I’ve recently come to the conclusion that inherently text based systems should be accessed through a console interface. At first that seem like a silly idea, until I quickly recall that I already use mutt for e-mail, slrn for newsgroups, and dict for dictionary definitions. So for those crazy neoluddites like myself who continue to use consoles, I want to tell you about instant messaging, and the use of such a technology through non-graphical interfaces. Read on for my experiences.

CenterICQ is a console instant messaging client that runs on Linux and uses the ncurses library. With the aid of screen and a remote, dedicated Linux box, I’m able to access AIM, Jabber, and a host of other protocols from a centralized location, irrespective of which machine I’m currently on. As a side effect, I’m also able to remain online even when all my systems are offline.

Common intuition might dictate that console applications are less intuitive and more difficult to navigate. This is hardly the case with CenterICQ. The client has a clean, window-driven interface that, in my opinion, is actually faster to use than a traditional graphical client. If you’re a Linux geek, I strongly recommend that you give CenterICQ a try. And if for some reason things just aren’t working out, then hey, there’s always naim.