Tetsuo Time

Trillian's a multi-protocol instant messaging application. The name was taken from the story "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy". It has the honor of being my first multi-protocol IM application from way back when Windows was my primary OS. At the time Miranda IM was just a bare bones ICQ client and nothing else could do what Trillian could do.

It was also a time when skinning was in full swing and Trillian's fully skin-able interface was a hit amongst people like me. Today skinning is pretty much a part of the operating systems so having an application sport its own skinning engine is not as desirable for someone like me as it used to be. Trillian on Windows Vista\7 only uses the native interface for its login screen. Trillian for Mac uses the native interface there too.. but it also uses it in other places.( continued inside... )

They are making Trillian for the Mac. I'll probably give it a try but I doubt it'll replace Adium for me. I dislike how it has it's own skins and how you can't change the IM's layout and it doesn't look like the Mac version is going to be any different although the default skin does look interesting. I am not going pay and go Pro with it that's for sure. I actually think that Linux needs it more than the Mac does but I don't begrudge others who prefer Trillian who switch to a Mac and want to continue to use it the chance to use it and like I said I might try it myself.

They need to make the skins in Vista be able to take advantage of alpha transparencies like how the screenshots of the mac version seem to do... and include the blurring effect that Vista glass does.

On windows I have been using Pidgin more though even though they don't have message style customization like Adium has. It's a multi-IM client, it takes the system skin and it uses the same back-end as Adium.

They are making Trillian for the Mac. I'll probably give it a try but I doubt it'll replace Adium for me. I dislike how it has it's own skins and how you can't change the IM's layout and it doesn't look like the Mac version is going to be any different although the default skin does look interesting. I am not going pay and go Pro with it that's for sure. I actually think that Linux needs it more than the Mac does but I don't begrudge others who prefer Trillian who switch to a Mac and want to continue to use it the chance to use it and like I said I might try it myself.

They need to make the skins in Vista be able to take advantage of alpha transparencies like how the screenshots of the mac version seem to do... and include the blurring effect that Vista glass does.

On windows I have been using Pidgin more though even though they don't have message style customization like Adium has. It's a multi-IM client, it takes the system skin and it uses the same back-end as Adium.

I saw the news about this today. It looks like they are making a version of the web version of Trillian called "Astra" for the iPhone. The screenshot they have so far looks pretty good although I hope they put in Buddy Icon ability. Also I would like it if you hit the home button that it could remain open in the background. You can't get instant messaging on the iPhone otherwise and this gives you multi-protocol instant messaging. This actually makes a bit more sense to me than running Astra on a regular desktop computer web browser. On that kind of system I'd rather run a native multi-protocol instant messaging client. On iPhone though there is no one and it looks like Trillian Astra integrates better on there taking on the look and feel of the iPhone.