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!

The major changes in this release are again memory optimizations claiming memory reduction by up to 75%. The default Digsby client is using a little bit more than 10 Megabytes of computer memory which is 5 Megabyte less than the last version according to Joshua’s screenshots of the last release.

Other notable changes include more than 3000 code revisions since the last release, performance increases, connectivity improvements, LinkedIn support and full newsfeeds.

• RAM Usage: We optimized from the ground up and fixed memory leaks to lower RAM usage by almost 75%. This has been the number one complaint since our launch and we are proud to introduce this massive improvement.
• Performance: User interface elements draw twice as fast for better performance. We have made changes to the architecture that will improve GUI responsiveness and CPU utilization across the board.
• Connectivity: Every IM protocol automatically tries multiple connection methods and ports to improve the odds of getting through restrictive firewalls and proxy servers.
• LinkedIn: Digsby now supports LinkedIn in addition to the other social networks. Functionality includes a full newsfeed, alerts when new messages arrive, and the ability to set status right from Digsby.
• Bug Fixes: We have fixed hundreds of bugs, making Digsby more stable than ever. There have been almost 3,000 revisions in our codebase since the last release so there are too many fixes to list in our changelog.

My conclusion was that although Digsby is a fantastic messaging client with good design and features, the 70mb+ RAM usage became just too much to put up with.

Only a few days ago however I was excited to see that the Digsby team has released a new alpha build for testing purposes. Apparently the developers have spent the last few months completely rewriting the underlying architecture of Digsby in order to bring RAM usage down to an acceptable level.

“We completely reworked the architecture to use less memory and also improved the memory management by releasing objects when they are no longer needed.  We also hunted down and eliminated numerous memory leaks.  All in all, these changes lower Digsby’s RAM usage by over 50%. It should now hover in the 20MB – 50MB range depending on how many accounts you have and what you are doing at the moment.”

That’s not all, the Digsby blog post also describes these other changes:

Performance:
User interface should be performing between 2 and 4 times faster then before. That includes things such as menu re-drawing and buttons etc. Promise for future builds to focus on GUI response time, CPU utilization and the like.

Firewalls and Proxy Servers:
IM timeouts where another annoying issue with previous Digsby builds and this one has introduced multiple automatic attempts at connecting through various ports.

Crash Reporter:
This is still a product under development and bug-catching is crucial, this build introduces a ‘crash reporter’ for helping the team locate all the rare and tricky bugs. “The major changes in architecture in this build may introduce a couple of new crash causing bugs and that is one of the reasons why we want to test the build before releasing it to everyone.”

Bug Fixes + Enhancements:
Numerous bug fixes and various enhancements, the full list will be provided with the public release.

I got between 15 (idle) – 50mb with MSN, 2 Hotmail accounts, Gtalk, Facebook + Chat, MySpace and Twitter all running. Some people are reporting Digsby running at as low as 10-15mb, although I have no idea how many accounts they use.

Such was my dedication that I sat here for 4 hours downloading this new build over my crippled Internet connection at around 3kbs and enduring two time-outs halfway through.

It was worth it though, check it out!

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.

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!