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List:       jabber-jadmin
Subject:    Re: [jadmin] Jabber clients
From:       "William E. Kempf" <wekempf () cox ! net>
Date:       2003-05-21 14:54:24
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Jeremy Lunn said:
> On Tue, May 20, 2003 at 11:29:13AM -0400, jabber@brevo.com wrote:
>> RhymBox is IMHO the best client for the end-user. Futhermore, it's
>> installation is painless and download size is about 2Meg.
>>
>> There is also a file transfer feature, plugin support (RSS feeds,
>> etc.).
>
> Has RhymBox got a dock applet yet?

Dock applet?

>  I find users are too used to closing
> the window expecting the IM program to keep running.

This works in 1.6 at least.

>  Until RhymBox has
> solved that I guess I'll continue to recommend Psi.  The other problem
> is that RhymBox isn't really open source and it runs like a hog.

RhymBox includes source.  Of course, it's based on ATEClient, which
doesn't appear to be open source.

As for running like a hog... it runs very well for me.  It does appear to
take about 7.8 MB of ram.  That seems fairly large for something as simple
as a chat program, to me at least... but Psi appears to take 7.5 MB as
well.  Exodus hits 8 MB.  So I don't see any reason to label RhymBox as a
"hog".  I like the UI for RhymBox more than most of the others.  It's
sleek and professional looking, while remaining easy to use.  Psi I find
to be gaudy.  Exodus isn't bad in looks, but a lot of it is non-intuitive
on use.  I've also looked at MyJabber, Yabber, an Rival. Here's my remarks
on all of these.

Exodus:
  Pros:
    Full featured. Plugin architecture (but where are the plugins?). Clean
interface.
  Cons:
    Many functions are not very user friendly (such as having two ways to
register with transports, with the easiest method to find being the
most difficult to actually use, requiring you to know what transports
are available, and what they are named on the server).  Buggy.  Just
yesterday two of us experienced repeated "access violation" errors
that did not halt the program.  Unfortunately, just clicking on the
menu would cause another access violation, which again, did not bring
the app down, which resulted in a trip to TaskManager to get rid of
it.  Another CON is that it's programmed in a proprietary language. 
Not many developers will have access to Delphi.

RhymBox:
  Pros:
    Very, *very* clean interface.  This is what an IM client should look
like.  Intuitive interface.  From a usability stand point, this one
stands above all the others.
  Cons:
    Unfortunately, there are a few bugs, but none of them have caused a
crash thus far and can be worked around.  Only been running it for two
days now, but this is my current client of choice.

Psi:
  Pros:
    Full featured.
  Cons:
    The UI is so gaudy, I didn't give it much more of a chance.

MyJabber:
  Pros:
    Full featured.  Fairly clean interface.
  Cons:
    Missing some bells and whistles features.  Definately buggy. 
Experienced several crashes using this one.

Yabber:
  Pros:
    Full featured.  Very good design.  This one ranks second for me on
look and feel.  Some of the things I disliked could easily be
accounted for with a few more preference settings.  The author has
published a design guide at http://www.yabber.org/design/, which is
something all Jabber client authors should read!
  Cons:
    Buggy.  This is alpha software, and it shows.  Several crashes, as
well as other bugs that I'd consider show stoppers.  For instance,
"always on top" functionality seems to be coded the hard way, which
results in the window "jumping" back to the top after being obscured
by another window, which is jarring.  Worse yet, some of it's own
windows/menus become obscured and unusable when this feature is
enabled.

Rival:
  Pros:
    Nice looking interface.
  Cons:
    Minimal functionality.  Appears to be a pre-alpha release to me.


We're using Jabber as a corporate solution, so we need a bug free client
(within reason, of course).  We also want a clean interface that doesn't
lack in functionality.  Finding this ideal client has certainly not been
easy. :(

-- 
William E. Kempf


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