Should I get Trillian?

[Kev1n]

I have MSN Messenger with Plus and Discovery add-ons, and it works fine for me. Previously I had ICQ, but due to its slow messanging I ditched it. And now, as some of my friends have only Yahoo Messenger, I'm thinking of switching to Trillian Pro...but is it worth it? Does it have those extensions like Plus or Discovery?

[struct]

personally I would try out trillian free and see if it met my needs before buying pro.

[naap51stang]

I tried trillian free a couple years ago, liked it so much that I purchased it.

When the v3 alpha came out, it was an easy decision to buy a new license for

the new one. Now that it is released, it is STILL my prefered message client.

I can't get everyone to just use ONE IM client. I have some on MSN, some on AIM,

a few ICQ's. It's just easier to keep one client open, instead of multiple clients.

:alien:

[Chris Allen Veteran]

Definetly. Trillian is the best IM program out there IMO. (Y)

Edit - ask a mod to turn this into a poll ;)

[JustGeorge]

I was not impressed with Trillain PRo v2.0. If I could've tried it beforehand, I would've never bought it. Version 3 on the other hand, is great. I am happy I bought a license now. I like the in network IM ing Pro offers. Gonna try and convince my workplace to invest in it!

[Ji@nBing]

Trillian 3 Pro is awesome. Definitely worth the money. Go here and grab this add on to have native emotes from all clients and you're good to go.

[lav-chan]

Trillian has a ton of features that i absolutely love and really wish that Miranda would get. I mean there are probably more than i can even list in a single post.

There are only two problems (well, more or less one, since the second is a result of the first): (a) Trillian is skin-based and (b) it's ridiculously slow.

As far as skins go, i can't stand them. I want all the programs on my computer to look more or less the same. I don't have the patience to make a skin for Trillian that looks exactly like my visual style, and even if i did it's impossible to get it to work and look exactly like it, so the effort would be futile in the end. I know it probably sounds like a dumb reason, but i am completely obsessive-compulsive about stuff like this. :/

And then, because of Trillian's skinning system, it's horribly slow. I mean it's not like my computer lags up and i can't do anything and stuff, but you can tell how slow it is compared to Miranda after you've used them both for a while. Trillian is noticeably laggier moving and drawing windows and bringing up menus and doing things like that. It's not unbearable, but it's really annoying.

To its credit, i like how Trillian's skin system works (it's XML-based). I mean, as far as a skin system goes. I like how their emoticons are XML-based too. :rad:

But yeah. I can totally get over the fact that Trillian Pro isn't free, but i can't get over its being skin-based. And Miranda does have a few features that i've learnt to love that Trillian still doesn't. <_<

[nexx]

^^ I agree, although its not really relevant to this thread :p For the record I use Miranda.

There is a free version of trillian, my advice: download it and try it out. If you like it, buy the full version. If you dont like trillian but like the idea of having all your protocols in one program, there are others too. (Miranda, GAIM..)

[lav-chan]

Is so relevant. If you hate slow programs that don't look like any of your other programs, don't get Trillian... but keep in mind that it's probably the best multi-protocol messenger client of all time, feature-wise. :/

[kak]

The free version is fine for most people. Unless you use video chat or something, don't bother with the Pro version. Trillian3 is just awesome.

btw - what is the emoticons pack? any screenshots (pm me to keep the thread on topic)

[zhangm Supervisor]

Having used Trillian 2.xx for a month or two, I can wholeheartedly agree with the comments about it being slow and laggish.

With the skinning system that they had in 2.xx, the speed was comparable to that of Phoenix 0.5 (if anyone here used that version, they'd understand). Drawing window elements was definitely not up to par with anything else on my computer, and this lagging made the program unfriendly to me.

I like having instant responsiveness. 2.xx versions of Trillian couldn't provide this for me, so I found myself using it less and less. The lagging in Trillian bothered me too much, not to mention, many skins just aren't perfect (there's always something to bug you, like jagged edges, small controls, a bit of magic pink here and there, etc). It was a misfit on this system and it had to go. Finally, I ditched it altogether, and now use Miranda.

I'm much happier with my choice, but as you can see, all my points are valid with my personal experience using Trillian 2.xx (pro). I don't know how Trillian 3.0 works, and I don't have any intention of finding out at this point. My minor gripes with Miranda (lack of a centralized, updated plugins database) are resolved for now.

All I can say is, try. There are so many alternatives out there, IM2, Miranda, Gaim, Pandion... Most of them are free too. So use each one for a week, and see how its speed, extensibility, featureset, and user interface fit with you. Then decide.

[Doli]

Why so picky if trillian doesnt " look like other programs" ? they have skins, an XP skin, silver XP its called i think they have the other colors also. Trillian is good, the free version is enough, but its nice to pay to support the people that make it happen

[nvizible]

however, for those who do NOT want to pay for things, and who want FUNCTIONALITY not eye-candy and would like a program which does NOT use 18mb of ram... u could try miranda im... pm me if you would like the special config of miranda which i have put together (miranda + startup plugin + tabsrmm + sounds + cool emoticons + database with correct options applied. all u need to do is enter ur screen name or login and password and ur good to go. the current config i have is setup for msn users only, but i can create custom setups with correct dbs files on demand!)

[OPaul]

Trillian is great but I had the Pro version up until version 3 where my subscription ran out and the only thing I've lost is the ability to view HTML profiles through the plugin, which is not worth paying for in my opinion. And I did hear they were going to implement that into the core anyway. In my opinion Pro doesn't offer anything worth paying for, unless you need video capabilities or there's a plugin you need.

[forster]

I picked up pro 2 last year, and was really excited about version 3 - unfortunately, naive little me thought that they would just continue to give me v3 pro as I was already a loyal subscriber - they didnt.

WELL **** THAT.

I dont see why I should have to pay twice for the same product just because they've upgraded it. I'll continue to use v3 basic until they add something to Pro that is worth upgrading to, then Ill find another means of getting it, until then, basic is fine.

[OPaul]

I picked up pro 2 last year, and was really excited about version 3 - unfortunately, naive little me thought that they would just continue to give me v3 pro as I was already a loyal subscriber - they didnt.

WELL **** THAT.

I dont see why I should have to pay twice for the same product just because they've upgraded it.  I'll continue to use v3 basic until they add something to Pro that is worth upgrading to, then Ill find another means of getting it, until then, basic is fine.

585144980[/snapback]

It clearly stated when you payed that you were paying for only version 2 and it's updates.

[Malisk]

I recommend trying out Miranda, chances are you may get away with the features you need for free, as it even has features you only get with Trillian Pro, and of course a lot of unique features besides that.

Don't forget to check out its plugins and themes sections after download.

[insanekiwi]

try trillian basic for free. and miranda. both good programs.

[lav-chan]

Why so picky if trillian doesnt " look like other programs" ? they have skins, an XP skin, silver XP its called i think they have the other colors also. Trillian is good, the free version is enough, but its nice to pay to support? the people that make it happen

585144932[/snapback]

(1) Because i don't use the default XP visual styles.

(2) Because even if i did there would be things about them i changed (namely the size of the scroll bars and caption buttons) that would make Trillian look out of place because its appearance is static and has nothing to do at all with your Windows settings.

(3) Because even with those skins they don't work or feel like any other program. They have different hot-tracking effects, the interface is set up in ways that a normal Windows program shouldn't be able to be set up (or vice versa), et cetera.

I dont see why I should have to pay twice for the same product just because they've upgraded it.

585144980[/snapback]

You must not buy a lot of... um, anything. Cars, video-game consoles, operating systems, graphics software, ... computers. I mean probably you can buy food and clothing, but other than that you must not own many things at all.

[Aaron Veteran]

I am trying to decide on this as well. Another reason to upgrade, and correct me if I am wrong, is that plugins only work with Pro. Is that correct? If so, the gmail and weather plugin would be pretty handy - but I don't know if it is worth the full price to just have those.

[Aaron Veteran]

I just noticed (and did it) that you can upgrade to pro for 15 days. Do that then decide if it offers anything that you can't live without.

[Faiden]

Ill go with miranda.. becasue i love it...

If you are going to choice Trillian make sure u go Pro

[JTech]

Gaim is a decent IM client as well.

[AcdShdw]

It clearly stated when you payed that you were paying for only version 2 and it's updates.

585144984[/snapback]

yea thatsn true if u think of it, cause its the same with windows, u buy windows xp and u pay for windows xp and its updates until the next version of windows

[NeoXY]

I tried Trillian 2 for a few minutes.....got rid of it as soon as I could because it wasn't that easy to set-up (cosidering it also didn't work) and it also didn't look good, and I also miss my plug-ins from different Msgers.....but...Trillian 3 came out...I used it for a few minutes...and pulled out the wallet and bought it...what can I say?...I love it....it's AWSOME!

[King Raa]

to he who reccomended gaim. gaim sucks - i hate that you can't close the contacts window to have it in taskbar, and i hate the tabbed browsing of convos.

tabbed browsing of the internet is wonderful... in convos it just makes it hard to know when and who is talking to you....