SHOOTOUT: trillian vs miranda

Crappopotamus

Golden Member
Oct 1, 2002
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ive been using trillian the last month. i just... 'got' the pro version, and am about to install it (see other thread about backing stuff up please!)... but miranda has just been brought to my attention. looking up the opposing program on each programs forums basically turns up an advantage for miranda. people using trillian are disappointed with post-trillian pro development and are moving to miranda, while miranda users are saying trillian sucks except for its yahoo support. which i dont use.

as i understand it, miranda is originally based off icq... which is what ive been using (and loving) for the last... ohhh... 6 years.. or so. does miranda have all the icq features (more/better info, contact sending, birthday reminders etc)? thats what i miss the most after switching to trillian. icq is much more polished. however its now HUGELY bloated. if miranda is like icq2000 or so, im THERE.

so what do all of you use and why?
 

Crappopotamus

Golden Member
Oct 1, 2002
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bah. no one uses either program?

first impression i have of miranda is that its very unpolished. seems like a half finished program. the gui is a piece of crap. its just a box. but just going through the settings, i can tell its more customizable. and the info boxes are better. :p for now im sticking with trillian pro.

i hear the plugins give it a lot of useful features. trillian pro plugins so far get the thumbs down from me. theyre useless AND you need to pay. so when i have some more time im going to try the FREE miranda plugins. until then, i would like to hear someone elses experience... anyone?!

*chirp chirp*
 

Mitzi

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2001
3,775
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I've used both. I really like Miranda (esp. because its free) but I've reverted back to Trillian for the time being because:

You can't invite users to a conversation (i.e. have group conversations in Miranda)
I can't figure out how to get the RSS Newsfeed plugin working on Miranda
Its a ah heck to get smilies working in Miranda

I intent to try Miranda again in a few months when its had a little more time to develop.
 

Crappopotamus

Golden Member
Oct 1, 2002
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Originally posted by: Mitzi
Originally posted by: Zucarita9000
If you use Trillian or Miranda to connect to your MSN Messenger account, read this: MSN Messenger upgrade blocks Trillian.

MSN Messenger 6.0 works great for me.

I'm sure that Trillian and the other third party IM packages will get around that somehow.

for sure. but it might take a while? thats what ive been hearing... trillian is really slow at getting things fixed, whereas miranda is faster.

mitzi, i feel the same as you. i like to have SOMETHING at least straight out of the box. miranda feels like lego or something. you build it all yourself. which is good if you have a lot of time on your hands...

i dont understand how msn got so popular. gah. up till recently you couldnt even rename people! and msn users are NOTORIOUS for having names that change every few days. gah. icq for life.
 

stevewm

Senior member
Dec 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
Originally posted by: Mitzi
Originally posted by: Zucarita9000
If you use Trillian or Miranda to connect to your MSN Messenger account, read this: MSN Messenger upgrade blocks Trillian.

MSN Messenger 6.0 works great for me.

I'm sure that Trillian and the other third party IM packages will get around that somehow.

for sure. but it might take a while? thats what ive been hearing... trillian is really slow at getting things fixed, whereas miranda is faster.

mitzi, i feel the same as you. i like to have SOMETHING at least straight out of the box. miranda feels like lego or something. you build it all yourself. which is good if you have a lot of time on your hands...

i dont understand how msn got so popular. gah. up till recently you couldnt even rename people! and msn users are NOTORIOUS for having names that change every few days. gah. icq for life.



The Trillian folks are definately not slow in getting things fixed. The most Trillian Free or Pro has EVER went without being able to connect to all 4 messaging services is about a day, if even that...
 

erikistired

Diamond Member
Sep 27, 2000
9,739
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i'm using the trillian 2.0 beta right now, very nice stuff. well worth the wait, imho. the software for the main part wasn't really broken (altho yahoo webcam never worked right, but that was something yahoo did) but needed some tweaking. they decided to release one massive update tho instead of small patches here and there. so far it looks really nice. as for the msn thing, the last time they made a change they notified trillian so it could be updated accordingly, someone i don't think this is going to be a problem. msn has always been pretty nice to the trillian guys afaik.

and it's already been addressed in the member's area. 2.0 will support it and the free version will be updated soon. also looks like there is an updated msn.dll in the forums for the free version. so apparently it won't be blocked afterall.
 

erikistired

Diamond Member
Sep 27, 2000
9,739
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Originally posted by: stevewm
Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
Originally posted by: Mitzi
Originally posted by: Zucarita9000
If you use Trillian or Miranda to connect to your MSN Messenger account, read this: MSN Messenger upgrade blocks Trillian.

MSN Messenger 6.0 works great for me.

I'm sure that Trillian and the other third party IM packages will get around that somehow.

for sure. but it might take a while? thats what ive been hearing... trillian is really slow at getting things fixed, whereas miranda is faster.

mitzi, i feel the same as you. i like to have SOMETHING at least straight out of the box. miranda feels like lego or something. you build it all yourself. which is good if you have a lot of time on your hands...

i dont understand how msn got so popular. gah. up till recently you couldnt even rename people! and msn users are NOTORIOUS for having names that change every few days. gah. icq for life.



The Trillian folks are definately not slow in getting things fixed. The most Trillian Free or Pro has EVER went without being able to connect to all 4 messaging services is about a day, if even that...

slow at releasing new features maybe, but yeah, when something major is broken it gets fixed pretty quick. there hasn't been a real big problem (like the aim connection issues of old) lately tho, so you don't really see a bunch of patches to fix things.
 

Goi

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,772
7
91
I'm still on ICQ since Miranda doesn't support more advanced features like SMS. I'm not sure if it supports file transfers either. ICQ may be bloated but its a neccessary evil for me since nobody has created anything better for me.
 

erikistired

Diamond Member
Sep 27, 2000
9,739
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Originally posted by: Goi
I'm still on ICQ since Miranda doesn't support more advanced features like SMS. I'm not sure if it supports file transfers either. ICQ may be bloated but its a neccessary evil for me since nobody has created anything better for me.

i know file xfers work in trillian, not sure about sms tho. my 2.0 beta has things that say sms message tho. so maybe it does.
 

Goi

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,772
7
91
Hmmn, Trillian looks pretty polished, at least the website does. It isn't open source like Miranda is, so I'm wondering if its as good...and I'm worried if its as bloated as ICQ too, since it has to handle more protocols.

Edit: wow guess what, turns out there's an SMS plugin for Miranda, and since I'm kinda partial to open source projects, I guess I'll give Miranda 0.31 another shot :)