AOL to Replace AIM with Triton

An anonymous reader writes "BetaNews is reporting that AOL has begun beta testing a replacement for its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) software. Triton has an entirely new user interface that adds highly anticipated features including tabbed messaging and logging. The client will also be open to third party plug-ins." From the article: "It is no coincidence that AOL is fielding so many betas concurrently. AOL Browser, an Internet Explorer based Web browser; AOL Media Player, a standalone audio and video player; AOL search technologies and AOL's synchronization utilities are all part of what was once a unified communications client called Fanfare."

Deja Vu

[sqlrob]

Sounds familiar [sourceforge.net]

early beta

[frieked]

It is worth noting that this is still an early beta.
I installed it this morning and had frequent crashes so I switched back to the regular 5.9 version.

Here's a select quote from the betanews forums:
"Why is it that so many small or independent developers give us so much quality software, often without reward, and huge companies like AOL can only spit out this bloated garbage?"

New *client*

[gregfortune]

Just as a clarification, this is *not* a new protocol. This is a new client that integrates the AIM protocol and functionality with other services.

Opening Up?

[MCron]

They say they will be opening up to third party developers.
I checked the acccore.dll file, and seems to have some pretty extensive hooks. All the same, this is entirely client-side.

Recently, they have been clamping down more and more on third-party developers of services on the network. For example, a free offline messaging service, DoorManBot [doorman.info] was forced offline for a few days recently. Hopefully, this new spirit of being open to developers will carry through.

Re:Preferences we can't understand

[MCron]

As far as I can tell, they've taken away pop-up windows (AIM Today screen), and even put a handle on SPIM, with the IM Catcher.

There isn't even a stock ticker on there anymore.
So, where are you getting "they still tacked on tons of ads and annoying pop-up windows, the dumb approach."?

Re:Until I can kill the ads...

[MCron]

Go ahead and kill the ads [krunchsoftware.com]. Now, will you be moving?

Re:New *client*

[MCron]

To expand on that, AOL has two protocols, OSCAR (which is used by the AIM client and Triton as well as gAIM and Trillian) and TOC (which was released in 1997 for third-party developers).

While TOC has been fairly crippled, OSCAR is still expanding (server storage of aliases, for example) and shows no sign of needing replacement.

Re:Not very impressive

[rainman_bc]

What does living in Canada have to do with using AIM?

While quite popular in America, I know of no one on AIM in Canada. In my circles MSN seems most popular, with ICQ second and YIM third.

Re:Minimum System Requirements?

[jtriska]

Nevermind, heh, XP only. Nothing to see here.

Re:Not very impressive

[Kimos]

Nobody here uses AOL. I know it's available because I've gotten the CDs in the mail, but I've never had a single AOL email address in my address book. The only exception is when I do eBay business with the US, then it seems every third person is using AOL.

Re:Until it can connect with multiple IM services.

[badasscat]

There's no tabbed messaging

Tabbed messaging has been in Trillian since 2.0. See here [trillian.cc].

you still have to have an account with each service you want to use

For at least a couple of the services, you can do this right through Trillian (for the others, it loads up a web page just like the official client does). I don't see how this is any different than what you'd do with an official client.

Trillian is basically just an IM client aggregator- it doesn't provide any messaging capabilities itself

Well, being an IM client aggregator pretty much makes it a killer app in itself (yes, I know there are others, but that alone instantly puts it a rung above all "official" IM clients, as does the lack of ads).

Being nicely designed and skinnable puts it yet again a step above even most other aggregators. Trillian 3.0 is so far ahead of any other IM client in terms of clean visual presentation throughout that it's not even funny. All apps should look this good by default, and if by some remote chance you don't like it, you can just download a new skin. The entire UI is skinnable, not just the outer edges. It also supports all sorts of plugins, from RSS readers to IM forwarders to weather.

Having features like tabbed messaging and 128-bit encryption is yet another point in its favor. No other freely downloadable Windows-based IM clients have these features, that I know of.

In short, Trillian does a lot of things, does some things no other IM client does, and everything it does do, it does well. AOL is apparently copying many of the features of Trillian in Triton, which should tell you something - I don't personally know anyone who actually uses the regular AIM client anymore.

Re:Triton's Mozilla Past

[jhewitt]

They did replace the Python script wrapper with Javascript, and they have optimized the code quite a bit and added some new features. However, as far as I can tell, the markup language and general architecture hasn't changed much at all.

Gaim always messes up my buddy list.

[krunk4ever]

Is it me or does loading gaim screw up people's buddylist? By screwing up, I'm referring more to the order of the buddies, than actually removing buddies.

I've stayed far far away after using it several times and it always happens.

On the other hand, plugins for tabbed messaging and logging already exist. AOL just likes to "upgrade" whenever such a plugin exist and breaks the plugin. I think many of them have just given up seeing that there's a lack of motiviation recently since none of the aim patches support the latest version.

The aim patches I know about include:
* DeadAIM [jdennis.net]
* middle_man [krunchsoftware.com]
* AIM+ [big-o-software.com]

Re:Until it can connect with multiple IM services.

[darthpenguin]

I personally don't find the taskbar functionality lacking at all (and the "plugin" comes packaged with gaim). Almost every feature you need is included, or comes as an easy to use plugin. My blurb about gtk2 was intended to show that yes, you can do "skinning" with gaim, and as a bonus, in a way that can interoperate with other applications (which happens to be mostly irrelevant in win32). Your inability to select an appealing theme for your tastes is most certainly not the fault of gtk2 or gaim.

Your complaints make it sound like you have tried gaim in a long time. It has come a long way recently, and you should try it again, in my opinion, before blasting it so much.

And finally, Trillian may be "free", but it is not "Free", as I had posted. For some people, the ability to make changes to the source actually has some usefulness. Plus, you can redistribute it basically however you wish.