I wonder if
adium will ever support Skype IM down the line? That would be fantastic.
both skype and iChat have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are minor. I dont think one is superior enough over the other to recommend really. I think use whichever one you have the most buddies on, which sounds like Skype.
I prefer iChat myself, but my reasons are very small and personal, and may not be relevant to you.
The little things that I like about iChat:
- It's light weight. Not that skype is much more resource hungry, but iChat is a little simpler. I'm not after fancy features.
- I love the fact that iChat lets you know when a user is typing their message.
- Perhaps the best (if little) feature of iChat for me, though, is the fact that you can embed an image in the message itself. That is, if I am talking about my dog, I can paste a picture of him in the picture above or below the text. In Skype and most other IMs, you have to send pictures over as a file transfer; the receiver has to download it to their desktop, then open it up, which is a pain. I send a lot of images over IM (usually instructional screen shots of my desktop to help my sister figure out how to use her new Mac) so this is a great feature for me. Me and my IM buddies also have a lot of fun with google images that way. For example, if I'm telling someone I am angry, I can do a quick Google images search for "angry" and drag and drop an amusing image to express my anger. OK, it's a little geeky and stupid, but it can be a laugh. This wouldn't work in Skype as having to save the image to the desktop and open it kind of kills the joke.
but overall I do find skype more stable in the sense that it rarely drops messages, and if it does, it will tell you. I have issues with iChat dropping messages quite a bit, though this may be an ISP issue.
Also, Skype has the icon of the dancing man, which is outstanding
