Introduction

Many users admit they have their favourites when it comes to instant messengers, which you can compare to people's choice in coffee. With instant messaging becoming the “norm” on almost any given PC or even PDA for that matter, you’ll find what I like to call the usual suspects: ICQ, MSN Messenger, AOL Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger. Some users have been forced either by their co-workers, friends, or family to either load up a secondary instant messenger to keep in touch with them, or make the switch over to another instant messenger.

In some instances of having more than one instant messenger, can wreak havoc on a PC with limited resources. For the rest of us, it just turns our system trays into one convoluted mess. For those users who have friends on other instant messengers there’s really only one answer when you want to run an instant messaging system, and that is to run a universal instant messenger. Cerulean Studios has created such a product called "Trillian" which allows users to hook into the “usual suspects” with one application.

Cerulean Studio was started in Connecticut in 1998. Trillian first became available on the web in 2000. Cerulean Studios now offers up two versions of their popular alternative instant messenger: Trillian 0.74 and Trillian Pro 1.0. What’s the difference between the two? Well for one, the Trillian Pro 1.0 version is a paid download, while the other is free to download. For this review I’ll be focusing on the Trillian Pro 1.0 version to give you an insight as to what functionality is available in their latest version and whether it warrants users to download the paid product versus the free version.

Requirements

Operating System	Windows XP/2000/ME/98. Windows 95 requires the Winsock2 upgrade; some early Windows 98 installations may as well.
Hard Drive Space	15 MB Minimum.
Screen Resolution	640x480 Minimum. 800x600 Recommended.
Color Depth	8-bit Minimum. 16-bit Recommended.
Internet Connection	Yes, definitely.
Mouse or Pointing Devices	Yes.
Internet Browser	Internet Explorer 4.0+ optional.

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