Trillian dying?

[syntax01]

I really have to wonder if in some sense Trillian might be dying off? The company might be having financial troubles?

Developement on Trillian went at a rapid pace during the 2.x version, but now on the 3.x version, things seem to have stalled. Skins that were designed for 2.x, even official ones, have not been updated to the 3.x interface in a lot of instances.

A good number of 2.x skins will work, but with error messages about the skin being "incomplete" and "not working properly". Just check the date listed for the posting date of each skin on Trillian's main website for proof of this.

Also, i've seen both GAIM and Miranda(both freeware products) add or update plug-ins a dozen times over more often than Trillian has in this past year. I hope to see Trillian continue on, as it is my favorite multi client for IM. However, I've also noticed a good number of users (especially ones that paid for the pro version) becoming turned off by the lack of feature updates, bug fixes, or skin updates. You would think that as long as Trillian 3.x has been out, they would at least have a converter or something, that would let a user repackage 2.x skins to work on the 3.x client without errors.

I'm also left a bit puzzled by certain "issues" that have been known for some time in Trillian, that have yet to be addressed. There are still issues getting direct connections and file transfers to work over the AIM network, especially if your using Trillian and your friend is using AIM. The file transfer speeds over both AIM(when they work) and Yahoo are at a snails pace sometimes. Also, despite the fact that IM2 has this support for a long time now, so far Trillian only supports secure IM connections over AIM. IM2 offers this support via AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ already.

However, this is not to say that IM2 or GAIM or Miranda are beating trillian with a stick or anything, so far Trillian overall is still my favorite multi client. However, if IM2 gets direct IM connections working well as well as a few other limitations taken care of, I could see it easily being a big contender for Trillian.

[quietbritishjim]

The speed of skin at plugin updates at the official website is really disappointing, and I shudder to think how many other people it makes think the same thing you are... but the funny thing is there are loads of unofficial skin and plugin updates going on all the time. Here's the real source of Trillian stuff:

• Plugins: Trillian Civillians
• Skins & Emoticon packs: deviantArt
• Interfaces & Icon packs: thread on official Trillian boards

The third one also has some skins & emoticon packs, but not as many as deviantArt. In case you don't know, an icon pack changes the contact list icons (and the icons in the corner of message windows) and an interface changes the layout of a skin. Emoticon packs, interfaces and icon packs only work with some skins (known as flexible or "/stixe" skins).

The error messages you're talking about is because, although Trillian 2.0 skins should work on Trillian 3.x (as should all previous skins in fact), you won't be able to access the new video/voice chat features of Trillian 3, simply because the skins don't include buttons and stuff for them. I have to admit that I was rather disappointed to find my favourite Trillian 2 skin broke in Trillian 3 though but I'd made a few customisations to it, so maybe it was something I'd done wrong.

As for the rest of it, well, personally I've never had the troubles you describe. I guess encryption over MSN and Yahoo would be nice (it works on ICQ too btw) but I can think of plenty of other features I'd rather they did first.

[Annorax]

I've noticed this too. Trillian is definitely one of the better clients, though not my personal favorite as it is buggy, lacks features free competitors have, and the "support" forums are useless. Nonetheless, I would be sad to see it go, with some improvements it could dominate.