• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The words do not have to be perfect.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

The revolution will be supervised.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Science & Technology / AIM

AIM

by John Cole|  July 21, 201110:24 am| 74 Comments

This post is in: Science & Technology

FacebookTweetEmail

I’ve finally grown sick and tired of AIM crashing my windows 7- it would just lock up intermittently with AIM not responding, and it would screw the entire system until I rebooted. Is there any other client I can use that will still allow me to use my old AIM address list? And yes, I am sure that hundreds of you are going to chime in with AIM suck blah blah blah, but I have friends I have been gaming with and talking to for 12-15 years on that list, and it was a big enough ordeal moving from ICQ 10-12 years ago.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Never gonna get it
Next Post: Et tu, Grover? »

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    gnomedad

    July 21, 2011 at 10:25 am

    Try Digsby. It talks to AIM and a zillion other services. Pidgen is also good and available as a portable version.

  2. 2.

    icedfire

    July 21, 2011 at 10:25 am

    I’m guessing Trillian is still around. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ clients were supported by it, the last time I used it.

  3. 3.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    July 21, 2011 at 10:27 am

    From the post title, I was afraid Dennis Banks had died and I missed it. Because I could not figure out how the American Indian Movement could figure into a post on Balloon Juice.

  4. 4.

    cynosurescence

    July 21, 2011 at 10:28 am

    Pidgin is by far the best IM client out there. It’s incredibly stable, free (but please donate if you like it!) and open source. Also has tons of plugins for things like Facebook, Twitter, etc. if you need that functionality over the base configuration.

    http://pidgin.im/

  5. 5.

    JMonkey

    July 21, 2011 at 10:28 am

    I second Trillian. Stable, useful.

  6. 6.

    Rubbs

    July 21, 2011 at 10:29 am

    Pidgin is a nice open source client that will do AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, GTalk, and more.

    I use it all the time.

  7. 7.

    john b

    July 21, 2011 at 10:29 am

    gchat can access your aim list and display it all right next to you gmail.

  8. 8.

    Bob

    July 21, 2011 at 10:30 am

    meebo.com if you just want your AIM list in a browser, but otherwise pidgin or gchat among others.

  9. 9.

    Ducktape

    July 21, 2011 at 10:31 am

    Pidgin! It’s up to date, Open Source, and also let’s you do multiple other protocols as well. I have my AIM, Googletalk, private Jabber server, MSN Live, and IRC all in my single Pidgin client.

    http://www.pidgin.im/

  10. 10.

    GambitRF

    July 21, 2011 at 10:34 am

    I’ve been using Pidgin for maybe 3-4 years now. It’s MUCH better than the regular AIM client and uses a lot fewer resources.

  11. 11.

    Tony J

    July 21, 2011 at 10:35 am

    Why are you mixed up with A.I.M. in the first place, Cole? Those people dress like beekeepers. Evil, Nazi beekeepers.

  12. 12.

    mightygodking

    July 21, 2011 at 10:39 am

    Vote #whatever for Pidgin.

  13. 13.

    slappy

    July 21, 2011 at 10:39 am

    http://adium.im/

    supports most chat clients

  14. 14.

    kestral

    July 21, 2011 at 10:40 am

    Meebo’s okay if you want an in-browser IM service. And it covers AIM and most of the major chat services.

  15. 15.

    Sapheriel

    July 21, 2011 at 10:40 am

    pidgin for windows, adium for mac.

  16. 16.

    mrmcd

    July 21, 2011 at 10:40 am

    Also here to say the answer is pidgin.

  17. 17.

    jacy

    July 21, 2011 at 10:46 am

    OMG, ICQ – the memories. I haven’t thought of that in years. Back in the day when the S/O and I were long-distance, we lived on ICQ. Of course now we can just scream from the kitchen.

    Does having no chat client make me a fuddy-duddy? Suddenly I feel old.

  18. 18.

    James Hare

    July 21, 2011 at 10:46 am

    I’m with the folks saying pidgin for windows, adium for mac. I rarely use pidgin though because I’m always in front of a mac.

  19. 19.

    themann1086

    July 21, 2011 at 10:48 am

    Definitely pidgin. I’ve been using it since it was called Gaim way back when. Great little piece of software.

  20. 20.

    bottyguy

    July 21, 2011 at 10:51 am

    Pidgin is the best multi-server IM client I’ve found. That said it’s not always the best if you want to transfer files over IM (usually works) or open a video chat (doesn’t work).

  21. 21.

    dan

    July 21, 2011 at 10:52 am

    No beer blogging this summer?

  22. 22.

    Robert McClellan

    July 21, 2011 at 10:55 am

    http://www.ehow.com/how_6796090_put-aim-contacts-pidgin.html

  23. 23.

    Winston Smith

    July 21, 2011 at 10:56 am

    Has anyone suggested Pidgin? Oh? A million fucking times?

    Well, Pidgin.

  24. 24.

    catclub

    July 21, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Jacy @ 17 I not only have no chat client now. I never did have one. My fuddy beats your duddy.

  25. 25.

    Redshift

    July 21, 2011 at 10:58 am

    I switched to Trillian when that started happening for me, and it’s been great.

  26. 26.

    jayackroyd

    July 21, 2011 at 10:58 am

    I used trilium for a while and it worked fine, but gmail’s chat feature integrates AIM. So that’s what I use.

  27. 27.

    Jim C

    July 21, 2011 at 10:58 am

    Why are you mixed up with A.I.M. in the first place, Cole? Those people dress like beekeepers. Evil, Nazi beekeepers.

    Rupert Murdoch is being tranferred to a new consciousness: M.U.R.D.O.K

  28. 28.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    July 21, 2011 at 11:00 am

    Pidgin also has OTR.

  29. 29.

    Sentient Puddle

    July 21, 2011 at 11:02 am

    Ah, memories of ICQ…

    @jacy:

    Does having no chat client make me a fuddy-duddy? Suddenly I feel old.

    I’ma say no. I still have Adium load up all my accounts, but I don’t think I’ve used it to IM anyone in years. A lot of it is that most of the people I would otherwise IM are all concentrated into a single IRC channel…so is that cheating?

  30. 30.

    Michael D.

    July 21, 2011 at 11:03 am

    @Slappy: I agree with you about Adium. That’s what I use and I’ve never had issues with it.

  31. 31.

    Trollenschlongen

    July 21, 2011 at 11:07 am

    John: The ads on your web site keep trying to sell me stuff and make money for you.

    Could you please tell ABL to post a tirade attacking you for GRIFTING!?

    Thank you.

  32. 32.

    Lee

    July 21, 2011 at 11:10 am

    I have been using Trillian for years. Both paid and free versions. I highly recommend it.

  33. 33.

    fasteddie9318

    July 21, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Cole, this whole “internet” “computer” thing only has another couple of weeks left anyway before it’s rendered useless in the post-apocalyptic hellscape.

  34. 34.

    Tom

    July 21, 2011 at 11:17 am

    Pidgin is swell.

  35. 35.

    srv

    July 21, 2011 at 11:20 am

    Vote eleventy-billion for Pidgin.

  36. 36.

    Ben Cisco

    July 21, 2011 at 11:23 am

    Trillian rocks.

  37. 37.

    Tony J

    July 21, 2011 at 11:24 am

    Rupert Murdoch is being tranferred to a new consciousness: M.U.R.D.O.K

    Heh. Malignantly. Unpleasant. Rightwinger. Designed. Only for. Killing. Fits.

  38. 38.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 21, 2011 at 11:37 am

    Just get one of the multi-platform apps like Trillian.

  39. 39.

    Phoenix

    July 21, 2011 at 11:39 am

    Sends more support for Pidgin

  40. 40.

    nobuyuki

    July 21, 2011 at 11:40 am

    Go with Pidgin or Adium (they’re both the same software under the surface, but Adium’s for OSX users) — Free and open source. Can’t say the same for Trillian, though I used it for a bit in the early 2000’s (very slow on my old P-133 compared to the alternatives…)

  41. 41.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    July 21, 2011 at 11:46 am

    Tony J and Jim C beat me to the Advanced Ideas Mechanics and MODOK jokes so to prove I’m a bigger nerd than they are I have to inform everyone that I’m currently reading Punisher War Journal #72 and I have the Ghost Rider ps2 “playthrough” up on YouTube while I pretend to “work” this morning.

  42. 42.

    Ron

    July 21, 2011 at 11:51 am

    Let me chime in with the others. Go with Pidgin.

  43. 43.

    Joel

    July 21, 2011 at 11:52 am

    I’m probably the 43rd comment to say this, but:

    People still use AIM? That was big when I was in college. In the late 90s.

  44. 44.

    Rorgg

    July 21, 2011 at 11:55 am

    I’ll be the 8th person to suggest Trillian. Not only will it work fine with the AIM list, but it’ll ease the transition to something else.

  45. 45.

    BruceK

    July 21, 2011 at 11:55 am

    I’ve been using Trillian for something like ten years now. Moving off the AIM client was almost seamless back then.

    And I think it’s still free (though I paid a little and got the Pro version, which hasn’t given me any problems that I can recall since before the second coming of The Shrub).

  46. 46.

    Michael D.

    July 21, 2011 at 11:58 am

    On another note, I just found out that my work will match donations to Charlie’s Angels, so they’ll be getting another bit of money from me soon. :-)

  47. 47.

    RareSanity

    July 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    If you don’t want to use a dedicated client, just use the GoogleTalk sidebar in Gmail, it supports AIM. Also, if you go that route, if you decide that you do want a dedicated client, there’s a GoogleTalk stand alone client you can run on Windows machines.

    The only reason I’m not suggesting Pidgin or one of the other clients is that if you use GoogleTalk, you get the bonus of free voice calls if you sign up for a GoogleVoice account. It is an awesome solution for communication. Plus, it has video chat.

    I always viewed Pidgin and the like for IM “power users”, if all you want is to be able to IM, using AIM, there really is not a better answer than GoogleTalk. It’s there on any computer that you can access Gmail on. No fussing with installs or thumb drives and the interface will be consistent whether you are on a computer with Windows, OS X, Linux, Anroid, iOS, etc. Set it up once and never have to worry about it again.

    EDITORIAL: For anyone that travels quite a bit and is not taking advantage of the GoogleTalk/GoogleVoice combination, you are doing yourself a disservice, it works awesome. When I have to travel to Japan once a quarter for work, if my wife wants to contact me, she just calls the GV number, it rings my MacBook, I just pop on my bluetooth headset and off we go. Completely free. It’s also completely free for me to call numbers in the US, from Japan, using my MacBook and GV. Saves a hell of a lot of money on cellphone roaming charges and allows us to talk for normal, not “Hurry up and say what you have to say, this is costing a fortune!”, time frames. And, I get to tell my son goodnight with video chat and show him that when it is morning time in Atlanta, it’s night time in Japan. He’s 4 and never gets tired of that one! LOL

  48. 48.

    growingdaisies

    July 21, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    I just moved from AOL IM myself to Pidgin a month ago. (So you’re not the only one.) Kept my old AOL name; no problems.

  49. 49.

    Countervail

    July 21, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    Pidgin. Trillion.

  50. 50.

    wesindc

    July 21, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    Pidgin is the way to go

  51. 51.

    RareSanity

    July 21, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    @RareSanity:

    I just realized how I absolutely butchered the rules for using commas in my comment. I want to apologize to all of the people whose skin is crawling because of my negligence.

  52. 52.

    singfoom

    July 21, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    Jumping on the pigdin bandwagon.

  53. 53.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    July 21, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    Trillian, a thousand times Trillian.

  54. 54.

    mellowjohn

    July 21, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    not to sound like an antiquated luddite (antiquated, yes; luddite, not so much), but what the hell are you people talking about?

  55. 55.

    Moik

    July 21, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    Pidgin +1. It supports multiple simultaneous accounts on different protocols, so I usually have chat windows open to my buddies on AIM and my work colleagues on Jabber at the same time.

  56. 56.

    El Cruzado

    July 21, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    This one hits VERY close to home. Didn’t you have a Mac? Just update it to Lion and use iChat.

    That would also help pay my bills.

  57. 57.

    Rick Taylor

    July 21, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    I use Pidgen myself. Simple straightforward software that’s not a resource hog.

  58. 58.

    mcd410x

    July 21, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    A trusty fax machine with thermal paper always works for me. Or smoke signals.

  59. 59.

    Jason

    July 21, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    Pidgin, or gchat.

  60. 60.

    philowitz

    July 21, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    I’ve been using pidgen for a couple of years with no problems.The transition from aim is seamless.

  61. 61.

    Tony J

    July 21, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford @ 41

    I’m currently reading Punisher War Journal #72 and I have the Ghost Rider ps2 “playthrough” up on YouTube while I pretend to “work” this morning.

    You win. All I did was spend my lunch hour in the shopping centre reading ‘Siege’ and creating a comfortable personal space by snarling “Where’s the action, Bendis? Where’s the fisticuffs?” whenever anybody walked by.

  62. 62.

    Shinobi

    July 21, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    I”m using digsby now so I can combine my yahoo and everything. I used Meebo at my old job where I did not have admin rights, but sometimes their ads would take over and crash my PC. I also had some stability issues with Trillian but that was a few years ago. SO far digsby is great, it does gmail, aim yahoo and facebook among others.

  63. 63.

    wes

    July 21, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    pidgin and digsby. or if you’re a real man, logging into AIM via gmail! (but pidgin and digsby are friendlier)

  64. 64.

    Terry Chay

    July 21, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    Puffin on windows. Adium if on Mac. Trillian if you are grandfathered or only know how to use the mav app store.

  65. 65.

    Library Grape

    July 21, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    7432nd person to recommend Trillian. They have a great mobile version too.

  66. 66.

    beergoggles

    July 21, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    @Bob: I will second Meebo. I always have a browser window open and Meebo also lets u detach chat boxes and move them around the desktop. Make sure to use it with the https prefix and noscript and adblock in firefox.

  67. 67.

    TheHalfrican

    July 21, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    Tried trillian and fucking hated it. Team Pidgin!

  68. 68.

    guachi

    July 21, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    If it helps you switch to pidgin, the government uses it on its high security networks to run remote operations all over the globe.

  69. 69.

    Nichole

    July 21, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    I work at AOL. More specifically, I work with the AIM product. I am certainly curious to find out which version of AIM you’re using, and I would love to help you find a solution to your problem.

    Feel free to email me at the email address I entered and I will send you my direct line so we can chat about it.

  70. 70.

    ronin122

    July 21, 2011 at 5:22 pm

    Pidgin is what I use, but I hear good things about Trillian. Try both. Haven’t used AOL’s software for AIM in 5 years and have zero plans on going back

  71. 71.

    datarat

    July 21, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    Another Pidgin vote. Multi-protocol and solid as hell.

  72. 72.

    Mike B

    July 21, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    I tried Trillian, but it insisted on me signing up for a Trillian account. What’s up with that?

    I use Pidgin. I’m happy with it. I use it on my Windows PC at work, and on my Linux box at home.

  73. 73.

    TomG

    July 21, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    Another vote for Pidgin. For the same reasons – it’s free, and works on Linux and Windows. It’s been around for years and is reliable.

  74. 74.

    inthewoods

    July 22, 2011 at 8:18 am

    I’ve been using Meebo after dumping the latest version of Trillian – but just started with Pidgin. Would be completely perfect if the email notification was a pop-up vs. the stupid yellow bar across the top.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • YY_Sima Qian on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:13pm)
  • wjca on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:11pm)
  • NotMax on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:09pm)
  • Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:08pm)
  • RevRick on Campaigns, cash and poorly attached voters (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:00pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!