What the heck is Trillian Astra?
Trillian is a multi-protocol instant messenger. Unlike AIM or Yahoo! Messenger, which only let you chat with their own users, Trillian’s Basic version lets you chat with and call AIM, ICQ, Windows Live, Yahoo!, and IRC users all from the same messenger. Pro ($25) users can also connect to Jabber/Google Talk, Skype, Bonjour, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Sametime, GroupWise, and Xfire via plugins and get the ability to call them with your webcam. But Trillian has been long plagued with one major stopper: lack of support for any operating systems except Windows. Macintosh users have been forced over to Adium, while Linux users refuse to run Trillian through Wine and stick to open-source alternatives like Pidgin. But now, Trillian is working a new (invite-only) product called Trillian 4 (codenamed: Astra), which boasts mobile and iPhone versions, a new contact list, new skins, new messaging protocols (MySpaceIM, Google Talk, and Trillian’s own Astra protocol), better performance, a web versio
