jabber instant messaging (jabber.org)

Member Name: kirjava

Product:	jabber.org
Date:	22/07/03 (296 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free (of cost as well as open-source), Inter-Connect Existing Instant Messaging Systems, Runs on many different platforms (windows , mac , linux , unix)

Disadvantages: Not that stable, Not that fully featured (yet), Little bit tricky to use (at first)

Jabber is an open-source XML instant messaging system that has a open server structure - anyone can run a jabber server and they all interconnect.

It has support for other major instant messaging protocols and has clients for most differet platforms (i.e. mac, windows, linux).
This is via transports , a plugin framework for the main jabber server that allows users to chat to users of MSN , ICQ , AIM and Yahoo! instant messengers.

Personally I have used the Exodus jabber client (http://exodus.jabberstudio.org/) under windows NT 5 (2000) and it is a little bit unstable , but has a nice user interface and dispite the lack on manual/help about it , I found it pretty easy to use.

You can use a tool called the "jabber roster utility' to import your contact list from you existing chat program (the 'roster' is the jabber name for contact list).

See www.jabber.org for more information on using jabber.

Summary: