Proteus (instant messaging client)

Infobox Software
name = Proteus



caption = Proteus in action
developer = Proteusapps
released = ?
frequently_updated = no, abandoned
programming language = Cocoa
operating system = Mac OS X
language =
genre = Instant messaging client
license = Proprietary with GNU General Public License imservices (see controversy)
website = [http://proteusx.org/ proteusx.org]

Proteus is a popular instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple protocols through the libpurple library. It is written using OS X's Cocoa API.

upported protocols

* OSCAR including AIM, ICQ and .Mac services
* Jabber
* .NET Messenger Service, commonly known as MSN
* Yahoo
* Bonjour
* Gadu-Gadu
* Lotus Sametime

ystem requirements

Proteus 4.20 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.Version 4.15b6 runs on 10.3.

History

Proteus was originally developed by [http://www.indigofield.com Justin Wood] , then in 2004 Defaultware took over development. As of August 2006, Proteus has changed hands and is no longer maintained by Defaultware. While no official announcement has been made, Proteus appears abandoned and the last post on the official blog is over a year old.

Design

Proteus's interface vaguely resembles that of Apple's Jabber and AIM client iChat, although iChat uses the standard Unified design incorporating brushed metal, while Proteus uses an older Aqua design theme that lacks brushed metal. However it has support for more types of networks than iChat, and can also group multiple conversations in one window using tabs. Proteus fails to support some features of the AIM network, such as embedded images, and has limited support for file transfers. It currently has no audio or video conferencing abilities.

Proteus uses libpurple to connect to multiple services. Libpurple is maintained by the Pidgin project. The Proteus developers work on the interface of Proteus, without working on the connections. Other projects, including competitors Adium and OpenWengo, also use libpurple.

Controversy

Proteus is based on the GPL licensed libpurple library. However, the developers do not share the source code for Proteus. The developers of Proteus claim that they are in compliance with the GPL by running an RPC-accessible daemon process to link to libgaim. As such, the developers have released the source code to the imservices module (their modified libgaim) while keeping the rest of their application proprietary. It is unclear whether this is a legal way to circumvent the GPL.

Privacy and Encryption

Proteus has presently no special privacy and encryption features. For those who just want/need some kind of privacy the Off-the-Record Messaging-proxy might be an option (presently only available for the OSCAR-Protocol as used within AIM, ICQ, .Mac).

ee also

*Comparison of instant messaging clients
*Comparison of IRC clients
*List of Jabber client software

External links

* [http://proteusx.org/ Proteus official site]

Reviews

* [http://mmg.channelwood.org/alternatives/proteus/proteus.html Mac Messenger Guide review (up-to-date)]
* [http://www.macworld.com/2005/04/reviews/imsoftware/index.php MacWorld review (outdated)]