Adium

Screenshot [show]
Developer(s)	Adium team, with Thijs Alkemade as Lead Developer and Eric Richie as Project Manager, created by Adam Iser
Initial release	September 2001
Stable release	1.5.6 (March 18, 2013; 3 months ago)
Preview release	1.5.7b2 (June 18, 2013; 3 days ago)
Written in	Objective-C, Cocoa
Operating system	Mac OS X
Available in	multilingual
Type	Instant messaging client
License	GNU General Public License
Website	www.adium.im

Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ and XMPP. It is written using Mac OS X's Cocoa API, and it is released under the GNU General Public License and many other licenses for components that are distributed with Adium.

History

Adium was created by college student Adam Iser, and the first version, "Adium 1.0", was released in September 2001 and supported only AIM. The version numbers of Adium since then have followed a somewhat unusual pattern. There were several upgrades to Adium 1.0, ending with Adium 1.6.2c.
At this point, the Adium team began a complete rewrite of the Adium code, expanding it into a multiprotocol messaging program. Pidgin's (formerly "Gaim") libpurple (then called "libgaim") library was implemented to add support for IM protocols other than AIM – since then, the Adium team mostly works on the GUI. The Adium team originally intended to release these changes as "Adium 2.0". However, Adium was eventually renamed to "Adium X" and released at version 0.50, being considered "halfway to a 1.0 product". Adium X 0.88 was the first version compiled as a universal binary, allowing it to run natively on Intel-based Macs.
After version Adium X 0.89.1, however, the team finally decided to change the name back to "Adium", and, as such, "Adium 1.0" was released on February 2, 2007.
Apple Inc. used Adium X 0.89.1's build time in Xcode 2.3 as a benchmark for comparing the performance of the Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 Quad, and Adium 1.2's build time in Xcode 3.0 as a benchmark for comparing the performance of the eight-core Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 Quad.

Protocols

Adium supports a wide range of IM networks through the libraries libezv (for Bonjour), MGTwitterEngine (for Twitter), and libpurple (for all other protocols).
Adium supports the following protocols:

• XMPP (including Google Talk, Facebook Chat, and LiveJournal services)
• OSCAR (including AIM, ICQ, and MobileMe services)
• MSNP (Microsoft Messenger service, commonly known as MSN, .NET, or Live)
• YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger, USA & Japan)
• Twitter
• Bonjour
• IRC
• MySpaceIM
• Novell GroupWise
• Lotus Sametime
• Gadu-Gadu
• Skype with a plugin
• QQ with a plugin
• Steam chat with the "Steam IM" plugin
• Xfire with the "XBlaze" plugin
• MeBeam with a plugin
• NateOn with a plugin
• Tlen with a plugin

Plugins and customization

Adium makes use of a plugin architecture; many of the program's essential features are actually provided by plugins bundled inside the application package. These plugins include functionality such as file transfer, support for the Growl notifications system, Sparkle for program updates, and support for encrypted messaging with the Off-the-Record Messaging library.
Adium is also highly customizable through the use of resources its developers call "Xtras". The program can be customized by the use of hundreds of third-party Xtras that alter the appearance of emoticons, dock icons, contact list styles, and messages styles. Adium can also be enhanced through the use of different sound sets. AppleScripts can also be utilized to automatically alter behavior in responses to certain triggers.