ICQ No More

OK - I used to have ICQ on every computer I stumbled upon. But not any more. It seems that with every next version since ICQ 5 (especially ICQ 6) gets more and more adware with system resource requirements that just any average 1-2 years old computer break. Not to talk about the crashes and the mess with its files installed all over the machine and the "useful" ICQ toolbar. I've started hating ICQ because of the slow speed of ICQ6. But what disgusted me most were the advertisements in the chat window. Here in Bulgaria we used to get a beer logo in the chat window - can you imagine that!? And the adware in the main window. Geee... I will never use ICQ any more. There are so good multi-protocol freeware programs out there with ICQ support. Here are my preferred (most used by me first):

• QIP - the original version was a pure ICQ client with tabbed chatting, multiple instances, cool features (merging history, per-contact alerts). The new Infium, though, is multi-protocol with even more features. QIP is light - very light - and has everything out of the box. Supports plugins. Infium natively offers VoIP. Oh, it's Made in Russia, as well ;)


• Miranda - is an Open-Source, multi-protocol, plugin-based instant messaging program. It has an immense feature-set, but after installation all goodies need to be manually added. One of the drawbacks is that Miranda is clumsy in multi-user mode. It originally asks for no password at start and one should hold Ctrl upon launch in order to bring up the user account manager (guess there's a plugin for that, but I have never used one). It is rather meagre in UI design, though.


• Trillian - the most beautiful client. It is multi-protocol, feature-rich and is so sleek in style. But it has a great problem with windows - default chat window size is very small; it can be changed manually for every contact, but upon tabbed-chat style it goes back to normal. I wait for the new Trillian Astra and who knows - it might be the new favourite kid on the block.

So, guys, I urge you to try one of these. Miranda and QIP (not Infium) have installation-less versions - just extract in any folder and have a look!
You will see no advertisements, no slow performance. What is more - any of these (QIP in lesser extend) are meant to be all-in-one IM clients.