Slashdot Mirror
Gaim Forks To Get Voice And Video Support
RAMMS+EIN writes "Everyone's favorite instant messenger, Gaim, has recently been forked. The new gaim-vv project aims to provide voice and video chat support, which will eventually be backported into the main branch." Nice to see an amicable fork; it sounds like this will mean competition for GnomeMeeting.
The way I look at it, this could be a very good thing.. From what I've witnessed currently the gaim development team is busy with many things, and cannot focus on one or two certain features.
Now that It has forked off the developers that are interested in this will have the time to do the one thing they WANT to do, not a bunch of others.
The way I look at it, it is kind of like the introduction of the assembly line, a group will be very skilled at one task and not be working on and assembleing all the other features.
Quite frankly, This is one feature gaim is really lacking. With the introduction of broadband services in the home, video and voice is extremely popular.
It's hard to get someone to try linux when their main tasks cannot be performed.
This is a very good thing.
Are you missing the entire point of post? It is open source, you don't have to wrestle control from anyone. Just take it, fix it and use it. If your changes are useful, they will make it back into the product, or you can start your own fork.
..
Duh.
"I am a patient boy. I wait I wait I wait. My time is water down the drain..." Fugazi
Exciting news indeed.
;p
...
Gaim is the only decent AIM client for I've run across for Windows - the official client is utter crap, and Trillian is bloated payware. Still, some of my less-technically-inclined friends refuse to use Gaim, citing the fact that it doesn't have enough cool features and "bling bling". With cool new features like these, I have more ammunition in my battle to get people to switch
Now, if only the Gaim folks would get their act together on MSN support
If you want a closed group like for team communication, why don't you go for jabber? You could setup your own server in seconds (at least with debian: apt-get install jabber), have your own rooms and don't have to bother too much about the internet and firewalls.
It is truly open source. That includes the protocol, most client-apis, most clients and most servers.
Furthermore the core is already in IETF RFCs.
No need to worry about vendors checking the protocols anymore and a wide variety of clients to use.
Watch out, your favorite IDE might even get a plug-in for IMing.
Linux, because booting is for adding hardware.
There is nothing wrong with H.323. It's just that the IM companies like to use their own protocols so they can lock users in. I'd like to see support for all of those protocols and H.323.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Also, I have lots of x86 using friends that hate booting into Windows from Linux just to use advertising-ridden AIM.
The ads are part of their business model. If lots of people switch to using open, ad-free clients, they'll eventually just decide to keep those clients from connecting. That's the trouble with using software that relies on proprietary protocols and proprietary servers.
I know it's less convenient, but try to get your friends to use chatting (in particular, video chatting) using open protocols. There are technically perfectly good choices: H.323, Jabber, etc. People just have to use them more. And the longer AIM becomes entrenched, the harder it will get to change.
Just imaging what E-mail would be like if it had started like chatting--with AOL, Microsoft, and a few others controling the servers and the infrastructure. Ultimately, ISPs should provide IM servers just like they provide mail servers.