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Trillian 3.0 Released

Posted by michael on Sat Dec 18, 2004 02:02 PM
from the idling-for-fun-and-profit dept.
Software The Internet
Octagon Most writes "Cerulean Studios has released Trillian Pro 3.0 which is still interacting with AIM, Yahoo, MSN instant messagers with impunity. It has a cool new Instant Lookup feature which links to Wikipedia, and a serverless messaging mode using Rendezvous. The free version is now Trillian Basic 3.0. Trillian is still Windows only, and if you don't like the FAQ response regarding Linux and Mac support let 'em know."
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Trillian 3.0 Released 50 Comments More /

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  • Trillian is nice, but gaim has cross platform supp (Score:3, Informative)

    by sjrstory (839289) * on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:03PM (#11125373) Homepage
    I like Trillian, it has a lot of nice features and looks pretty. However I switched to gaim [sourceforge.net] because of it's cross platform support.
    • Apparently trillian is supposed to work with Wine and/or Crossover Office.

      I have gotten it to work with skins but it runs extremely slow on my Duron 700MHz.

      On windows, I have found that Trillian is the best Multi-IM client out there. I'm off to check out what new features they've added and if its worth upgrading.
    • Gaim's a good concept, but I need interoperability with Trillian SecureIM. I know that the crypto-fanatics don't like it because the Diffie-Hellman key exchange is vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. However, I still find it better than sending in the clear, and don't have to sell my contacts on gaim or teach them about key servers and all.
    • Only thing I miss when using gaim is the video conferencing.

    • Re: Trillian is nice, but gaim has cross platform (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MC Negro (780194) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:18PM (#11125470) Journal
      I switched to Win32 gAIM simply because I found everything about Trillian annoying as Hell. The interface felt too clunky and bloated with visuals (this was really a problem with multiple protocols). My situation is such that the network admin on campus has denied access to AIM and has provided no alternative. Initially, I would just install Trillian/Miranda/gAIM each time I logged in, but I found the installation process for each a bit tedious after logging in 2-3 times a day at different workstations.

      When I bough a USB thumbdrive, I started putting all my essential apps such as FireFox on it so I could avoid reinstallation with each login. Trillian gave me some trouble with installation on a USB key (it wouldn't keep my profile data on the USB key nor would it make it apart of my Windows roaming profile), so I just finally completely migrated over to gAIM. It installed on my USB key without a hitch, has a cleaner interface, keeps logs of everything in my roaming profile and is easy to update. Even file transfer works for me now.

    • Re:Trillian is nice, but gaim has cross platform s (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Tarcastil (832141) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:24PM (#11125519)
      It's good to emphasize that, although Trillian and GAIM are competitors, they share information with each other when things go awry. Whenever Yahoo! makes a change that screws up GAIM and Trillian, you can bet the devs on both sides will be helping each other out. Now that's a good proprietary/open source relationship.

  • But it's not Open Source... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DarkHelmet (120004) * <mark.seventhcycle@net> on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:06PM (#11125390) Homepage
    I really do love running Trillian on my windows platform, but I can't help but wonder if this story goes along with the rest of Slashdot type stuff. I mean, Trillian is:
    • Windows only
    • Not open source and probably never will be.
    • Its pro version isn't free.

    I was honestly surprised to see this on slashdot this morning. After all, there aren't many slashdot posts proclaiming excitement over new versions of SQL Server, right?

    • And yet, it's a great program. I've been using it for about 3 years and I love it. I don't mind paying for it, seeing as how I'm on IRC, AIM, yahoo and MSN all day long at work and home. There's stil l a number of things about it that bug me (no pun intended), but it's the best solution I've found so far. And no, I'm not a shill for trillian.
    • I really do love running Trillian on my windows platform, but I can't help but wonder if this story goes along with the rest of Slashdot type stuff. I mean, Trillian is:

      * Windows only
      * Not open source and probably never will be.
      * Its pro version isn't free.

      I was honestly surprised to see this on slashdot this morning. After all, there aren't many slashdot posts proclaiming excitement over new versions of SQL Server, right?

      But it does have that "rebellious teen" flavor that slash geeks so
      • I don't undesrtand you people: why bother with some closed source IM client?
        Did you try Miranda?
        I can tell you that Miranda serves me 3 years already... No single glitch. Well.. not really ;) but the one scrolling bug I've got I just fixed myself... Opensource is still Opensource.
        Go Miranda.
        GAIM rules too :) But I still think its win32 version is immature.
    • and in addition there is miranda (mirando-im.org). It is:
      - Windows/wine only
      but it is:
      - GPLed software
      - its also free as infree beer
      and it is even more powerful than trillian ...
    • >I was honestly surprised to see this on slashdot this morning.

      What part of "News for Nerds" translates into "News for OSS zealots?"

      • Re:But it's not Open Source... (Score:4, Funny)

        by Tim Browse (9263) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:52PM (#11125681)
        What part of "News for Nerds" translates into "News for OSS zealots?"

        Report for Slashdot Groupthink retraining first thing Monday, creep.

        You should know that /. only covers OSS, and certainly never covers news about software by Microsoft, Apple, Sun, Google, Valve, Epic, Ubisoft, Sony, Take Two, Bungie, etc. After all, nobody who reads /. uses anything but Linux, you dolt.

        And don't you forget it!

    • "Windows only"

      And how is that an indication on how good the program is?

      Seriously, what do you guys have against something that only works on Windows? Not every Windows developer is an MS clone.

      And do you want me to start listing the number of Linux only projects that keep being featured on Slashdot?

      "Not open source and probably never will be."

      There is nothing wrong with closed source.

      "Its pro version isn't free."

      Oh, my! Paying for a product?! How blasphemous!

      I love open source and free stuff. I use
      • The free version is also adware. A fact they lie about on their website. For this reason I avoid trillian entirely.

        Well, from an outsider's point of view.. how do we know you're not just trolling? Some proof backing up what you're suggesting could be helpful.
      • Adware? I think not. The only things that could be considered to be ads in Trillian Basic are the "Upgrade to Trillian Pro" menu item and the blurb about Pro in the Preferences screen. I don't think that's unreasonable that they want to sell the premiere version of their product, pushing it a little through the free one. There are no external ads whatsoever in the program.

  • Is there a point to free Trillian anymore? I'm not knocking it (much..), I did use it once upon a time and tbh it was very good, nice eye candy too, but since finding GAIM I haven't looked back.

    nbiar

  • Ill come back... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Dr Reducto (665121) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:08PM (#11125400) Journal
    Ill come back when they support HTML profiles/away messages, and fix file transfers.

  • No need for Trillian on Mac OS X (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Adium [adiumx.com] doesn't have all the features of Trillian yet, but it's getting nicer each release. Plus it supports more IM protocols (it's based on libgaim).

  • Trillian is blah (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GlassUser (190787) <slashdot@@@glassuser...net> on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:11PM (#11125425) Homepage Journal
    Not open source, costs too much, tons of bloat, and still not finished (eg the UI still requires a cheap hack of a skin, and most dialogs don't respond to keyboard input).

    I'm far more impressed with miranda.
  • I used to use gaim for the longest time, but often times found it frusterating. When I first got it, I tried for about 2 hours, with no evial, to change how the text appeard on my end. Not to mention that it is hard to find everything, and I think the connection manager is lacking several important featres.

    I've been using Trillian Pro for a few months, and Pro 3 since the alpha version was released, and I absolutly love it. The tabs are much better than GAIM's, and I can have multipul tabs, for my frien

  • Gaim (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ucblockhead (63650) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:15PM (#11125451) Homepage Journal
    Does the same thing and works on Windows and Linux.


    So why use Trillian?

    • Re:Gaim (Score:3, Insightful)

      by XMyth (266414)
      Because it looks better (subjective, yes) and I (and most of the rest of the world) don't run linux.

    • Re:Gaim (Score:3, Informative)

      by cybrthng (22291)
      Why Use trillian?

      1. Its simple.
      2. It auto-updates now with 3.0
      3. Very customizeable
      4. Great plugin support
      5. Feature rich
      6. Fast/Efficient
      7. Well known

      I can go on and on. I use trillian for the above reasons and the superb support and almost up to the minute fixes for bugs/network changes and such.

      There is a reason you pay for software or use the free variants thereof. The service trillian offers ontop of a great IM client is worth the cause.

  • On windows I use Gaim and on OS X I use Adium. I like Gaim, but I think Adium is a much better program to compare against Trillium. The thing about Gaim (and a lot of cross platform programs, open source or otherwise) is that they just don't feel like a quality program despite working fine. Boils down to the user interface I guess and maybe I've only noticed since recently converting to OS X but everything doesn't need to be ugly. It can be pretty while still getting the job done.
  • Trillian 3 is a very nice app indeed. The speed of file transfers has been increased and the Rendez Vous (LAN messenger) is a nice addition too. Too bad file tranfers (via MSN and Rendez Vous) seem to crash the app randomly.

  • Ever try typing Japanese? (Score:3, Informative)

    by CoolMoDee (683437) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:24PM (#11125514) Homepage Journal
    The thing that urked me about Trillian, and it still may be true today, is that it mangles UTF-8 text. Sending Japanese back and forth between trillian to trillian works fine, but trillian to aim/iChat/gaim and it gets mangled. Another thing that urks me, is that their audio/video chat don't "Just work" like it does with iChat (though it is compatible).
    [end rant]
  • We think Lets /. em! ;)
    Here are some of the links from the article (and the dl link too) coralized..
    http://www.ceruleanstudios.com.nyud.net:8090/ [nyud.net]
    http://www.ceruleanstudios.com.nyud.net:8090/faqs/ [nyud.net]
    http://cerulean.cachenetworks.com/trillian-v3.0.ex e [cachenetworks.com]
    http://www.ceruleanstudios.com.nyud.net/forums/ [nyud.net]

  • Wikipedia (Score:5, Informative)

    by BReflection (736785) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:31PM (#11125566) Homepage
    Wikipedia in-depth comparison of instant messengers, including gaim and trillian. [wikipedia.org]

  • No Mac/Linux Support (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Oliver Defacszio (550941) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:42PM (#11125629)
    ...and if you don't like the FAQ response regarding Linux and Mac support let 'em know.

    Sigh. Look, take a hint boys and girls. The FAQ entry for Mac and Linux support makes it abundantly clear that Trillian developers have NO interest in supporting anything but Windows, and by badgering them, you'll just make it even less likely.

    I don't understand why it's so difficult for the OSS community to just get the point -- some people don't want to play in your sandbox. Yet, invariably, I see the constant calls to hassle developers because of the choice they've made. Sure, some of them may not be aware that non-Windows users have an interest in their product, but I will bet dollars to doughnuts that the vast majority just choose not to. Is it so hard to accept that not everyone wishes to adopt or assist in your cause?

    If I were a Trillian developer, and my inbox was suddenly filled with the typical bizarre sense of entitlement found here at Slashdot, even after I had posted an absolutely clear disinterest in supporting Mac or Linux in my FAQ, I guarantee that your grandchildren would be in their cold graves before I'd ever produce a non-Windows version.

    This Just In -- you can't make people comply by pissing them off.

    • So...how about OSS efforts to develop Trillian clones?

      I've already got the names picked out:
      Zaphod: OSX ('cause it's the hippest OS)
      Arthur: Zaurus (small brain, but still very valuable)
      Slartibartfast: Solaris (older than the rest)
      Marvin: EarthSim (here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they make me run an IM client. I'm not getting you down, am I? Because I wouldn't want to get you down. Life! Don't talk to me about life).
      Last two I can't think of any really good reason for the names, though:
      Edd

    • Re:No Mac/Linux Support (Score:5, Informative)

      by Sparks23 (412116) * on Saturday December 18 2004, @04:55PM (#11126444)
      It's not even so much that we're uninterested, it's that we know Trillian isn't really as well-suited to the model of MacOS X or Linux applications. (FWIW, at least two Trillian developers -- including me -- have Macs as well as windows boxes. I'm posting this from Safari, in fact.)

      I develop Mac OS X software in my spare time, and I can tell you flat out that Trillian would violate the Aqua Design Guidelines six ways from Sunday unless completely reworked, just for starters. (Of course, a depressing number of Macintosh applications also do, but still.) And for a small development team, trying to keep a single code tree in sync across multiple platforms without making it suffer overall, would be hard; that's something far easier for an OSS project. We /do/ periodically re-examine the possibility, but...

      Honestly, Trillian's designed not for the power-users who want to get down and dirty with every little aspect of an IM protocol, or for OSS activists. It's designed, as has been noted, more for Joe Average; this is why Trillian 3.0 is made to look and feel more like a Windows XP application in the preferences system and whatnot. And to some extent, that userbase tends to be more prominent on Windows.

      For those who are really into OSS or are on Linux, Sean and the others who work on it have made a great app in Gaim. And for those who are on Mac OS X, Adium X is pretty kickass. Heck, even the new iChat in Tiger is pretty straightforward for Joe Average Mac User.

      It's not like there's some Highlander-esque 'there can be only one!' situation with instant messaging clients. You'll even notice we at Cerulean are on good terms with the Gaim team; when Yahoo locked everyone out last time, we deciphered the new login protocol and donated it to Gaim (and to Adium as a result). You can find other instances in the Gaim changelog of code donated from Trillian; it's certainly not like we're out to kill open source and crush all opposition or something. ("I am Trillian MacLeod of the clan MacLeod, and I've come to take your head developer!")

      Gaim and Trillian are made to fill a different niches. If one's right for you, great! Doesn't mean the other one isn't right for other people. :)
      • Trillian violates several Windows usability guidelines as well. I found it very odd at first. I'm sure you guys think it's perfectly logical, but it took me a while to get used to.

        However, it wasn't that, but Trillian's nag screen that made me decide to switch to Gaim. Make sure v3 has a "No thanks and you don't need to keep asking every fscking day" button and you'll avoid losing more people like me. I don't like naggy software and avoid/crack it wherever possible (although the only option with Trilli
        • Thank you for the comment! And no, we're not designing exclusively for the average user -- as you note, the plugin architecture exists, and has been expanded on for this release -- but the average user is still a major consideration in everything. :)

          Like I said, periodically we re-examine the possibility of ports, but in all honesty, it's not that likely to happen. Even starting from scratch wouldn't help that much; it's still a small team, and maintaining a Mac OS X tree, a Linux tree and a Windows tree

  • Other Serverless clients - Open Source? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nurb432 (527695) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:48PM (#11125657) Homepage Journal
    The serverless component sounds interesting for those of us behind firewalls.. Too bad its not in the 'basic' version....

    Are there any easy to use serverless clients out in the open source world ? Multiplatform would be a bonus..

    Yes I can google, but I'm looking for reviews here....

  • So Far So Good... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ShadowBlasko (597519) on Saturday December 18 2004, @02:55PM (#11125705) Homepage
    I've been running the Beta for about two weeks now, and I really do like it. I've been using Trillian itself for about 2 years.

    Honestly, Trillian was one of the first programs that I've used that, well, I was using a cracked version of... and decided after about 28 hours of use that it was worth my money.

    I am a happy paid user... 3.0 Really does seem to work better. The connection manager is MANY times improved. I can connect to all three of my yahoo accounts with no muss or fuss now.

    I will admit the daily (or more often) updates with the beta have been somewhat annoying, but it shows that the Cerulean team really is working hard to address problems.

    Still seems to have somewhat of a problem with deleting users from your list who are on MSN, but I can live with that.

    So far... after beating the hell out of it, my only gripes are:

    1) The default "user icon" display is set *way* too big for starters. A problem that is easily corrected by the user, but it certainly didn't make a very good first impression with me there.

    2) The new "Chat History" window and browser is useless. With it I can see the first line of a conversation that I had with someone, but I can't seem to get any deeper than that. Granted, there may be something simple that I am missing, as I have been concentrating the most on my primary problem,, which is...

    3) My webcam seems to be completely useless now. I've tried the updates, tried re-installing my quicktime drivers and codecs (Why God? Why Quicktime?) I've updated my cam software... and even went out and bought a NEW camera because the one I had was 5 years old. Still no good. I get a very nasty looking green and yellow window when I start my webcam, then the cam crashes. HARD.

    In fact, Trillian will not release the camera until I shut the program completely down.

    All that being said, the support staff at Cerulean have been very good at keep me abreast of updates and possible causes for the problem. I know I am not the only one with the webcam problem, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason for it.

    Would I advise my friends to use it? Hell yes! I do that on a daily basis.

    However, I am hoping that the news about 3.0 being released public is swallowed by the firefox wave.

    Seems to me that everytime something good happens with Trillian, either Yahoo or MSN change things to break it.

    (eep, after previewing I realized how rambling and poorly worded this post is, but its been the 48 hours from hell here, and I just don't have the energy to correct everything)

  • So what? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by IntergalacticWalrus (720648) on Saturday December 18 2004, @04:09PM (#11126176)
    Trillian is nothing spectacular. Quite frankly I don't see why anyone would pay money for that program, with all the very good free-as-in-both-meanings IM clients that are already available on Windows.

    Note to all Mac and Linux users: you're not missing much, so don't bother whining about not having ports.

  • Slow...chat client? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sivar (316343) <charlesnburns[@][ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Saturday December 18 2004, @04:09PM (#11126177)
    I've always thought it was absurd that a chat client would use 100% CPU just to resize a window, and have had problems with Trillian not painting its custom controls over the standard Windows buttons. The client works well, but the coding for themes, non-square windows, and resizing seems to have been done by rather unskilled coders. It also uses a hell of a lot of RAM. It's a freaking chat client, and it requires more hardware resources than my web browser.
    This is just my opinion, of course.

    • Re:Use Miranda. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Khuffie (818093) <khuffie@khuffie.cAAAom minus threevowels> on Saturday December 18 2004, @03:34PM (#11125952) Homepage
      Miranda seamlessly imports contact lists from Y!,ICQ and MSN.

      So does Trillian

      Miranda can run it all in a single nice window.

      So does Trillian

      Miranda has fully customisable skins and icons.

      So does Trillian.

      Miranda has no adverts, ever.

      Neither does Trillian (both free and pro)

      Miranda has plug-ins galore...

      Trillian has plenty of plugins, and most of them are actually useful. The whole list of Miranda's plugins is not only scary, but a vast majority of them are completely mundane.

      Miranda is totally free, is open source, and simply is better than Trillian, and even Gaim.

      Trillian also has a totally free version. Granted it's not open source, but why should we hold that against them? They've also been known to help out: when the folks at Trillian figured out a bug with the Yahoo! IM connection stuff, they sent the fix to the folks at gaim.

      If you really want to compare things, the 'out of the box' experience in Trillian is far superior to that of Miranda. I recall spending an hour on Miranda a couple of months ago to get it to look/work just right, and it still ended up looking ugly as sin. On the other hand, all I need to do is install Trillian, and a vast majority of these 'plugins' that Miranda needs are already built in.

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