsby in with the Windows Live products and the AeRoyale theme to better integrate Digsby with the official Windows Royale theme.

Also find more emoticons, a Wiki and a log converter for transferring all chat logs from all the major chat clients including Trillian to Digsby.

Related posts

• How do you use instant messaging? (14)
• Dig Digsby, You Have Good Reason to (7)
• Work in style with the Enigma desktop package (4)
• Wordpress one click installation of plugins and themes (4)
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Uxtheme.dll patch (41)

It’s still a beta product but significant changes have been made over the last few months including new features, optimisation and bug fixes. It’s not perfect but it’s very usable. If you’re a fan of MSN for all the ‘nudge’ and ‘wink’ type features then this isn’t for you. If you like the sparse chat style of Gtalk then this is, at the moment Digsby is pretty simple when it comes to chat features.

One great thing about Digsby is that you can chat to people on Facebook Chat through the client, a unique feature for Digsby till a few weeks ago when some other clients began to get it as well. Another great thing about Digsby is the ability to combine contacts different accounts all into one by merging and creating a alias, makes it much easier keeping track of people.It’s also very customizable and you can get various skins and change the layout around to how you like. By creating a Digsby account you can synchronize it across multiple locations and computers and keep all your settings. A very promising application and worth checking out!

Related posts

• Coccinella Chat Client With Whiteboard (8)
• Torn between Pidgin and Digsby (16)
• Koolim Web Messenger (7)
• Imo.im a Meebo alternative (8)
• Encrypt your instant messages with Pidgin (2)

I would not say that Skype made a big step forward, can’t see many other changes yet. Sure there are some new emoticons and stuff like that but this is not that important I think. In case you do not know Skype I decided to list the main features of it.

• Support of Windows, Mac and Linux
• Talk or chat with your buddies using Skype and a microphone (for voice chat)
• Video chat
• Cheap calls to (mobile) phones worldwide
• Send files using Skype
• Conference Calls

I’m using Skype mainly to see when my buddies come online. I know that instant messengers do the same but I never got used to one of those.

Related posts

• Use your computer as a phone for free (6)
• The iPhone (15)
• Record Skype Calls (2)
• Record any sound on your computer (13)
• Nokia text messenger Vista gadget (5)

The 2048 bit RSA key will be created at the initial start of the program, you have to select a password and a username and recieve a key id at the end of this process. Your friends need this key id to add you to their contact list. I suggest you either do this setup by phone with your friends or send them the key id using another IM or email. Adding new users is easy, you enter their key id, click fetch public key and enter a username for that user.

Right-clicking a user in your contact list gives you the option to start a chat, transfer a file or use the remote desktop feature. If you select one of those options the other user will receive a popup window asking him if he wants to accept the connection. Users should recieve those messages even if they sit behind a firewall.

CSpace currently supports Microsoft Windows and Gnu / Linux.

Related posts

• Have an instant talk using portable VoIP apps (0)
• Zip Repair (3)
• Zen Key An All Purpose Application Manager (3)
• Youtube Batch Downloader (13)
• Yahoo Widget Position Restorer (1)