Out Sourcing Pro’s Computing Tips and Free Software Tools Blog

Do you depend on instant messaging to stay in touch with friends, family or business associates?  Do you end up with Yahoo, AOL, MSN and ICQ all running (or wish you could)?  Well here are two different (and yes free) choices to put all your IM’s and IM identities in one place.

The first one I will talk about is Trillian.  My daughter uses the free version because some of her friends use AOL and some do not PLUS it keeps a log off all her conversations.  (No I am not nosey but if I get worried I want to be able to see who she is talking to if not necessarily the content.)  Their are few things that do not translate like text color changes but other than that it works very well.  You can get it here: http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/

The other software is GAIM.  I have not had a chance to try it yet but from what I have seen and read it looks every bit as good as Trillian maybe more so.  It’s a multiprotocol instant-­messaging client that works with Google Talk, AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks.  Get it here: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/