AIM Triton Is Out And Buddies Are Hating It

If you are like most people, there are a couple programs you can't live/work without. For me it's my web browser, Outlook, Winamp and AIM. I usually have all those things running on the side/in the background while I go about my daily job. So being a tech head, whenever there is a new version of any of my favorite software programs, of course I have to check it out and upgrade. That is unless it's AIM. I've been using an old version of the AIM client 5.4 for a year or more now. Since the 5.4 version release, there have been a ton of upgrades, all of which I passed over due to the "bloatware" factor - bloated software, software with that contains more crap than substance. It pretty much defines AOL and AIM.

With the recent release of America Online's newest Instant Messaging client, Triton, many are beginning to wonder if the company will force the upgrade on its users. With random outages and many people reporting they are unable to connect to the service, forums are beginning to fill up with questions regarding a possible required upgrade. AIM Triton was released just weeks ago, but already the program has many users turning a cold shoulder to it. With its fancy new interface and loads of new features, the company is still facing criticism from users. Most complaints stem from the integration of AOL's Internet Browser into the client to the amount of processes Triton runs. The version of choice seems to be AIM 5.9, which notably is still available for download via AOL's website www.aim.com. However, the question still remains - will America Online continue to support their 5.x platform or force users to upgrade?

Out of any company, AOL is notorious for releasing bloated software. AOL is despised so much with the tech world, that many would rather dump their entire system in the trash rather than install any AOL related piece of software on it...and rightfully so. However, if you know some "hack arounds" to AIM, then you can get it pretty stripped down and stable to use. So why go to all that trouble just to use AIM, why not go with an alternative Instant Messaging client? Well if you want to connect to the largest group of people, then you are almost forced to use AIM. The number of AIM users far surpasses the number of members from Yahoo and MSN combined. It's sort of like P2P software. You may hate the software, but darn it if you have to use it anyway because if you want to reach the largest audience, you have to use the most popular software to do it. Now of course you could use something like Trillian to connect to all the IM servers, but that's another post topic in itself.

So my suggestion is to tread carefully if you decide on upgrading to AIM Triton. I hear it's more bloated than ever and honestly, that fact alone makes want to steer clear of installing it on any of my systems. For now, I'll stick with my old school trusty version of AIM - minus the bloatware. Think twice about pushing the upgrade on your buddies too. They might end up hating you for it later when their computer becomes overrun with AOL ridden crap. Consider yourself warned.