Bill Gates hates Apple more than slugs hate salt. “What proof do you have of this?” I hear you ask. Well I’ll tell you, Messenger for Mac. I’ve provided you with the link but please don’t be tempted to follow it and install a buggy old version of Messenger for Windows. I can only assume that there’s a programmer in a damp basement somewhere with a blindfold on coding new updates to this monstrosity. Clearly, I’m not a fan. I’ve had numerous error messages and dropped chats.
So what should you use instead? I’ve done a bit of leg work here and I reckon that your best bet is Adium. It lacks a few of the high-end functions of the newer incarnations of Messenger but it has a compatibility list that’s hard to beat (including AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo and many more). It’s never crashed or frozen on me and regular updates mean that if it’s missing anything you’re after you can be sure that someone somewhere is working away furiously to increase the feature list. One of the features I particularly like is the transcripts archive that lets you quickly and easily go through all your past conversations. You can also customise the appearance and sounds to suit your mood and the dock icon is a green duck. Come on now, a green duck! When you open Adium the eyes of the duck open, welcome to the 21st century people!
