Standalone instant messenger
 

I'm looking for a standalone instant messenger program for my data center employees. We don't need profile functions, nor are we looking for any of the web 2.0 features. Just IM will do.

Taki,
Every company I have worked for has just relied on AIM or Yahoo. Many of my customers also rely on AIM or Yahoo. Im not sure I know of any standalone ones, I am more fond of the fact that somebody else gets to run it while I get to use it.

Smart move on going the IM route...Many companies oppose the usage of IM but do not realise the productivity that gained in getting instant responses from co-workers. Some companies take it to an extreme though. When I worked for AOL, we of course used AIM for EVERYTHING! If a visitor came in to see me, the receptionist would actually IM me to tell me I have a visitor waiting in the lobby. I must admit, I do sometimes enjoy a phone call as opposed to typing a long winded answer to a question that will get the famous reaction of "huh?!"

I'm not found of typing when I can talk either. The push to talk fucntion of nextel has spoiled me I must admit. IM can include voice messaging as well. If the dang thng would not popup and take focus of my screen when I was doing something it would be perfect to use for just incoming voice messages.

My current company uses Jabber, or at least tried to push it onto everyone. There was reluctance to accept it because quite honestly AIM works just fine. They even went as far as trying to block the AIM ports but when they saw no one was using Jabber they unblocked the ports.

as for me jabber is really good.

Our company tried to use Spark, it’s free and can be used for virtual private networks but our company decided to stop using it because it became a “shout box” for everyone.

What's wrong with good old IRC :)

I like IRC nad jabber:)
You can use pidgin Pidgin, the universal chat client

You can go with either Jabber or AIM. Since you need less features regarding profiles and instant messaging jabber and AIM would be suitable for this. Many centers I came across use AIM for staff communication purposes.

No MSN fans? That's what we use extensively among our IT group. The latest version allows you to remain logged in on multiple computers, which I find handy so that I can keep it logged in on my desktop at home, desktop at work and both my home and work laptops. All of them will receive the IM at the same time.