Trillian Astra is ready to fly
Trillian Astra has finally, officially replaced Trillian 3. Users who experienced the Astra beta will find the final version to be similar, with the biggest change being the features that are limited to the paid Pro version. If you're new to Trillian Astra, this update makes the multi-protocol chat client competitive again.
This screenshot of the Astra beta looks identical to the final version of the program.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)The differences between the two versions are enumerated here; the short of it is that the extras are nice--but they're merely extras. You'll still get the improved performance, and support for mainstream services like Yahoo, AOL, Google, and ICQ. MySpaceIM is supported, and Skype is included, but it requires the program to be running before it can be accessed through Astra--just as Skype does with other multichat applications. It includes POP3 and IMAP account notifications rolled in alongside the Facebook and Web mail notices.
Perhaps most importantly, the Cerulean Studios team promises that Trillian Astra will be updated more frequently than Trillian 3 ever was, with regular maintenance patches.
Editor's note: There is a bug currently on the Download.com product page that indicates that the program is only available to buy. This is being worked on and should be fixed Monday. The program can be downloaded for free.
Seth peers into the deep, dark corners of software so that you don't have to. He has yet to suffer a single nightmare about OS/2. You can follow him on Twitter. 
Jeez/ it took them what - three year?
Perhaps what people would have appreciated more was a series of smaller steps, but I think the GUI overhaul alone was a major amount of work.
Some GUIs for things are just outright horrible to the eyes, especially MSN/WLM or whatever the hell they have called it these days.
I prefer Miranda and Gtalk, nice simple GUI, compact program.
In fact, you could probably throw MyspaceIM in there too, but i'm not sure if they have changed it since last time i used it, so who knows.
Instead I use a free alternative that is stable and multi-platform.
http://www.pidgin.im/
I use Pidgin 2.5.5 right now(the only "stable" version I've seen) but I'm looking to switch to something else before I move to Windows 7. I'll give this Astra a try, though it looks really ugly.
- by s_cozart September 1, 2009 1:20 PM PDT
- Pidgin FTW. Absolute solid performer at all times, both at work on Windows and at home on Linux.
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