Pidgin 2.0 Released 249
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."
Re:Pidgin? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:VoIP (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Psychic mode (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Pfft. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Any point in upgrading? (Score:3, Informative)
pidgin-encryption? (Score:4, Informative)
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! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:VoIP (Score:3, Informative)
Connecting for chat to GTalk is no big deal right now.
What I was interested in, was connecting to GTalk for VoIP. That isn't supported right now.
Slashdotted (Score:3, Informative)
Re:27MB install for a IM program? (Score:1, Informative)
The install with GTK+ is ~11MB, without GTK+ is 5...
My Analysis (Score:5, Informative)
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
I disliked:
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.
Re:27MB install for a IM program? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:SIP? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:pidgin-encryption? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:27MB install for a IM program? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:VoIP (Score:3, Informative)
Check out this open source VoIP and video conferencing software http://www.openwengo.com/ [openwengo.com]
WengoPhone 2.1 has instant messaging support, implemented using libgaim, can connect to MSN Messenger, OSCAR protocol based networks such as AIM or ICQ, XMPP based networks such as Google Talk and Jabber, and the Yahoo Messenger networks.
New Sounds Are Nice! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Kill pidgin (Score:5, Informative)
Re:My Analysis (Score:1, Informative)
I remember when I was new to linux, in April 2005, I had to install GAIM on mandrake. It failed due to dependency problems, and the package missing was gtkspell.
I remember it very well.
So, they are not wasting time writing a spell checker. They used an existing one: GTKSPELL.
Re:Psychic mode (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:They should learn form adium (Score:1, Informative)
Preferences -> Messages. Then choose "minimal_mod" for the "Message Style".
Less than a minute.
Re:Supports MSN Offline messages? (Score:2, Informative)
Your client must be left on and running for this to work. It has been in GAIM for a while now.
Re:pidgin (Score:3, Informative)
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:27MB install for a IM program? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pidgin? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Pidgin? (Score:5, Informative)
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:No Jabber? (Score:3, Informative)