Proteus

Proteus (formerly stylized as "proteus") was an instant messenger client for Mac OS X that could access AIM, ICQ, Jabber,, and protocols, as well as supporting chat over local Rendezvous networks.

Description
The interface of Proteus vaguely resembles that of Apple's AIM client iChat, although iChat uses the brushed metal aesthetic, while Proteus uses the standard Aqua appearance. However, unlike iChat, it has support for multiple networks, and can also group multiple conversations in one window using tabs. Proteus does not support some features of the AIM network, such as embedded images, and has poor support for file transfers. It also has no audio or video conferencing abilities.

History
Justin Wood began work on Proteus while at WWDC 2001 to learn the Cocoa API. Version 1.5 was released in early 2002 as donationware, though was also appreciated. Wood was hired by Apple and sold Proteus to Defaultware in 2004. In 2006, it became freely available as open source software through ProteusX.org. The lead UI designer was Zach Forrester. The latest version as of July 2011 was 4.2.2. Version 5 was also in development before the site was abandoned.