My daughter is hassling me to install "MSN", which I worked out was actually now Microsoft's "Live" IM client. I'm deeply suspicious of any Microsoft application that connects to the Internet and wonder if there is a safe[r] alternative (i.e., one that makes it harder for her "friends" to infect my PC ), that allows her to communicate with friends using MSN.

I personally never use IM (well, back in 1978 I used Unix "talk"), and have no clue about this field. I looked up Wikipedia and found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...ssaging_clients

From that, it appears Pidgin might be a good bet -- is it safe; does it work? Or alternatives?

Pidgin works fine.

yes, use Pidgin, or MirandaIM, or (if she only uses MSN Messenger) aMSN

my 2 cents on this:
The only problem you might run into with any non-native (to the protocol) client is, no webcam support. Which probably is a major feature to most users.

Well, I don't have a webcam, and wouldn't want my daughter to be using one anyway. So that's a plus.

Actually, she wants to chat with friends while they're playing online games. And they all use MS's messaging.

I found that the web-chat portal Meebo.com does the job with the least impact on my PC.

just my $0.02 but why not allow your daughter to use MSN messenger? u can customize it a bit with A-Patch for MSN messenger.

this could be a good learning experience about the computer for her.. teach her to respect it & to not just show her webcam to just anyone, maybe a couple of her close friends when your there to supervise..

again just my .02 cents..but if she goes to a friends, im sure their parents wouldnt be close to supervise, so she has to learn sometime right? better to do it in the safety of the home but u dont even say how old she is, but my post was in refrence to a teenager.

anyways, good luck with your decision.. if i had to pick another IM client tho, it'd be trillian.

Is there a comparison of features among those alternative IM clients?

I.e. pidgin vs. miranda vs. trillian?

GL

I dont know how accurate it is but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...ssaging_clients

Unfortunately, there is no "complete" comparison of the main popular ones. A grid with basic features only says so much. Some work with more networks than others, others might be lacking specific features which may be important (or not all all) for you e.g. webcam. Or have advanced features which you might require (or not care for) too, like encryption plugins. Then again, those grids say nothing about the interface, the stability, or various issues with any of them.

Trillian wise, last time I've seen someone use it (on IRC) was a while ago, but it was pretty annoying. The screen colors chosen by the user were "hardcoded" as the colors sent (i.e. they chose black text, then it sends text with a black color code -- nobody with a black background sees any of it, same for white, etc). Every client has its issues I guess.

I'm happy with Pidgin myself. Not that I use it often...

Yeah, I was asking about that exactly.

I have used only Trillian so far and my impression is that it works good with text features of various IM protocols, but it's pretty quirky (insists on its own weird skins/interface; the programmers are probably preocupied with Astra and react slowly; video rarely works, if at all).

GL

She's 11, quite sensible and I'm not really worried about the perverts, but MSN Messenger, like all MS products, is a big fat target for every kind of malware and I don't want to open up another vector. Already she's always asking if she can download and install applications and games and she's sure they're safe because her (primary school) friends use them....

Eventually I'll have to get her her own PC, and let her trash it. She might then get some healthy paranoia. But currently she's using my PC, and I can't take any risks with that.

I encounter this every day when friends invite me to fix their computers or install apps (demanded by guess who? - their kids). That's the problem - kids will go after shiny things their friends have (or tell them they have) and there is no force that can stop them.

What I do is scare them off (not actually scare, just exaggerate the risks) and fortunately they listen to me because they see I'm far more experienced with computers than their moms/dads. Or is it that thing when they listen to others more than their parents? I guess it depends on the parent/child relationship... All I can say is - good luck!

GL

I researched Pidgin and MirandaIM more and it seems they also have poor video support (if at all). I guess it comes down to closed/unfriendly protocols of individual IMs.

Also, here's another thread on this subject.

GL

@TC

You just don't trust anybody, do you?

If you dont wanna intall anything https://www.meebo.com is good