I have been using Trillian Pro for the last few years and am getting a bit sick of it. The program itself is a resource hog and seems to crash pretty frequently.

Any suggestions?

Personally I've been using Trillian basic for 3-4 years and can't remember the last time it crashed. My only complaint was that it remembered where you last placed your windows, so when I loaned a monitor to a friend I was without a buddy list for ~3 months (too lazy to figure out how to move it back) =)

Pidgin is supposed to be good though
http://www.pidgin.im/

Pidgin or Miranda IM are both better than Trillian IMO.

I currently use Pidgin. I was a long time user of Miranda, gave Pidgin a shot, and prefer it.

I've been having some connection issues lately, but not sure if that's AOL/AIM's side or a problem w/ pidgin.

I use pidgin and really like it. It allows you to organise your various (MSN, ICQ, Jabber etc) contact lists neatly, is non intrusive and responsive, and receives regular updates.
http://www.pidgin.im/

I use www.meebo.com and find it to be excellent. It runs in your browser.

Pidgin ftw. Sticky plz.

Put me on the list of pidgin users. Love it

I have been a long time user of Pidgin (previously Gaim). I have been using Digsby lately, it is pretty similar, i find it a little more stable.

Either are good choices.

http://www.digsby.com/

I like Meebo. Not familiar with the others.

Digsby is nice but rather bloated. Plus it's in beta and I have no idea whether or not they plan on charging for it later on.

hmm i just downloaded pidgin thanks to the recommendations on here. however, (and please, correct me if i'm wrong) you can't drag and drop links? WTF????? that's a key function for an im program to have, and a deal breaker for me. i stopped using it and switched right back to aim6 (even though i'm not really in love with aim6 either, at least i can drag and drop links).

I lol'd.

+1 for pidgin

ctrl+c ctrl+v FTW?

yeah but it's so much easier to drag and drop... i mean, with ctrl c you have to highlight the link, which sometimes you don't get the whole link at once, and then click over to the aim program and do ctrl v. whereas with drag and drop + firefox, i just drag the little icon into aim and that's it.

I have never dragged and dropped a link into a chat client. I guess if that's a deal breaker then Pidgin isn't for you. It seems kind of silly to me considering that AIM is glorified adware.

How is your programming? A ticket has been submitted to Pidgin to have this functionality added.

yeah i know aim sucks - that's why i tried pidgin out. but yeah, it's a deal breaker, since i use links in virtually every IM convo i have.

i'm weird like that - once i find a method that is efficient, it drives me insane if i have to use a less efficient method. drag-and-drop >> ctrl c + ctrl v, so it's annoying for me to have to copy and paste.

i've also returned cell phones due to design flaws such as not being able to spell out a contact (i can only put in "M" and then i have to scroll through 10 names to get to "Molly?" annoying... let me spell out the name) and also not being able to send a text message in one click (why do i have to click 3 buttons to send a freaking text message?). so yeah, efficiency is a key design criteria for me.

FWIW I currently use pidgin 2.4.0

2.4.1 seems to spaz out while I'm typing a message. I've had it happen on a few machines,both XP and Vista.

Anybody else experiencing this?

Yup. I downgraded to 2.4.0 as well after 2.4.1 started going crazy. I'm on Vista x64.

2.4.1 works fine on XP here.

Question: I can't resize the typing box. I used to in a previous version imo. Anyone have the same problem?

Tip: I just discovered the transparancy plugin (tools -> plugins -> transparency). Very neat! Now I have IM window and buddy list @ 155 transparency, and it turns off on focus.

They must have got rid of the resizeable typing box. I noticed that a few updates back as well.

2.4.1 goes crazy on me though. 32 bit Vista and XP.

I've used it for the last few years too, but have had some bad crashes in the past where it's messed up my contact lists. One time it just randomly deleted anybody who wasn't online at the time of the crash!? and a few times it's lost all of the aliases I gave to people, which gets super confusing when trying to rename them all again... you end up sitting there thinking: "who the **** is peter38757854? or pinky666?", trying to guess based on their avatars... lol.

Juk

Just noticed it auto-resizes!

Anyone have positive or negative experiences with Pidgin on vista? I run it on my XP machine and am thinking of putting it on my vista machine, but want to make sure it will work right.