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."

Popularization

[Nerdfest]

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.

Re:Pfft.

[igotmybfg]

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

Re:Pidgin?

[syntaxglitch]

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?

[Goaway]

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?

[owlnation]

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.

Also handy for beating The Vulture Squadron - Dick Dastardly over at Yahoo, Muttley at AOL, Zilly at Skype, and Klunk at MS.

all complain

[aled]

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

Re:Pfft.

[Frosty Piss]

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

This is something that really pisses me off about the fanboys, they assume a defensive stance when someone critiques their pet project. The standard "why don't YOU submit a patch?" Because I'm a user, not a programmer? Oh, I forgot, Open Source isn't for us little people, the users.

Re:The interface is terrible!

[pebs]

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.

As the other guy said, who is calling this a Trillian killer?

In any case, Trillian already killed itself by not including Jabber support in the free version. (And who is going to pay for that garbage anyway?)

Of course those of us who don't run Windows don't give a shit about Trillian. And even those of us who do, Trillian is still the shittier option because you can't use the free version with Google Talk.

Re:Pfft.

[SkunkPussy]

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.

[Frosty Piss]

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

Why the funny standards?

[Grendel Drago]

I should have one keyring, damn it. This isn't specifically a problem with GAIM-Encryption (and they go over why they chose not to use GPG in the FAQ*), but I have to maintain a keyring for my email, for GAIM-OTR (the encryption plugin I use), and for WASTE--and there's no good reason to do this! The PGP standard has a very robust standard for key management, which should be usable for pretty much any situation--and it is. WASTE keys work exactly like PGP keys do, only you have to import and manage them separately. What gives? Is GPG so hard to interface with that people feel compelled to reinvent the wheel? A quote about SSL channels and a penis-shaped sound wave is coming to mind here.

(Also, I see that there exists a GPG-based Gaim plugin, "gaim-e", but it hasn't been touched in five years.)

* I disagree with some of their reasons; for instance, you can import a key (and thus send someone messages) without signing the key or indicating trust of it in any fashion. A central keyserver is not a single point of failure, because it doesn't define trust relationships, and if you use the web of trust properly, it doesn't matter if someone hijacks the keyserver or not. Also, it's not that hard to put the timestamp inside the encrypted stream; while this is a matter of concern for replay attacks, there's no reason why this should discount the use of GPG's key management system entirely; inserting a timestamp and/or nonce into the IM before sending it (and possibly removing it when it's received and checked for uniqueness/sequence/that it was sent in the last ten seconds) isn't impossible.

Don't expect shiny things

[A1miras]

Actually, he said their lawyers discouraged them from making an "official" release as a show of good faith.

I'm fairly certain he was referring to the reason Gaim 2.0 stayed in beta for so long, NOT hidden extra features.

Re:The interface is terrible!

[pebs]

I thought it supported Jabber? Then again, I haven't used Trillian since version 0.60something...

The Pro version does support Jabber, which costs $25.

Re:dat iz awesum nuz!

[Turey]

How is this Off-topic? Not only is it a direct comment on the topic, but he also apparently read TFA pretty well:

After much discussion, the Gaim developers decided to call the program Pidgin. "We like the name," Egan told me. "It was the second choice we all really liked. We were thinking up linguistic terms, and someone mentioned Pidgin. Another developer commented that 'corrupted language' may not be the best thing to associate yourself with, to which another pointed out something along the lines of 'have you ever SEEN people talk on IM?'"

(Emphasis mine)

Either he's commenting on the argument used in the name selection in a clever and humorous way, or I'm vastly over-analyzing this...