Google Talk - The IM for Programmers

[haskell]

So, I've been a GTalk user for a while now, and I have come to deeply appreciate its uses for speaking to other Programmers. Which is why I think you guys should know all about it. Being fellow programmers and all.

Google Talk Pros
--------------------
1. Crazy Copy&Paste space. I have pasted entire webpages into one message. Making it perfect for sharing code and such(or webpage content O.o). To get a glimpse, I have pasted a full Google search webpage in one message around 6-8 times for one message.
2. Minimalist. Isn't flashy and annoying.
3. Hackable. You can have multiple instances, change the window colour and etc... all from command line arguments! I am currently working on syntax highlighting for it.
4. Text Formating. Copy&Paste this: *I rox in bold blue*
5. Not by Microsoft

Cons
--------------------
1. Not widely used

You need a Google Account to use Google Talk. Which you can get here

You can get Google Talk here

You can add me on GTalk if you want to see it in action(see my sig).

Thanks for viewing, and please post comments and such. I don't want my opinion to be the be-all-end-all... The alpha and the omega. Etc...

[[Gandalf]]

haskell wrote:

The alpha and the omega.

And theta?

I believe we had two topics on Google Talk in the past...
Here and here.

Anyway, the main thing I wanted to point out was that you can use GTalk with other IM clients which support multiple protocols, as seen here. Which allows you to use it when possible and not being limited by the user base.

[haskell]

Yep. They do that.

But they lack some of the pros of the official client(C&P). Thought the client isn't open source, or cross platform(yet), it is great.

Which is the point of the topic, the use of the GTalk client for distance Windows dev'ers.

[Andy]

how is "not from microsoft" a pro?

[rdrake]

Andy wrote:

how is "not from microsoft" a pro?

It's not buggy, bloated, and doesn't take longer than the space shuttle to fire up?

[Andy]

and msn messnger is?

i'm sick tired of so many people trash talking microsoft...

[haskell]

Microsoft is centered around itself(can't really blame the company).

Meaning it probably won't make its products for Mac and Linux(Web Messenger is cross-platform though). Making Microsoft "evil" in an open source advocate prospective(though Google isn't exactly a practitioner either). As well as in the non-Windows users eyes.

Making it a pro in context as a product to aid in the destruction of the evil company, which everyone secretly loves lol(like the Liberal party).

As crazy as it sounds, many people support it.

Plus it isn't really serious. I love Microsoft, and their wonderful .NET environment.

[Martin]

MSN messenger is hella bloated.

Nudges? Flash animations? A million buttons along the side? Multiplayer flash games? Come on, it's an IM client...

[Andy]

and it still only hogs 9mb of ram.

i dont know about you, but i actually use some of the winks, and play a few of the games at times. i think it works fine.

[md]

Andy wrote:

i dont know about you, but i actually use some of the winks, and play a few of the games at times. i think it works fine.

Smilies are portable to most clients, winks and nudges less so; games not at all.

It's a IM client though, imho there should be more support for IM protocols and less support for everything else imaginable. If I want games, I play games; if I want to talk to people I use IMs. Keeping the two seperate is generally speaking a good idea.

And yes, Microsoft is evil. However mostly they are evil for their business tactics; the state of their software is reprehensible, but not evil. Except Vista. Vista is completely and totally evil.

[haskell]

Their tactics were evil. Back around 98 with all the suing and legal battles. Bill Gates was in like every issue of Time back then lol...

[Tony]

Microsoft tactics aside, GTalk/Jabber simply connects me to the network first (even though I click on MSN to start connecting first)(I run them both through Adium, so this is network hookup time, not app loading). And I see more GTalk uptime than with MSN.

[rizzix]

haskell wrote:

Meaning it probably won't make its products for Mac and Linux(Web Messenger is cross-platform though).

Actually they do have Msn Messenger for mac and... it works just as good as their Office 2004 for mac osx. (which btw, is pretty good).. Either way I don't use it..

Adium rules.. heh

[Tony]

Well Mac MSN is couple of versions behind, and it's discountinued anyways.

[Craige]

As has already been said, a downside to Gtalk is it not being cross platform. It is forgivable though considering it is in beta, but I have not seem much effort from Google to make any of their software cross platform to date.

Gtalk does seem to be the programmers instant messenger though, just as Gmail has been, and still really is. The majority of the public doesn't know about the services, and thus it goes out to the programmers who are gathering all this information.

As far as my personal preference for IM's, I would have to say either AIM or Gtalk for their simplicity. As has been said, I don't want 2 million features in my instant messenger. That's not why I use it. All I really want is to be able to send instant messages, voice calls, video, files, and the option for smilies, though I often have them turned off on my end to keep from braking code sent in IM's.