Everybody knows that MSN Messenger on Mac is never as polished as it is on the PC. Still, that doesn't mean you should give up chat clients altogether, as the Mac offers excellent alternatives, like Adium X.

This messaging client is the perfect example of an excellent open source program. It's very regularly updated and has a strong and active community. Adium X works with almost all the IM services you'll find out there, including Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.

The interface is simple yet colorful and multiple chats can be tabbed all into one window. If you want to engage in a private conversation with another user, Adium X support Off The Record (OTR) encrypted messaging.

As I said before, Adium X has generated an active community, which generates all sorts of extras for the client like icons, sounds, plugins or applescripts.

True, file transfer is a little flaky, and Adium X still doesn't offer voice or video chat, but it's very enjoyable to use and extremely flexible.

Adium X is a free and highly customizable IM client, that allows you to connect to almost any online chat service and engage in multiple conversations simultaneously.

Download Adium X 1.3 in Softonic

Slideshows are one of the best ways to add colour and life to a photo collection no matter what the subject matter.

Slideshow Magic is aimed at both home users and business professionals who want to impress friends or colleagues with their photo slideshow creations. Best of all, it doesn't require the viewer to have the program installed as all slideshows can be saved in any QuickTime compatible format.

The easy to use interface is somewhat like that of a video editor allowing you to add music or audio tracks either for the whole slideshow or just specific segments. You can add some impressive transitions and titles much in the same way as you do with Windows Movie Maker for example. The program also features a useful guide to help you get your photos online or burnt to DVD. However, unfortunately the program doesn't provide either it's own webspace or burner for uploading and saving photos. For uploading, you'll need an FTP client and web host and for burning, a third party burner such as Nero.

In addition, although it's a cross platform application, sharing with other platforms requires some form of network solution between clients (although this needn't be something complicated - a program like MSN Live Messenger is enough

Slideshow Magic is a relatively cheap but powerful way to get your photos either online or burnt to DVD.

Download Slideshow Magic 5.0.5 in Softonic

Conversation is a free and unassuming IRC client mainly aimed at users with little technological knowledge. The friendly interface and simple set up make for a good chat client to start out with.

Conversation lets you connect to multiple servers, as long as you have your user name and password. You can keep more than one conversation open at once and organize your contacts in groups. Like in other IRC clients, Conversation has simple drag and drop file transfer, emoticons and lets you customize your profile.

Conversation is supposedly aimed at newbies, so I was a bit surprised to find advanced features like XDCC or a customizable search box, which not all people will know how to handle.

Conversation is enjoyable to use, yet I wouldn't say it's more intuitive than MSN Messenger or iChat. Rather than going for it because it's aimed at beginners, I'd give it a try if you feel satisfied with the set of features.

An accessible IRC client, Conversation is a good alternative app for chatting.

Download Conversation 2.14 in Softonic

Remember how messenger used to be so popular only a few years back? Now it seems most people prefer to chat with friends on social networks like Facebook. Not only can you much more things, but most of them also include a built chat tool, that replaces the need for an IM client.

Gabtastik is a site specific browser (SSB) built so you can use these online chat services in a separate window. To translate: Gabtastik lets you use online chat services just like if they were separate applications.

The interface is clean and Gabtastik lets you open up multiple chats in multiple tabs. So far it only works with Google Talk, Facebook Chat and meebo. If you use an iPhone you'll probably be interested in learning that it also handles the Hahlo iPhone Twitter webapp.

Gabtastik uses very little RAM and its nice having all these online chat services in a separate window, instead of hidden away between various tabs of your browser. Obviously it's only limited to certain services, but if you use meebo, you'll have access to many more like MSN or ICQ.

Gabtastik lets you use online chat services in your very own browser window.

Download Gabtastik 0.4.1 in Softonic

aMSN is an alternative to the classic MSN Messenger, with more features yet a much weaker interface. The chat client looks very similar to Microsoft's product yet differs on a number of points. aMSN developers have delved into the preferences menu, adding extra little features like event alerts and sounds, conferencing support or autoaway messages. Like with MSN Messenger you'll be able to transfer files and organize all your contacts into groups.

Audio/Video support is the number one function that users look for in IM clients nowadays, yet an area which aMSN doesn't particularly focus on. Webcam support is fairly weak and unstable, and instead of integrating into your chat window will open up in a new Quicktime window.

One of the biggest pet peeves of users with aMSN is the interface. It simply doesn't compare with more sleeker, more recent IM clients. To the developer's defense though you can download all sorts of skins from the program's website. Similarly it offers up a range of plugins, to customize your client to your liking. Chat addicts will also appreciate the animated emoticons on hand.

In terms of performance, you have to keep in mind that aMSN is still a Beta product, so still liable to some crashes and bugs. We did have some trouble when opening up new chat window and noticed that the client tended to use a lot of CPU.

In a few words, aMSN is a good alternative to MSN for users looking to add more plugins, skins and delve into the preferences menu.

Download aMSN 0.97 Final 2 in Softonic

The highly awaited new version of Messenger for Mac is finally out. While it keeps a slightly similar interface and same set of features, Messenger for Mac comes with some extra features.

You will still have to sign in using your hotmail or Windows Live account. Once installed, you'll see Microsoft Messenger 7 offers a slightly updated interface, yet overall very similar to that of version6. Messenger now offers Bonjour support, so you can detect and connect with users on the same local network as you. Features like sending files, displaying a picture or emoticons are unchanged. You can change your display name and add a personal message just by clicking on them. One new feature is that you can give nicknames to your friends. Just click on their display name and start typing. We also liked the search feature, which is really handy to quickly find a contact or email address.

It's obvious that this upgrade is aimed at corporate users as they get the most significant updates though. The highly touted audio and video feature, with which you can have videoconferences with your contacts, is only available to them. The same goes with detailed presence information, as you'll need a version of Office Communications Server 2007 to use it.

Corporate users will love the new features in Messenger for Mac 7, like Bonjour Support, detailed presence information and especially audio and video. Personal users will find barely anything different from version 6.

Download Messenger for Mac 7.0.1 in Softonic

Mercury Messenger, also known as MM or dMSN, is a free alternative to MSN Messenger offering almost all the same features.

The IM client allows you to connect to your live or hotmail account and chat with your contacts. You can organize them by groups, use emoticons, send files and activate your webcam during chats. The interface itself is highly similar to that of MSN Messenger albeit a much less attractive one. I found that the different elements are placed a little clumsily here and there, making Mercury Messenger slightly unintuitive. Luckily the interface is interchangeable so if you find a good skin you can use that instead.

A big difference with MSN Messenger is RSS support. Mercury allows you to add and preview RSS feeds. I was a little skeptic of the idea at first, as I much prefer previewing RSS feeds on a whole screen, however I found it very similar to feed reading on a mobile device, which works in some way. Mercury Messenger has a tabbed interface which allows you to open and work with multiple accounts. Beware that having too many open simply ends up confusing though.

Although missing the most recent features of MSN Messengers and despite a weaker interface, Mercury Messenger is a good alternative with RSS and multiple account support.

Download Mercury Messenger 1.9 in Softonic

Every now and then you need clean your Mac and get rid of cookies, logs or history. It'll ensure that your Mac isn't clogged with obsolete files and runs smoothly.

Mac Cleanse is a shareware program mainly focused on cleaning internet applications, like browsers. It provides a list of the applications you can clean, and clicking on a a name will open up a drop down menu of the elements you can check for deletion, such as cookies, downloads, or recent searches. The right side of the interface features an information panel with a description for the selected application, something which isn't really necessary.

We were a little confused by the way Mac Cleanse worked. The + and - buttons on the left won't let you add more applications to the cleanse list. Instead these let you create or remove custom selections of the applications in the list. The 'cleanse' button isn't very apparent either. You'll find it on the bottom right of the interface.

The good thing about Mac Cleanse though is that it lets you select and clean multiple applications quickly and safely, saving you lots of time.

Despite the slightly counterintuitive interface, Mac Cleanse is efficient at cleaning up multiple internet applications at once.

Download Mac Cleanse 1.1.7 in Softonic

Adium is already a popular instant messaging application for Mac offering as it does access to multiple protocols and accounts. You can use it to connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Jabber and other chat services all at the same time, meaning you only need one chat program open for all your different accounts.

In this special mobile bundle, the application is designed to be placed on your portable device (e.g. USB key, iPod, portable hard disk etc) so that you can run it on any Mac you like. Simply connect your portable device and run the program directly from it: all your profile and account info are stored on your device, meaning there's no need to set-up your client on each new machine you use.

The design, implementation and performance of this version of Adium are just as great as on the normal version. The only thing I'd question is just how useful the portable version would be: between work and home it could serve as handy but with very few internet cafés opting for Macs, it might prove less useful for travellers and students.

Download Portable Adium 1.2.2 r4.0 in Softonic

The older version of Messenger, 4.0.1, still remains a top download on Softonic, even though it's been superseded by the newer Microsoft Messenger 6.0.3. This version will be useful for those of you that still have any Mac OS under 10.3.9. Fitted with all the basic functions you'd expect of Messenger, the application lets you organize your contacts in different groups, set your status and use emoticons. New conversations open up in a new window, which you can move around anywhere on the screen.

While it's fairly easy to check your Hotmail account thanks to the mail button at the top of the interface, we found that sending files and images to other users can be a bit slow. MSN Messenger can fairly be used as basic IM client, we still recommend updating to the latest version, for those of you that can. Not only is it more secure, but it will also offer more features and a sleeker interface.

A good and basic IM client for anyone with a Mac OS under 10.3.9.

Download MSN Messenger 4.0.1 in Softonic

Nakido Flag is a plugin which allows you to share your files to many people with just one right click. Simply email the Nakido download link to your friends or share it in ICQ, Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, blogs and forums, and your files will get to thousands of people instantly.

Download Nakido Flag 0.98 in Softonic

Fire is a multi-protocol internet Instant Messaging client based on freely available libraries for each service. It is released under the GNU GPL. All services are built off of GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libicq2000, libmsn, jabber, and libyahoo2 (Linux libraries). Fire can handle similtaneous connections to AIM®, ICQ®, Yahoo!®, IRC, MSN® and Jabber. Fire is not affiliated with AOL-Time Warner, Microsoft or Yahoo!®.

Download Fire 1.5.6 in Softonic

Mac Messenger is an open-source MSN Messenger client for Mac which features Emoticons, Auto-messages, many customizable options, emoticon bar and much, much more! It is being developed with REALbasic 5.5

Download Mac Messenger 3.5.4 in Softonic