ICQ client - SIM alternative
 

Hello.

I'm looking for replacement of sim-im icq client. (Reason: development stopped). Can you recommend something?

Requirements:
1) compact gui. (I hate huge icons in pidgin)
2) support of cp1251, koi8-r and utf8 locales without problems. (in GAIM other people often couldn't see my messages at all due to encoding problems). Should support utf8<=>cp1251 and utf8<=>koi8-r communications without problems.
3) Works after recent protocol changes (pidgin refuses to connect after that)
4) Doesn't have problem with offline message encoding. (If I receive message that was sent to me when I was offline, it often has broken encoding in SIM, sometimes sim even crashes, and I don't get message at all).
5) Can handle utf-8 system locale without any problems.
6) don't allow simultaneously running multiple instances.
7) Supports unlimited history.
8) Ideally, should work through http-proxy.
9) I don't need many protocols. Icq+Jabber is enough, as long as it works without problems. Icq-only client is good enough.
10) Should start instantly, within split-second.

I tested several ICQ other clients (licq, gaim, pidgin, centericq) during last year, but they all have some kind of problems (centericq were accidentally printing garbage to screen, pidgin can't connect to server, etc). I also was thinking about Java ICQ client (cross-platform), but it looks like it is available only for cellphones.

So what can you recommend?

I don't use ICQ, so I can't tell you what works and what doesn't, but have you tried Kopete?? It comes with KDE located under Internet. It is a similar program to pidgin where it supports many protocols. And AFAIK it will use KDE's internet connection which can use a proxy.

My suggestion was going to be centericq, as I use centerim and absolutely love it. Note that Gaim is now known as Pidgin (despite Debian Etch still insisting on installing old versions of Gaim).

I found this link to a list of ICQ clients. I hope you can find something helpful there.

:D

Kopete can't use proxy at all. At least, not in KDE 3.5.9. See here. I'll take a look at it anyway...

centericq had a habit of printing hexadecimal messages on the screen sometimes (in yellow color, they were received either as messages or authorization requests).

I saw this list, but the problem is that it's unclear when this was created. Some of software mentioned there is really old (ickle - last release is 2002, micq site don't exist anymore, and SIM is said to have 0.9.2 version, while latest 0.9.4.3 is at least year old), they also don't mention pidgin. I suspect this list is several years old, and the only alternative to sim here is licq.

I have heard of users getting bumped off of ICQ for not using the ICQ-sponsored client, and I feel the need to ask if that is also another reason why you are worried about using an abandoned project?

Personally, if none of these suit your need, why not just use sim-im until it runs its course?

Last year was a long time ago and lots have changed. I'd give pidgin another try :)

Simple. SIM has few bugs I don't like. They annoy me and sometimes I lose (sometimes very important) messages because of them. Since development is stopped those bugs won't be ever fixed (It's unlikely that I'll attempt to fix them myself).

SIM-im development has not stopped as far As I know. They just are not releasing that many tarballs. The current development is at 0.9.5_SVN. What version are you using that has these ICQ bugs?

Eric

I'm using 0.9.4.3

About "not stopped":
http://sim-im.org/wiki/Goal