Efforts to Save ICQ and Other Instant Messenger Services
Multiple independent efforts are underway to save ICQ from extinction, along with other 1990s instant messenger services such as MSN, AIM, and Yahoo!. The recent news of ICQ shutting down surprised many, as some were unaware it was still operational after AOL sold it to Digital Sky Technologies in 2010. Old accounts were verified to still work by the Reg FOSS desk.
Despite the impending shutdown of servers, hope remains as most of these instant messenger protocols have been open for decades. AOL connected its services by 2002, and the original iChat for Mac OS X utilized the AOL AIM protocol. The OSCAR protocol, though officially proprietary, has been reverse-engineered by Linux programmers to create clients like GAIM.
As servers for these disappearing services shut down, new initiatives are emerging to implement servers for them. Projects like AIM OSCAR server, Retro AIM Server, and NINA aim to keep these services alive. NINA, backed by Level Leap, a medical software company specializing in the cloud, is working on opening up AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, and ICQ protocols.
NINA’s ICQ and AIM services are currently in beta, accessible to paying supporters. The company is also developing custom connectors for FOSS clients like Pidgin. With open protocols and native client apps, there is potential for a resurgence of these 20th-century chat systems in the form of FOSS, offering a choice of true, cross-platform communication.
