Which multi-protocol IM-program would you recommend? i've been using trillian for a long time now, but i find the options in the free version both bloated and lacking, and i don't want to use a crack for pro, because it's a rather small company.
So, is gaim any good.... is miranda?

Enlighten me!

miranda. it's small, fast and supports just about everything.

I use Gaim, works great.

I'm running MSN and ICQ on miranda. It has all the features I need. Never have any problems with it.

Gaim, for me. It's nice, very bland look, functions well. Supports the few IM clients I use. Plus, it's open source. http://gaim.sourceforge.net

Since none of you other HEATHENS provided links.. =]

I'm a happy gaim user as well.

Miranda's good too, though I had issues transferring files on it... mind you that was a year or so ago, so I wouldn't be suprised if they've fixed those issues.

Miranda: http://www.miranda-im.org/
Simple, functional, opensource, no installation required.

I don't think it matters whether you use gaim or miranda unless you're running a Linux system, in which case miranda wouldn't work for you as it's Win32 only.

At first, I found Trillian to be huge and not very handy - found a pretty nice "mini" skin for it though, so now I'm actually enjoying it! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Wish it had more compatability with MSN's voice-chat and file-transfer systems...
Currently, I can only send files, not recieve them. O_o
But it's easy as heck to use! xD

I've tried both of them, and i like the fact i can install plugins for Miranda, and change pretty much everything, so does anyone have any good plugins?
Gaim seemed a bit hard to alter to my tastes... for instance: i hated the large buttons and all that.
Oh well, i'm just hard to please, i guess.

i like trillian, a lot. Apart from not being able to organize buddy lists after they are in a group, its rad.

I used a couple for OSX, that did irc, msn, yahoo, aim, icq, ect that was pretty buggy and crappy at the time, it may have gotten better.

ive been working on a 'not so fucking obnoxious' skin, ive found one that suits me for now though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

been a trillian user for ages now.. pretty happy with it.. i dont use any extraneous features, though, just usin it as a basic IM program for across the board.

Plugins? I cannot think of a single feature I'd want in addition, but there seem to be some 200 plugins available on the site...