Worst OS X Tiger Application Award

As Leopard’s release date approaches, let’s take this opportunity to give the award for the worst Tiger OS X Application to iChat, the little app that could, but won’t.

iChat, The Little App That Could

iChat, in theory, could be far superior to other chat apps. iChat is undoubtedly the sleekest and sexiest looking of chat applications around and we really wouldn’t expect anything less from Apple.

The problem with those sleek and sexy promo pictures of the multiple participant video conferencing interfaces in full screen mode using your cute pre-loaded iSight is that this will never work for 99% of OS X users. For the mass of OS X users, iChat sits in the dock forever never getting to jump up and down like its other cute friends sitting next to it.

Why? Because iChat doesn’t chat with the majority of the rest of the world. If both you and your chat buddies or perspective business video conference clients don’t have a .Mac account, AIM or Jabber account, you can’t chat with iChat. Sure you can get any one of these types of accounts and make your iChat work flawlessly. But is that why you bought your Mac, to go hunting for ways to make stuff work?

iChat flies in the face of the “It Just Works” mantra.

Getting iChat To Work

Let’s see, .Mac account . . . give or take $100 per year. Methinks most happy Windows converts are saying no thanks, I just spent 2 or 3k on my computer and Apple wants me to pay an extra $100 a year for a separate account? .Mac insanity is a different story all together so we’ll leave that for another day.

AIM . . . AIM? AOL Instant Messenger? Are you kidding? You might be saying “I didn’t know they still had that!” They still have it. Anything AOL should have died out years ago when we all sold our shares at $90 (hopefully).

How about Jabber? Most of you are probably asking what is Jabber? In a nutshell, Jabber is a chat service that requires an account with a Jabber server. Jabber accounts are usually free, but often difficult to locate and configure.

For example, Google search for a tutorial about how to establish a Jabber account for iChat using “ichat jabber yahoo“. The first search result offers a tutorial, legitimate as it is, that will lead you to establish a Jabber account on a server in the Czech Republic so that you can eventually communicate via iChat.

I’m serious about this. If you want to use iChat to communicate with Yahoo or MSN chat users via Jabber, you might end up having to store your Yahoo login and password on a server in the former Soviet Block.

Does that happy Mac user on the commercials want to admit iChat may require accounts on servers in foreign countries to enable the great features behind iChat?

Before the Jabber lovers slam us, sure, you can find Jabber servers elsewhere and some make you feel less dirty about leaving your Yahoo login and password on an unknown server. If you have a hosted website, you may even be able to enable Jabber to use as a part of your hosting package. This discussion is not about Jabber which actually works. Its about iChat, which doesn’t work very easily. Please direct your anger to iChat, not Buzz Droid.

The tutorial is a great tutorial, I had to use it myself and it works, but as the tutorial indicates, if you want to chat with MSN or Yahoo using iChat, you have to

• Download an additional app (Jabber client, iChat won’t help you setup a Jabber account)
• Open a Jabber account on a Jabber server
• Register your chat accounts with Jabber (storing logins and passwords with Jabber)
• Format Jabber screen names and add them to your Address Book
• And then, finally, setup iChat to use Jabber

Each one of those steps have several sub-parts that I didn’t mention. Mac guy sure as hell doesn’t tell you this on any commercial.

One thing’s for sure, you’re not getting iChat to work with your family and friends on Yahoo, MSN Messenger or anything else for that matter right of the box unless they are on a local network with another Mac using iChat or you have one of the three types of accounts already mentioned. Ain’t no way, ain’t no how.

Alternatives To iChat

Compare the intense process outlined above to get iChat working for Yahoo users with simply downloading Yahoo Messenger. It’s a no brainer. With Yahoo Messenger, download and you’re done. You will have to suffer through the ads but the app works and works quickly. The Yahoo information integration deluge of options can be over stimulating but at least you can chat with other Yahoo users on your Mac using Yahoo Messenger for Mac.

Adium is perhaps the best bet for any Mac OS X user who wants to chat with virtually anybody - Yahoo, Jabber, and MSN included. Adium is an open source alternative to iChat that basically offers everything iChat should. Adium has just been released as Version 1.0 and is a legitimate replacement for iChat in virtually every way.

Linux has a number of apps that support multiple chat protocols. A number of the linux apps allow you to communicate with other IM service chat users including Yahoo. Ekiga, Gyache, GAIM and Kopete to name a few will work, although you may have some video chat issues.

The inability of iChat to work with other services out of the box is ridiculous and a disservice to OS X users. Other chat apps are able to interface with Yahoo and MSN, why not iChat?