Good Open Source, Multi-Platform, Secure IM Client? 308
Phil O. writes "I work for a company with 30+ locations across North America. Some offices have hundreds of employees; some only a dozen. We're looking for a secure, multi-platform IM client we could implement across the organization. One group is pushing for Microsoft's solution, but it has a number of drawbacks (including cost). What other options are out there, and what has worked well in similar situations? Security is a big concern for the company."
There is only one true IM client (Score:1, Funny)
talk [wikipedia.org]
Re:skype (Score:5, Funny)
Read? Who reads anything on here? I only post.
Re:There is only one true IM client (Score:5, Funny)
talk requires a terminal that can handle curses (vt100 or similar). This creates a barrier that's simply too cumbersome. I would suggest using write instead.
If encryption is needed, I would suggest rot13. For double encryption, rot26 can be used. Or, you could do what they did in WWII and "encrypt" by using an obscure language that few outsiders are likely to be able to decode. Since getting your coworkers to learn Navajo is probably out of reach, I suggest Pig Latin.
Really, I think the submitter is making this harder than it needs to be.
Re:skype (Score:5, Funny)
next time try to read more than just the title
But my "Slashdot User's Handbook" says I'm not supposed to!
Anyway, I was wondering if there was any papers or anything to follow up that post. Something that would move it from speculation to truth. There's some papers in the comments linking to notes about obfuscating against reverse engineering. The last sentence just said the Austrians claim they can easily listen into the conversations.
Re:skype (Score:5, Funny)
But my "Slashdot User's Handbook" says I'm not supposed to!
Ha! Nobody's read the handbook!
Re:Multi-platform (Score:5, Funny)
What do you mean? It runs on both kinds of computer, XP and Vista.
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone know a news site for nerds, something with stuff that matters?
CenterIM is the way (Score:5, Funny)
I use CenterIM, formerly called CenterICQ.
It's ncurses based, so it runs in any real computation environment. It supports Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, IRC, Google Talk, Live Journal, RSS feeds and more!
It's a wonderful client, tiny footprint, and it runs where programs belong, on the command line!
Re:skype (Score:5, Funny)
Holy crap! You're a genius!
Tomorrow I'm going to go to the office and disguise the server rack as a refrigerator. Then my data will truly be safe, because even if a hacker does get in, he'll never believe there's any valuable data in a cheese sandwich.
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe try digg [digg.com]?