I need a replacement for AIM
 

I need another general IM program to replace AIM with. I've heard that Trillian is good, but I still need the programs (like AIM) on my computer in order to use it. So, any suggestions?

I've got the same inquiry.

Where did you hear this from?

I use Trillian, it is a very good replacement. Of course, it does more than AIM/ICQ, like MSN, Yahoo, or IRC. You don't need to still have AOL's AIM client on your computer, Trillian is stand-alone.

Another good one, if you don't want something so bloated, is gAIM, which is a Windows port of a Linux AIM client.

Do any of the alternate clients support direct connect, or file transfers?

Both the ones I listed do file transfers...but direct connect? I dunno. People use that?

File Transfers over AIM work 100% of the time as of the GAIM 2 beta, and Direct Connect has worked both times I try it, although I'm not guaranteeing anything.

I have a warning though, if you use GAIM 1.xx on Windows, you'll need to install the bundled copy of GTK (which can be annoying if you use a lot of new GTK dependant programs). For some reason GTK 2.8x causes GAIM to be unable to connect to IM clients.

I'm using (I know it kinda sucks) DeadAIM and its got some nifty features.

I second GAIM. I'm using 1.5 mainly, and I've tried out 2 as well, and it's nice. File transfer with 1.5 [with non-GAIM users] has always been an impossiblity for me, but 2 has worked so far, as Arainach noted. I'm just waiting for a couple of the components that I used for 1.5 to be updated for the most recent beta until I make the complete switch over to 2... or maybe wait until that's so after 2 gets out of beta. Meh, whatever.

You could give Miranda IM a try. It does require a lot of customisation, however. As far as I know, the new AIM protocol supports file transfers as well.

www.miranda-im.org

All the time, dude.

Careful though, you might have problems with miranda when the person you're talking to types words to you, as the attached screenshot indicates.

I use Trillian version 2.something and I like it a lot, so I haven't had any reason to switch to version 3 or whatever is most recent.

If you still want to chat with ppl on AIM, use either:

Trillian
--or--
Gaim


But I should also take this time to suggest to you better IM alternatives, such as:

Skype
Google Talk
--and--
Yahoo Messenger

The only problem with these alternate chat programs is that Skype and Y! Messenger can eat alot of resources when you're using voice and video chat. (but that's to be expected I guess)

Matt, Robo Jesus needs a replacement that uses the AIM protocol. Your suggestions use different protocols and thus are useless to him.

I've been using Trillian for over a year now. It supports file transfers perfectly, and direct connections are supported as well. Trillian can connect you to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and other protocols. It has a lot of features, but it is bloated as well.

Last time I used GAIM, the file transfers were not working properly, so now that it's (apparently) fixed, you could give that a shot as well. And if you just want a bare-bones messenger, you can try out Miranda.

I use Trillian, but I wish it didn't use so much RAM. Other than that, it works perfectly for multiple IM protocols including AIM. I tried Miranda, but it's a little too compact for my tastes.

A good way to reduce the amount of resources Trillian uses is to disable that "automatic word lookup" feature. While it's fun, not too many people on teh intarnet use big words like "incredible" when "OMG" will do the job.

I'll add just another thumb up for Gaim.

And without wanting to go all off topic on this thread, does anyone know what happened to the beta development of version 2.0? It's been awfully quite for two months.

I've tried a bunch of AIM clients - all the aim hacks, GAIM, Miranda-IM, Trillian - but I keep coming back to a small program called TerrAim. It's a tiny download, requires no install, is somewhat skinnable, and has all the functions i need from a client. It does not have plugin support so if you need your IM client to do 10,000 things, stick with trillian or miranda. However, what it does, it does nicely. I recommend giving it a try:
http://terraim.com/

Throw in another vote for Trillian. Unfortunately, if you JUST use AIM it might be a little too much. Heard that DeadAIM is good too, even thought I haven't tested it personally.

deadaim is decent it gets the job done if you dont like normal aim...i use aim 5.1.3036 but its hacked to hell so its hella faster and i have 0 problems with it

I want to point out that Trillian, as great as it could be, doesn't do everything I wish it did by default.

For example: viewing people's buddy info as it was coded, rather than just text which Trillian puts it into. So, by default, you can't click links people like to put up in their info.

Also, when Direct Connected for some reason I can't just drag a pic into my chat box and send it, trillian translates this to Send File... so of course it can get annoying.

And finally, managing your buddy list can be extrodinarily difficult. I still have not found an easy way to do this within Trillian. I end up going to AIM, Yahoo Messanger, and MSN messanger to arrange and organize my buddy list.

I'm guessing a few plug-ins can fix these issues, but why do I need to go through all that nonsense?

After reading through this topic I think I'm going to try out gAIM, as I too can't use AIM without crying my eyes out as it can't keep a connection if it's life depended on it.

gaim is great also i use it on my old pc and it runs perfect

I'll just put in another word for gaim; I've used it exclusively for years. Of course, being that I use Gnome 2.14 as my WM, I'm a bit biased towards a GTK client.

However, if you want to go the minimalist route, check out bsflite, a command line, client that works on Linux, Windows, Mac, etc.

People need to give Gaim 2 a shot; it works great on all the systems I've used it on even though it's still in beta phases.