Comments on: Trillian beta goes public

Trillian Astra, which has been in development for nearly three years, is now available to users as a public beta and no longer requires a private key to download.

[trhoads82]

have to say this is along time coming. I hope it lives up to the long wait.

[karpenterskids]

This article did a terrible job of explaining what Trillian is.

[mogley2005]

Instant Messenger aggregator. Also, a search on the internet will give you the answer

[whatdableep]

I agree - articles should explain what products are about without having to perform web searches to do so. This shows immature writing techniques and lack of formal evaluation experience.

[AdamB5000]

I didn't know what Trillian was either until I read the comments.

[riggsmcx]

Agreed. You shouldn't have to research articles you are reading. That's the writer's job. Terrible article.

[make_or_break]

Guess a copy editor can't be bothered proofing a "blog" entry just to make sure relevant information isn't left out. That would be SO 20th century...<sarcasm>

That said, considering how articles are posted here in CNET it's bloody hard to tell 'blogs' from actual 'articles'. Keep up the "good" work, CNET. <DOUBLE sarcasm>

[Ed0719]

Too little, too late...

[ASilva437]

I have to agree with you on that one.
There are already faster and better alternatives out there.

After getting tired of waiting for the arrival of Trillian Astra, I've begun using Pidgin.
Pidgin in my opinion is way faster and simpler to use than both Trillian 3 and the Trillian Astra beta
and I don't think I'll ever go back.

[agriffith96]

I agree. A few years ago I would have loved an update for my Trillian. Now that Text Messaging has exploded and everyone is finally doing it, I have no need for IMing. I forget I even have Trillian on my PC.

[bimmin]

I remember using trillian over five years ago. Musta switched hands.

[HappyPhil]

I checked out the trillian website and they do have a version for the mac. If you already have a trillian account, you can download a test version that runs on tiger. They even have an ad prepared that looks, "Mac slick".

[indiemixer]

It's very nice but I prefer Digsby.

[Rod Roddy]

Me 2, Trillian is waaay too convoluted for my tastes.

[AndrewRich]

I might look at the Mac version if it offers voice/video over Yahoo. The "old" Windows version pissed me off one too many times and was replaced with Pidgin some time ago.

[mperisic]

This is a perfect recipe for "How to fail at software projects":
- Long release cycle
- Closed (limited) feedback audience
- Make one monolith software that does everything so-so, and nothing exceptionally

They have invested three years into this, and opened it for public just now. Big mistake. In the meantime the competitors did shorter more agile release cycles, focused on essential functionality. I am afraid that Trillian Astra is already outdated, due to late feedback. Quite the opposite result of what the intentions initially were.

[clrgj2]

Just wondering....what is trillian?

[tikoro]

For those that are too lazy to click the link in the article, and the one bum previously commenting about not explaining what Trillian is:

Trillian, like Pidgin and Digsby (i'm sure there are others), is a multi-protocol IM client application that allows you to connect to multiple chat interfaces. So you would be able to log on to all the popular ones (AIM, Y!, MSIM, and ICQ), as well as other ones. Sorry I'm not sure which other networks Trillian supports because I, like others, have moved on to either Pidgin or Digsby.

[make_or_break]

Well, it must be NICE to be a know-it-all smarty pants like you. In actuality, if there's ANYONE that should be bum rushed, I nominate YOU.

[DeezyC]

or you could use meebo =p

[BASHERS33]

I have used Trillian for years and like most thigns about it. People who are bashing it and saying use pidgin or digsby... well cnet rates trillian as good or better than both of those and it is near the top in downloads wheras those other two are nowhere in sight.

[brain105a]

Bravo! I've been using Trillian Astra since it was in private alpha testing, and I must say that I like the interface much better than Digsby. (Plus Trillian doesn't use a 3rd party installer that adds a tracker to your registry, lol.)

I only wish this had been released before some of the other programs came out. But it's a solid product with lots of improvements, even before all the bug fixes!

[paulej]

I tend to agree with others that they took what seems like forever to get the product out the door.

Even so, I'm trying out the beta and I have to say that it's really nice. It looks absolutely amazing and I've not had any problems with it. I'm connected to Yahoo, MSN (twice with two different IDs), AOL, and XMPP. I have buddies listed multiple times (for different networks) and I'm able to group them as a single buddy. I'd definitely recommend it as one of the options one might consider.

[beeellecee]

Digsby does all that, has a cleaner interface, and...costs nothing

[BlitzBoy1120]

I really don't see any difference between Pidgin and Trillian except for the fact that Trillian is much more visually appealing.

[beeellecee]

Pidgin is free, Trillian isn't

[brain105a]

Actually, Trillian is free. They do have a small , one-time fee for a few "premium" features, but most people probably wouldn't use those anyway.

[rimarama]

30 day TRIAL!, r u kiddin me

[tuneslover]

Can't chat. It's buddy.

[nkartik74]

$25 after the trial period of 30 days is insane. I currently use Pidgin which is free, and therefore i have no motivation to pay $25. I dont think people will use Trillian if they charge money for something that others are offering for free.

[brain105a]

The $25 is if you want some of the extras. The regular version of Trillian Astra is FREE. The $25 for premium features is their way to avoid putting all the adware in the installer the way Digsby does and yet still have some income. But you don't have to pay for the extra couple features unless you want to. The free version does everything that Digsby/Pidgin does as far as I can tell.

[Runnerblood_Softworks]

I don't care about anything in this article. It's a old'age one. Or its too late. I'm sorry for them, but 3 years is too much. How many programmers do they have? 1.5? Lol. Its way off too much stuff on the visual part, it isnt doing anything better than Digsby and Pidgin, & it also claims me money for some features that i dont need ( & are given by Digsby for free ). So, sorry Seth Rosenblatt, but or you, or the Trilian team, are too late.

[poetworm]

Three years in beta is a long time for a messenger program, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. It tries to do too much for what its purpose is. Why do I want to know what my friends are Facebook are doing? Why do I want to know how many e-mail messages I have from each service? It does way too much than what it should, I want to keep things simple and clear and Trillian Astra just complicates things a bit too much for my taste It may look great and flashy, but sometimes people don't want all that stuff. I am sticking with Pidgin, its fast, lightweight, and it does what its supposed to do without going to the extreme. Thanks Trillian, but no thanks.

[brain105a]

you can just turn off the stuff you don't need, lol. Facebook isn't mandatory. I'm sure Pidgin has plugins for Twitter and Facebook too. (though i can't see any use for it, I'm sure some do. I mean, if they didn't include it, others would complain that they can't do facebook chat. Can never please everyone. XD

[LapDRx]

Trillian has been around for a long time. I remember beck in 2000 when Yahoo kept changing their format just so Trillian couldn't tap in. But they always kept up. Gott give their props to that. Then in 02 the lawsuit. MSN jumped in then Time Warner aquired AOL and they jumped in. Astra been beta testing mainly for that and some other minor bug reasons. So when I hear that this one or that one is better, Trillian may not have been the 1st to try the multi messenger game, but it was the best in its day.