OStatic

Adium, an open-source instant-messaging client for OS X, has released its latest version (1.3). Adium, like the Pidgin IM client, makes it possible to use a single IM program, rather than run multiple clients simultaneously for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and several other networks. Adium's latest release includes support for the Facebook IM client, providing desktop access to this otherwise Web-only communications channel.

The instant messaging world became just a little more open on Wednesday when AOL released Open AIM 2.0. Some of the requirements attached to the release might still turn off open source developers, though.

The first release of Open AIM was in 2006, but that release was missing some vital documentation -- specifically, for the core protocols that work with the AIM backend. Now, theoretically, developers can write libraries/clients that authenticate and communicate just like AOL's official client without having to decipher the protocol first.