Pidgin 2.0 Released

An anonymous reader writes "After nearly two years of development, Pidgin 2.0 has finally been released! Originally called Gaim, Pidgin is a powerful and robust open source instant messaging client that supports many protocols. Pidgin 2.0 features a completely redesigned interface with attractive new icons and and a new status management system that was designed for optimal usability. Pidgin 2.0 also adds support for universal buddy icon management and smooth-scroll functionality for conversation windows. A comprehensive review at Ars Technica explores the new features in Pidgin 2.0 and demonstrates how to use the new D-Bus bindings with Python to make Pidgin's status system send updates to Twitter."

dat iz awesum nuz!

GAIM wz a gr8 progrm so Xpect8Nz R hI 4 DIS foLow on. gr8 job!

VoIP

So ... will it support VoIP?

If it connects with GTalk (for example) it would be cool (and long overdue)

Re:VoIP

So ... will it support VoIP?

Not this version. If you read the conclusion section of the ArsTechnica article, you will see that this is on the roadmap, but when is another matter.

Kill pidgin

What I was interested in, was connecting to GTalk for VoIP. That isn't supported right now.

And that's after two years of development. It's laughable that slashdot needs to quote "smooth-scroll" and "new icons" as a major "feature".

Seriously, this is crazy. There's no webcam support - something that messenger has been doing since forever, and it's a major feature for IM. And no VOIP. That's why I keep using kopete, even if it's a memory pig: At least I do have MSN webcam support. It's sad that OSS IM's are in a so poor state.

Re:Kill pidgin

If you've been reading up on the whole Gaim/Pidgin thing, you'll notice their lawyers told them to not make any drastic changes until they resolved the dispute. Since that's over with, I'd expect to see a whole bunch of new shiny things in the next few months.

Pfft.

I cant believe that there is no jingle support yet.
IIRC, google released a library for voice extensions to the XMPP protocol quite a while back. When is gaim/pidgin going to incorporate it - so that i can make calls to gtalk users? The other clients like psi, kopete have already done this - why cant gaim?

Re:Pfft.

Two months ago they were held back by an agreement with AOL that they wouldn't make any major releases as part of a trademark suit. A couple of weeks ago they announced that the project's name was changing, that AOL was getting off their back, and that they would resume non-beta updates. Lo and behold, they've released one.

Re:Pfft.

Because you and I are too lazy to write the plugin?

Re:Pfft.

The world doesn't owe you a particular feature - if you want it, write it. If you can't/won't write it, then pay someone to write it for you. If you are not prepared to do that, then quit bitching and uninstall it.

Re:Pfft.

There is a difference between "bitching" and "feedback".

Re:Pfft.

Yes. For one thing, feedback implies tact.

Any point in upgrading?

I've got a stable copy of 2.0.0.beta5 of Gaim so any point in upgrading as its stable and works. Great believe in if it ain't broke don't fix it

Popularization

I was going to say 'commercialization', but I don't think that's quite right. I think this is going to be a more common occurrence, with open source project looking beyond simple functionality to usability, appearance, etc, as it does help grab more users, especially in the non-Linux crowd. As long as improving the usability doesn't actually damage the raw functionality, I'm all for it.

Already using it, much better than gaim.

Kudos to the developers, pidgin is a much less clunky interface compared to gaim.

Psychic mode

Does anybody know what the "Display Notification Message in Conversations" option in psychic mode does?

Do that let people know somehow that you are using psychic mode?

I've been using Pidgin (gaim) for a long time but I just turned that option on today.

Re:Psychic mode

The Psychic mode feature opens an IM window as soon as you get notification that the remote user is typing. So, you get an empty window with a typing notification before you actually receive an IM. Apparently, it works with the AIM, ICQ, Jabber, Sametime and Yahoo protocols.

Re:Psychic mode

MSN too. The empty message window says something along the lines "You feel a disturbance in the force."

SIP?

I didn't see SIP support in my scan of the article. I currently have that ability with Trillian via a free 3rd party plugin to use SIP to connect to my employer's MS LiveCommunications server.

I am not sure if that is a must have for me so I will give the new version a try.

Re:SIP?

SIP Support is there as of last year, won't help much as as MS have used non standard extensions for LCS....Happily there's a guy working on a gaim plugin for LCS which uses a modified version of the SIP/Simple code:

http://fixxxer.cc/blog-en/?cat=9 [fixxxer.cc]

It's still in the early stages, but it's getting there and has the advantage of being cross-platform and open-source, hoping I can use it to talk to our internal IM network from my linux box.

Technobabble

"use the new D-Bus bindings with Python to make Pidgin's status system send updates to Twitter"

Or you could cross-connect the Bullshittean Field Emitter to the Warp Core Ejector using quasi-bosonic tachyon particles.

Any anyhow, shouldn't the Python, having been attracted by the Twitter, eat the Pidgin?

pidgin-encryption?

It seems everytime GAIM had a new version, GAIM-Encryption [sourceforge.net] seemed to always be there with a new release of their plugin to work with it. But now that they made all these changes to Pidgin, I don't think Gaim-Encryption has followed suit. Has anyone been able to get the encryption plugin working with Pidgin? The installer for 3.0beta8 doesn't recognize Pidgin and, despite forcing an install, Pidgin won't pick up on the encryption plugin.

I'd say that's the only thing keeping me from embracing Pidgin at the moment. Otherwise, the new UI looks nice.

The interface is terrible!

This is supposed to be a Trillian killer? The interface is horrible! I'm not even talking about the ability to "skin" the application. Simple things like notifying the user if he/she receives mail is ridiculous the way it's implemented.

Very nice UI

I like the new UI a lot - functionally, Pidgin is the same as the earlier Gaim 2.0 betas with a sleeker look. It also seems a bit more responsive, IMHO. The Pidgin guys have done a great job, IMHO.

PS: Will we ever get the stock emoticons for each IM protocol back again? The default ones stocked with Pidgin are nice, but i always preferred to see the "original" ones for each client.

27MB install for a IM program?

Sweet Zombie Jesus!!!

Re:27MB install for a IM program?

What did you download? One of these [sourceforge.net] ?

The Windows installer which includes Gtk+ is 11MB, and the one without is 5.5MB. Or it should be anyway. I don't see anything that is 27MB.

They should learn form adium

Ok Adium uses libgaim (or libpidgin now I presume) but the interface is so much nicer.

It looks better, is easier to use and to configure - I much prefered using it - sadly I no longer have a mac and Adium is only on OSX - I sincerely wish it would be ported to linux!!

Slashdotted

Uh oh. The Pidgin server [pidgin.im] seems to be hammered, but you can still download it from its SourceForge page [sourceforge.net].

My Analysis

I've always rather liked GAIM and it has been a while since there have been real improvements, so I thought I'd take a look and see how far they've managed to come.

I liked

• Interface looks better, if not perfect.
• Nicer plug-in system

I disliked:

• No Mac OS X support
• No built in encryption or support for OTR
• No support for voice or video.

One thing that annoys me is they took the time to add spell checking for both OS's. I love having spell checking in my IM client, but it is not a function that every single program should have to supply by itself. I'm already running a spell checker in my text editor and my layout application and my e-mail client, and pretty much everything else. This is one of several functions that should be provided at the OS level to all applications that want it, not by each application individually. Will they waste time adding grammar checking next? How about translations between languages? What about dictionary/thesaurus/encyclopedia lookups?

Calling all Windows and Linux developers. It is time to catch up and make universal services a built in function of the OS so developers stop wasting time re-implementing things and concentrate on features specific to their program, like encryption and VoIP support.

Proxy problems

I have downloaded and installed Pidgin and it looks nice and all, but it does not seem able to tunnel through our proxy. So far the only IM that succeeds is Miranda which I hate soooo much. :)
The settings that work in Miranda are "" proxy type and proxy name, with no authorisation. No combination of HTTP, SOCKS4 or SOCKS5 with or without my account credentials seems to work in Pidgin. Which is a pity.

Supports MSN Offline messages?

I find the main MSN clients Offline Message mechanism very handy when I want to ping a message over to a friend and be sure they get it the next time they login.

Does this new release suport this? GAIM 2 didn't.

all complain

So many complains about GAIM/PIDGIN and still the site is slashdotted.

Jabber/XMPP File Transfer

That's the feature I want!!!
(MSN is laughing at us.)

New Sounds Are Nice!

If you like the new sounds in Pidgin, you can thank the artist who developed them by going to Magnatune.com [magnatune.com] and buy his album. Not just because you like the Pidgin sounds, not just because you like Indie Rock, but because you like independent music and independent music publishers like Magnatune. Lot's of good karma available by buying this one.

Slashdotted!

For those who just can't wait - like myself - since the Pidgin site was slashdotted, just go directly to Pidgin's SourceForge page @ http://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin [sourceforge.net]

Look, ma! I've slashdotted SourceForge :D

Heh, seems they have a sense of humor in configure

checking for NSS... yes
checking for snprintf... yes
checking for connect... (cached) yes
checking for me pot o' gold... no
checking for gethostid... yes
checking for lrand48... yes
checking for memcpy... yes

It doesn't support Office Communicator. :(

I wish it supported Office Communicator. I am a function-first kind of guy, and the damn client doesn't even used tabs!! It is so clunky it is painful.

Now I have to use it at work, and use it all day. It is nice that it integrates with the Office calendars, and updates your status according to your calendar. Everyone uses it, and the ability to look people up in the directory is nice (and no dorky names, your id is your email address). But having multiple different windows up instead of just 1 kills me.

I've looked around, but are there any decent 3rd party clients for Office Communicator?
(and no, getting off of Communicator isn't an option. I don't think I can change the minds of the largest bank in the country.)

AOL/AIM woes

Every time I try to send a message in AIM, i get:
Unable to send message: In local permit/deny

Ny clues? I tried upgrading from gaim, even wiped out my ~/.gaim dir, no help.

I can't find it.

I'm not supposed to install features into Ubuntu unless they are in a trusted repository, and this isn't.

I've been told on Slashdot that we shouldn't be installing software from just anywhere.. then we would have to look into the background of every author of every project we install. By trusting a repository we only have to trust the owners of that repository I guess.

Hmph, I don't know what to do.

ps. I'm being sarcastic. This is a carryover from another thread where my complaint that "apt-get" was always preceded by "sudo" (meaning that linux security is overridden about as often as Vista's) where I was told that all linux security resided in using only trusted repositories and never trusting a project (which seemed really impractical--epically in light of articles like this about great looking packages already at the 2.x level that are not available in the standard repositories)

I hope it comes with better sounds...

The original sounds are pretty ugly, there is a guy (brad?) that made some alternative [bradsucks.net] ones, they are better, but it would be nice if they were already included or if they made some new ones that don't suck.

well...

The good - Yahoo, GTalk and LJTalk now work.

The bad :

Item: They took my favorite customization (Enter = \n; Ctrl-Enter = "Send") away. I've read the blog post, I understand why. Then they basically said, "Well, if you REALLY want that, you can just customize your .gtkrc file based on our example." WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. The Right Thing is to include an interface in the software that accepts the key desired (see WinAMP's Global Hotkeys dialog) and then automatically rewrites the .gtkrc file. (If you're hellbent on going that way, anyway. Why not have a .pidgin-options file? WHY make it a part of an overarching toolkit wide file?) Bad UI! BAD!

(Also, I don't know where the hell I'm supposed to put .gtkrc on a Windows box, but that's my problem.
* C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\gtk-2.0 ?
* C:\Program Files\Common Files\GTK\2.0\etc\gtk-2.0 ?
(I hope not - if a user-level setting has to be put in \program files, it Fails It.)
What about, as a random google brought me,
* C:\Documents and Settings\Username\.themes\Default\gtk-2.0 ?
Maybe just
* C:\Documents and Settings\Username\ ?
NONE of them work, apparently. )

Item: Speaking of bad UI, the mechanism to set an away message makes me want to run down the street screaming and stabbing UI developers.

Item: AIM chats still don't flash on new traffic.

The ugly: The new smileys. They look like they were drawn by second graders. I understand they can't use the official AIM ones anymore, but they could have at least come up with something dignified looking. (not the Yahoo! ones either. Ick.)

Also, the trend towards less options. Less options is BAD. If you feel your prefs are becoming too crowded, look at firefox and write an "About: Config" like interface. Don't just say, "Well, *I* don't use this option; let's throw it out."

And this after only an hour of playing with it...

Text client

Let it not be overlooked that 2.0 includes "Finch", which is a text mode IM client! (instant messaging in screen)++

I've been using CenterICQ [thekonst.net] for a couple years, but after trying the last beta of Finch (was gaim-text at the time), I'm sold. It's really slick.

Wheah Da Kine?

Some people like talk story
Some go on fo' days
I listen dem and I learn lotta 'tings
And I learn new words fo' say
I practice da local lingo
And mostly I do fine
But one 'ting, bra, I just don't get
What dey mean wen dey say "Da Kine"

You get da kine, I get da kine, everybody want a piece of my time
You get da kine, I get da kine, all I wanna know is wheah da kine?

Kimo wen work in da morning sun
Loading up da mac nut shells
All of a sudden he wen jump in da air
And he geev one terrible yell
I say "Kimo, what's da mattah?
What happen dis friend of mine?
He say "One mongoose wen jump out of dis bush
And he wen bite me een da kine!!!

You get da kine, I get da kine, everybody want a piece of my time
You get da kine, I get da kine, all I wanna know is wheah da kine?

Lani is sure some ono girl
She work een da department store
I'm takin her out on da town one night
I'm waitin by da exit door
She say "Try wait just one minute!"
I ask what is on her mind
She say "Don't worry, George, I be back soon.
Just as soon as I can find da kine!"

You get da kine, I get da kine, everybody want a piece of my time
You get da kine, I get da kine, all I wanna know is wheah da kine?

Just one moah 'ting boddah me
Maybe you can explain it, bra
What did Lani mean last night wen she made me stop da cah?
She wen move up right beside me
She wen put her hand in mine
She wen kiss my lips, and den she say
Dat she wanna check out my da kine

You get da kine, I get da kine, everybody want a piece of my time
You get da kine, I get da kine, all I wanna know is wheah da kine?

hehehehe

No Jabber?

Just downloaded the Win client and Jabber does not appear to be available as an account type. Did the team drop this? Jabber was supported in 1.5.

No Skins? Bad Idea.

If the target audience for the program is people who have no personal desire to change their screens for aesthetic reasons then bravo. Well done. But how far out of touch do you have to be to not know that skins are desirable? They should be available and easily installed.

Fine. It's free. They can do as they choose. But there are a few free clients, and this one looks dreary. Boring. Sterile.

It's efficient and seems fast, but I've got plenty of CPU power, and video cards aren't a roadblock anymore. I'll pass.

I still have Pigeon 1.0

It sits in its cage, eats its seed and peas, drinks its water, and coos excitedly at television. It doesn't send messages but writing out lol omgwtf on little pieces of paper is annoying anyhow. Seems to work fine, so I probably won't upgrade until the unit reaches end of life and maybe go with Parakeet 2.23.

Does it still lack keyboard support?

An irritating limitation of all older versions was the inability to type in a contact's name on the contact list and have the correct contact highlighted as-you-type.  Why force me to use the mouse to click on contacts?

Even ancient (1997-ish) versions of ICQ had this feature.  I cannot believe we're running backwards.

Re:Pidgin?

AIM(tm)(R)(C) part.

Re:Pidgin?

AOL got upset, as I recall (AIM vs GAIM)

Re:Pidgin?

So call it GChat, or NinjaChat, or FreakinSweetChat, or something else! But Pidgin?
It sounds like a jungle midget headhunter.

Try looking it up in a dictionary and considering why it might be an appropriate name. It's actually a fairly witty choice, just apparently outside the working vocabulary of most slashdotters.

Re:Pidgin?

As a Linguistics student taking a course called "Pidgins and Creoles", I should probobly explain the concept...

A pidgin is a language that combines aspects of two languages, and is created by people who have a need to talk to someone who doesn't speak their language. The language usually has words taken from one language, and syntax from another. A pidgin is a language which is used only in certain situations, like an employer giving orders to employees or merchants trading in a marketplace.

If a mixed language becomes the native language of a community, it's called a 'creole' language.

I realize that 'pidgin' has negative connotations because it often arises in social situations like slavery or colonialism, but the languages themselves are not a sign of uneducatedness but a natural result of different language communities mixing.

Note that what Pidgin(the software) does isn't pidgin - it's more like multilingualism with many protocols. A "real" pidgin would be like combining the AIM and MSN protocols into one.

Re:Pidgin?

Perhaps you need to get some exercise for your vocabulary of the English language, so that these new and unfamiliar words do not frighten you so much.

Re:Pidgin?

Perhaps you need to get some exercise for your vocabulary of the English language, so that these new and unfamiliar words do not frighten you so much.

Haa? It's pidgin , bradda. You some haoli, you not know pidgin no real English. You learn pidgin lidat because da kine real English too much hana hana. Mahalo!

That gives me an idea

AOL got upset, as I recall (AIM vs GAIM)

I'm getting a bunch of guys together, we're gonna sue all the women for trademark infringement. And don't get me started on the blatant discrimination of the Hershey bar.

Re:pidgin

See past news articles regarding GAIM vs. AOL lawsuits - Development pace (and scope) was slowed down significantly due to the lawsuit.

In essence, per their lawyers' advice, the developers agreed not to make any major releases while negotiations were going on.

As to why there wasn't too much progress in their betas - if there had been significant progress other than a UI overhaul and bugfixes, AOL would likely have claimed that their "betas" were really releases that were only being called betas as a loophole.

The trademark lawsuit has been fully resolved, so what matters is where things go in the future, and I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of progress now. I wouldn't be surprised if the developers have been working on voice/video support in a seperate codebase somewhere but keeping it quiet until the lawsuits were resolved.

Re:Jabber and IRC

now come on, stop splitting hairs, that's a slippery slope, you don't take the next thing you'll know is that you want him to read.

Re:why?

It only seems to have less features because they hid some of them in menus rather than having separate entries for them.

For me one of the annoying things is the removal of the invite button in Yahoo conferences. You have to Conversation>Invite.