Mac OS X users now have a new way of getting their gossip (or actual important stuff) across the world in a blink. Adium X is finally out of beta and celebrates its first release with its wonderful green duck and a whole lot of changes.

As Trac Software notes on Adium's about page,

Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X, released under the GNU GPL and developed by the Adium team. With Adium, you can connect to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services and then chat with other people using those services.

There are a ton of changes to the program, but Trac Software lists some major tweaks:

• Added global user profile and buddy icon settings. (Personal Preferences)
• General Account improvements. Accounts can now be disabled when not in in use, and friends can now sign on from your Adium without saving their information.
• Added an Xtras manager for better browsing and removing of Xtras.
• Major improvements in privacy settings.
• Improvements to the default look and feel of Adium.
• iTunes integration is much faster, and updates as soon as the song changes.
• Redesigned Chat Transcript (Log) Viewer
• Optional dock-like hiding of the contact list
• Requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later (Universal Binary)

You'll definitely want to read through their changelog before you do anything as it's definitely a very long list of changes. They also have video tutorials for installing and using the program, and that's one thing you definitely can like about them: they've got a personal touch.

Download: [Adium X v1.0]