Adium

Last updated
Adium
Developer(s) Adium team
Initial releaseSeptember 28, 2001
(22 years ago) (2001-09-28) [1]
Stable release 1.5.10.4 (April 27, 2017;6 years ago (2017-04-27)) [±]
Preview release 1.5.11hgr5899 (January 15, 2015;9 years ago (2015-01-15)) [±]
Repository
Written in Objective-C, Cocoa API
Operating system macOS
Available inmultilingual [2]
Type Instant messaging client
License GNU General Public License
Website www.adium.im   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Adium is a free and open-source instant messaging client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including XMPP (Jabber), IRC and more. In the past, it has also supported AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Adium is written using macOS's Cocoa API, and it is released under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later and many other licenses for components that are distributed with Adium.

Contents

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. [1]

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 has mostly been working 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". [3] Adium X 0.88 was the first version compiled as a universal binary, allowing it to run natively on Intel-based Macs.

In 2005, Adium received a "Special Mention" at the Apple Design Awards. [4]

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, [5] 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. [6]

On November 4, 2014, Adium scored 6 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. It lost a point because there has not been a recent independent code audit. [7]

From March 2019, Adium is no longer able to support the ICQ plugin.[ citation needed ]

Protocols

Adium supports a wide range of instant messaging networks through the libraries libezv (for Bonjour), STTwitterEngine (for Twitter), and libpurple (for all other protocols).

Adium supports the following protocols:

Plugins and customization

Adium makes use of a plug-in 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.

Icon

The icon of Adium is a green duck named Adiumy. It is also the mascot of the software. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 "Adium1xChangelog". The Adium Project. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  2. ↑ "Adium - About". The Adium Project. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "History Of Adium". The Adium Project. Archived from the original on 2009-08-06. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
  4. ↑ Cohen, Peter (10 June 2005). "WWDC: Apple Design Award 2005 winners announced". MacWorld. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "Mac Pro - Performance: Science and technical computing". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on 28 August 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
  6. ↑ "Mac Pro - Performance: Science and technical computing". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on 17 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
  7. ↑ "Secure Messaging Scorecard. Which apps and tools actually keep your messages safe?". Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2014-11-04. Archived from the original on 2016-11-15. Retrieved 2015-01-16.
  8. ↑ "Adium/Twitter broken with 1.5.10, but the latest 1.5.11-nightly fixes the problem". trac.adium.im. 2015-03-05. Archived from the original on 2015-03-25.
  9. ↑ "Adium - About". adium.im. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
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