By Lou Dolinar
Last in a series
Updated Feb. 14, 2006

Want something different in the way of instant messaging? As the old saying goes, you don't have to dance with the gal what brung you.

There are a number of IM client programs - client meaning they run on your PC - that let you tap into various IM networks without using the "official" software that you used to sign up in the first place. You keep your existing account name and password and buddy lists.

Why bother? It is one more way of ducking adware, which most IM companies rely on to fund their networks.

Alternative clients also may give you features that the standard software doesn't provide. As with nonstandard e-mail and browsers, you may also pick up a slight margin of security by not being part of the crowd. Since most are free, you can experiment to your heart's content.

Exhibit A here is GAIM - free, open-source software that runs on the Windows Linux and Mac OS X operating systems. That's a real benefit because, like other open-source products, you can try it on your PC and ease into another operating system as your confidence grows.

Why GAIM? GAIM (http://gaim.sourceforge.net) is multiprotocol, meaning it can communicate with most any instant messaging network. Even if most of your friends are on AOL Instant Messenger, you can still chat back and forth with buddies on the Microsoft Network, as well as Internet Relay Chat, all active at the same time. GAIM does this by allowing you to set up and run multiple accounts simultaneously. You can add an open source spell checker and back up your buddy lists to your PC, as well as store them on the network.

Alternate IM clients have their downside, though. They tend to lag commercial offering in features - don't expect videoconferencing or voice chat as yet, and even file transfers may be pokey. A bigger objection: AOL and other vendors aren't thrilled that you're using their networks without viewing the ads that pay the freight. Thus they occasionally tweak their protocols to make their networks incompatible with any software but their own, at which point you may be without service for a few days until apatch is available. Yahoo has been particularly aggressive in this regard.

GAIM isn't the only alternative out there. My daughter Ann, a typical teen with a gazillion names on her buddy lists, switched to another multiprotocol client, Kopete, (http://kopete.kde.org/) when I converted her PC from Windows to Linux. She reports, "I like the AOL version better, but there's not so much funny stuff with Kopete, there's no ads, no pop-ups ... GAIM always seems to download a lot of stuff." Of course, if you want the genuine article, there's a conventional AOL client for Linux.

The slickest multiprotocol alternative client out there is Trillian, from Cerulean Studios (www.trillian.cc). The "basic" version is free, but you'll have to ante up $25 for the more comprehensive Trillian Pro 2.47. Trillian has managed to implement some of the more complicated features unique to individual services, such as MSN multiparty chat and AIM photo transfer. Protocol switcheroos are corrected more quickly as well. Trillian has been included in the recent “Google Pack.”

Of course, the annoying incompatibilities of various chat systems will eventually go away, in a replay of what happened to e-mail a decade ago. Back then, outfits such as AOL wanted to keep their systems proprietary and their customers cut off from the rest of the computing world. Standards bodies are working on universal chat protocols, so someday gabbing online from your AOL account with a friend on MSN won't require any fancy software.

IMAGE ISN'T EVERYTHING. I've received a couple of notes from readers who are having problems creating installation CDs for Linux and other software we've discussed in recent weeks. Here's the deal: Most of this stuff is in the form of an image file, usually with the suffix ISO. If you simply copy this file to a CD with system software, the CD will not work correctly. Hey, I didn't invent this stuff. What you need is a separate program that deals specifically with disk images. I've been using ISO

recorder, (http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm) free but donation requested. It's not yet compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 2. Another option is WinImage (http://www.winimage.com/), which you can try for free but cost $30 to buy. WinImage is more full featured and allows you to add or remove files from a disk image.