which is the lightest instant messenger?

[kalos]

hello

can you tell me please the lightest instant messenger that supports MSN

thanks

[sri]

I know you are asking for s/w, but isn't using sites like www.meebo.com not an option for you?

[kalos]

mmm, thanks, but I wouldn't like to use a website for IM

[lanux128]

due to a problem with my router, i haven't used IM for a while. but i was very happy with Miranda IM, do give it a try. also check out this post about Miranda by brotherS.

[iphigenie]

i use pidgin - memory usage 2600k so not especially lightweight (can be made lighter through options i think, less protocols, for example). CPU usage unnoticeable

i used  miranda for a long time, its a fine product but too much hassle tweaking it all the time.

I do use meebo too and find it very handy

[Deozaan]

[EDIT] I have a similar question but in regard to GoogleTalk. [/EDIT]

I'm really fond of GoogleTalk because of it's minimalistic design. It doesn't have all that extra garbage/bloat like MSN or Y!IM. However, I've been increasingly displeased with the fact that for some reason it takes up 26MB of RAM.

But since GTalk is all I use anymore, I don't know if there are any other lighter IM clients that I can use my GTalk friends list.

Here are the features I'd like:

1. GTalk friends list.
2. Ability to log chats.
3. Ability to send files.

Anything much more than that is unnecessary, in my opinion.

[kalos]

Gtalk works with msn and yahoo protocol?

[muntealb]

The lightest IM that supports MSN is probably aMSN.

http://www.amsn-project.net/

You could try also Trillian, it can connect to the MSN network.

http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

[f0dder]

I'm really fond of GoogleTalk because of it's minimalistic design. It doesn't have all that extra garbage/bloat like MSN or Y!IM. However, I've been increasingly displeased with the fact that for some reason it takes up 26MB of RAM.

The official MSN Live, with all it's bloat, only uses 24megs of private bytes... it's working set is 40megs though, but again 'only' 21megs private WS. I normally use miranda, but (afaik) it doesn't support custom emoticons, which can make some conversations pretty hard to follow...

[Mark0]

I most always use the Jabber client integrated in Gmail  (so, Gtalk), since I have that page loaded all the time anyway. If I had a conversation that goes over a brief exchange, I just pop-out the chat Windos. If I have also to send somefiles, either I send via Gmail or fire-up Gtalk.

Bye!

[Lashiec]

The official MSN Live, with all it's bloat, only uses 24megs of private bytes... it's working set is 40megs though, but again 'only' 21megs private WS. I normally use miranda, but (afaik) it doesn't support custom emoticons, which can make some conversations pretty hard to follow...

Since 0.7.5 custom emoticons are supported, sometimes it fails to display them, although it also seems to depends of what engine you're using to format text in the message dialogs.

So, yeah, Miranda is one of the lightest, around 7-9 MB of usage out of the box. Mine uses around 16-21 MB, that's because of the plugins I have installed

[f0dder]

Lashiec: how do you enable them, though? I see that Miranda *downloads* those custom emoticons, and has for quite a while, but it doesn't display them - nor standard emoticons, for that matter. And the plugin jungle/sea is way too massive, imho... and while I like Miranda generally, it's a tad unstable at times,  especially the file transfer (which is insanely slow, too ).

[Lashiec]

Ah, yep, you also need SmileyAdd to show them.

[f0dder]

Thanks, mate!

Somebody ought to cut down the jungle a bit... and add automatic plugin updates to the core

[Lashiec]

Oh, there's a plugin for that as well

I hope that *someday* they will add some more functionality to the program, but I'm sure someone will complain "OH NOES, FEATURE BLOAT OMG!!!1111", there's always one guy who does not like smileys and automatic updates

[f0dder]

Smileys should definitely be optional, and I'm glad that miranda (with default message shower, whatever ) strips all the font+color crap from MSN. But a plugin updater would be a really nice core feature.

[Deozaan]

Gtalk works with msn and yahoo protocol?

Erm... Not that I'm aware of. I was just extending the original question to see if anyone knew of a really light IM client that supported GTalk. I've edited my post in an attempt to make that clearer.

[Mark0]

Erm... Not that I'm aware of. I was just extending the original question to see if anyone knew of a really light IM client that supported GTalk. I've edited my post in an attempt to make that clearer.

Since Gtalk is based on Jabber, you can choose any client that support the Jabber protocol.

[lanux128]

But since GTalk is all I use anymore, I don't know if there are any other lighter IM clients that I can use my GTalk friends list.

Here are the features I'd like:

1. GTalk friends list.
2. Ability to log chats.
3. Ability to send files.

Anything much more than that is unnecessary, in my opinion.

in addition to the answer given by Mark0, here are some links i found pertaining to the above questions.

1. Client Choice with Google Talk
2. Why isn't there a Send Files option for some of my contacts?
3. Does Google log chats from Trillian Pro?