Meet Adium, The Solution To Your Mac Instant Messaging Woes

On Windows (:o), I was an avid Gaim user. It was simple, stable and provided enough flexibility to do exactly what I wanted.

After I switched to a Mac and first used iChat, I realized that I never wanted to use it again. It was not what I was looking for at all in an instant messenger.

Quick iChat Rant
It’s not that I dislike iChat, because I don’t.

But here’s the problem. I go to iChat’s main page and the big feature they’re excited about is Video-conferencing. Video-conferencing is great and all, but that’s not the only feature I’m looking for in an instant messenger.

Another big problem I have with iChat is it’s support of protocols. Granted, you can use Jabber (8)) to indirectly support the other protocols (MSN/AIM/etc..), but it’s not the same as native support.

You could imagine my surprise when I discovered Adium–a sexy Mac-ified instant messaging client based off Gaim.

Upon first installing Adium I knew I had found the instant messenger I had always been searching for. I’ve had very few issues with it, even months after using it on a daily basis.

Adium supports all the major protocols (AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo!, Bonjour) and is available in a variety of translations. It’s also packed full of features–plus there’s ton’s of extra’s to keep you busy for a while.

Here are some screenshots of Adium using the Aqua Grid theme: