My wife, kids and I all work or study mostly from home, so often all on our computers in our separate crates^H^H^H^H^H^Hrooms. We use Beebeep to be able to message back an forth when needed. It doesn't need a server and has both Linux (me) and Windows (everyone else) clients which was the deal clincher.
It works pretty well, although sometimes you have to restart after your laptop wakes up before it sees others on the LAN. That and not being able to open a message window to someone direct from the tray icon are really my only grips. Can cut and paste pictures (of funny cats) and even send files and other capabilities I've never used. (This is not a paid advertisement, I've just started rambling.)
Oh, agreed. Just while reading about it, it made me think of Beebeep so thought I'd give it a quick review in case anyone else was reading thinking, "I could use something like that."
It works pretty well, although sometimes you have to restart after your laptop wakes up before it sees others on the LAN. That and not being able to open a message window to someone direct from the tray icon are really my only grips. Can cut and paste pictures (of funny cats) and even send files and other capabilities I've never used. (This is not a paid advertisement, I've just started rambling.)
https://www.beebeep.net/