Comments on: Freeware Mission – Best Free Instant Messenger

By: Johnny Karp

Johnny Karp — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:53:05 +0000

I used Trillian a few years ago and wasn’t impressed. I would be curious to give it a try although the “pro version” is a bit of a turn off.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:28:46 +0000

Oh, I beta tested Trillian Astra and had a pretty good experience. I didn’t do any objective tests, but the client seemed a little resource intensive…of course, it was the beta. It is out of beta now and I haven’t used the non beta version, but it couldn’t have gotten worse, right?

Also, they offer a web-based client which was pretty cool since my workplace blocks many popular IM clients including GTalk.

I’m usually weary of programs with ‘Pro’ versions, though…just because I want free and total free. That said, I’m a WinAMP (non pro) user and still prefer it to other audio management/listening software I’ve tried.

Anyway, it may be worth a shot if Digsby usage is a little precarious right now.

By: Johnny Karp

Johnny Karp — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:16:43 +0000

Thanks for the heads up Richy, I’m a bit concerned about this after reading the stuff you pointed out. I’ll be uninstalling Digsby until some further clarifications. It seems that I have to take a second look at Pidgin…

By: Richy___

Richy___ — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:18:29 +0000

Hi,

When I entered the digsby site firefox warned me for a ‘not trusted site’ Serveral people claims that Digsby is full with spyware now.

See links or just google digsby + spyware.

http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/digsby.com

http://digg.com/tech_news/A_turn_for_the_worse_Digsby_IM_client_is_becoming_spyware

By: Johnny Karp

Johnny Karp — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:39:34 +0000

Hey Nick, you could write a review of Trillian Astra or Pidgin and enter the Freeware Mission contest, who knows… Or if you don’t want to enter the contest maybe just tell us your view after testing those programs. Thanks for visiting the site btw

By: nick c

nick c — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:23:44 +0000

awesome. thanks for the verification! i think i’ll go ahead and try it while i’m trying the newest pidgin update and hoping to try out trillian astra.
thanks again for this site…i’ve been referring it to it frequently!

By: Johnny Karp

Johnny Karp — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:06:26 +0000

@Nick C
I’ve been using Digsby for months now and I have no evidence they might have sold my contacts to anybody. I don’t know if that happened to other people, but I find that pretty hard to believe.

By: nick c

nick c — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:49:50 +0000

i’ve been reading up on multi-protocol IM clients and have seen a few comments about digsby selling information. you heard/experienced any of that? i’ve used pidgin for a while (which displays email notifications, but doesn’t allow responses) but like the email and social networking integration that digsby seems to have.

oh, trillian astra boasts a pretty impressive feature list…but is still in beta. i just applied for beta testing…it has native video chat support…which i think no other multi IM client has?

last, some of my friends have been using skype lately for in game chat…so i was looking into ventrilo and teamspeak (not really in the scope of this post, but relevant for my needs) and thought it would be nice if i could find a multi IM client that worked with one of these things. i think they are little too niche, but trillian astra says it integrates with skype (pidgin, too?) when skype is installed.