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Trillan Astra chat client leaves beta
Trillian Astra lets users chat with contacts on a number of services, including AOL Intant Messenger, Windows live Mesenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Yahoo! Messenger.
It also lets you update your Facebook and Twitter status messages, which makes Trillian Astra a direct competitor to Digsby. So if you were annoyed with Digsby's heavy-handed revenue generating techniques, you might want to take a look at Trillian Astra. To Digsby's credit, the company did roll out an update that makes the "Support Digsby" section easier to spot and configure, along with a link to a Wiki entry explaining how the Digsby Research Module works.
Trillian Astra is available as a free download for Windows. Mac and iPhone versions are in the works. There's also a web client, which pits Trillian Astra against web-based chat service Meebo.
[via CNET]
Comments
6
Subscribe to commentsBiomechAug 15th 2009 1:27PM
Honestly why would anyone pick Digsby over this or something like Miranda? I've heard no stories of those two taking advantage of their users, and the software themselves are way better.
cente_ddrAug 15th 2009 1:28PM
Apparently you didn't see the big BUY PRO at the download link. Digsby has been 100% free for all users regardless of the advertising they opt-in to. All digsby opt-ins are optional. As for "the software - way better" - I very much disagree. Every year I keep trying out trillian and ever year I'm disappointed by the lack of usability and extra features that come standard on other messengers.
BiomechAug 15th 2009 4:28PM
I tried out the old Trillian many times and I hated it. But I have had Astra installed for a while now and it's got some great features the others don't (video anyone?) and it actually looks good out of the box.
I'm an avid Miranda user and Trillian/Digsby will never match its level of customization and the things you can tinker with, but I would be more than willing to switch to Astra (and even pay for the Pro) and not have to deal with the crap Digsby has.
And I don't like the Digsby logo, but that's just me being a child LOL
To all his own, I guess. I just prefer something other than Digsby.
RichardAug 17th 2009 7:21AM
I took a look at Pidgin a while back and for it to do everything that Digsby did I needed to install a tonne of plugins and then configure them all - often with little to no supporting documentation.
After I faffed around with it I did have quite a nice set up but the next time I re-installed the operating system I decided that I couldn't be bothered will wasting my time when Digsby did everything I wanted out of the box with little to no tweeks.
smv_342Aug 15th 2009 4:29PM
I agree with you...
Google Chrome: How ugly... and the themes rot.
Firefox: We want native theme support, not just native buttons...
IE8: Microsoft getting something remotely right...
Foobar2000: This is how programs should be - low memory footprint, native windows theme. If you have the right theme, foobar2000 looks great. Check out this screenshot - http://i27.tinypic.com/ngan7n.jpg
Opera also supports native skinning support (http://i27.tinypic.com/2eb8llz.jpg) but it has a high memory footprint than what is acceptable.
I think most developers don't like the Windows GUI, so they build custom skins for their apps. The majority of Mac apps have the default OSX GUI.
bigsoftyAug 15th 2009 10:10PM
IE8 you HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING! lol