Slashdot Mirror


Next iChat version to include Jabber support

SeaFox writes "A couple of stories about new features in the next version of Mac OS X have revealed that the new iChat 3.0 will include support for Jabber. With businesses able to host their own messaging servers behind the firewall and use it with Apple's included IM client, will this effect Jabber's overall share of the IM market?"

29 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Makes sense... by rgraham · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seeing has how the next version of Server is going to have a built-in Jabber/iChat/XMPP server (scroll down to the "Your Very Own iChat and Blog Servers" section).

  2. Re:What we really need by leonmergen · · Score: 5, Informative
    --
    - Leon Mergen
    http://www.solatis.com
  3. ah yes well by Ravagin · · Score: 3, Informative
    will this effect Jabber's overall share of the IM market?

    more importantly, will it a ffect Jabber's overall share of the IM market?

    --

    Karma: T-rexcellent.

    1. Re:ah yes well by iso · · Score: 1, Informative

      Well effect can also be a transitive verb (1 : to cause to come into being, 2 a : to bring about often by surmounting obstacles), but the rule to remember is if you're using "effect" as a verb, you're probably wrong.

  4. Jabber server as well by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Informative
    Mac OS X Server 10.4 (Tiger Server) will also include an iChat/Jabber server.

    For those unaware, iChat has always used the Jabber protocols for its local (Rendezvous-initiated) messaging. This just dusts off and reveals full-fledged support for Jabber.

    Why Jabber? Because Jabber is a completely open IM standard. The IETF has accepted the core Jabber protocols and has standardized them as XMPP, an open IM protocol.

    1. Re:Jabber server as well by Seanasy · · Score: 3, Informative
      We must applaud that Apple is using open standards for their own good? What's in it for us?

      Interopability. Future-proofing. Apple's contributions to the standard. Are you saying companies shouldn't be applauded for using standards? I'll applaud every time a company chooses an open standard over a proprietary model.

      More like the other way around - their contributions (while very welcome) are few and far between.

      As far as I can tell, they've given back every time they've taken. That's more than I can say for myself.

      iCal (open file format)
      But not open itself.
      Safari (built on Open Source code)
      But itself totally proprietary, except for WebCore, which is currently primarily usable for cocoa (e.g. proprietary) developers.

      So the apps are closed? OK, they're not totally 'Free.' Granted. But the ical format is open. You can write a better iCal and not have to do a damn thing to get the data in. Webcore can be used by open-source developers as well as proprietary developers. It's based on khtml (from KDE). They've given back. WebCore is Open (LGPL).

      iTunes protocol and code is proprietary.

      iTunes protocol? Do you mean DAAP? Yes the app is closed but the tools are there to re-implement as you see fit. Even the iTunes Library is accessible as XML.

      OS X uses and relies on proprietary drivers (Broadcom, are you listening?).

      So go ahead write your own drivers.

      iChat primarily uses AIM instead of Jabber.

      Did you miss what this post was about?

  5. Re:What we really need by quigonn · · Score: 5, Informative

    gaim does what you want:
    - it's cross-plattform (Windows, OSX, Linux)
    - it supports server hosted friends list
    - it starts up quickly
    - it supports a lot of different protocols
    - it's free as in speech

    I, for one, run ICQ, Jabber and MSN with gaim, and had no problems with it so far.

    --
    A monkey is doing the real work for me.
  6. jabber by minus_273 · · Score: 5, Informative

    i chat already uses jabber in the local im feature using rendezevous (sp?). that also removes the need for a central server since it uses rendezevous for discovery of other hosts.

    --
    The war with islam is a war on the beast
    The war on terror is a war for peace
  7. Re:Affect, not effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Yes, but affect and effect have no senses in common.

    As a verb affect is most commonly used in the sense of "to influence" (how smoking affects health). Effect means "to bring about or execute": layoffs designed to effect savings. Thus the sentence These measures may affect savings could imply that the measures may reduce savings that have already been realized, whereas These measures may effect savings implies that the measures will cause new savings to come about.

    Completely different meanings. The question "... will this effect Jabber's overall share of the IM market?" makes no sense.

  8. This was annouced at WWDC 2004... by Xenex · · Score: 5, Informative
    And is mentioned on the Mac OS X Server 10.4 Tiger Preview page:
    New Services

    iChat Server. Host your own private and secure inside-the-firewall iChat server that uses your own namespace and works with both Tiger's iChat AV and popular Jabber clients available on Windows, Linux and PDAs.

    Additionally:
    Your Very Own iChat and Blog Servers

    You can now host your own iChat server. Instant Messaging serves as a vital means of communication for organizations of all sizes, so it's useful to deploy and run your own private and secure IM server. Based on the open source Jabber project, the new iChat server in Tiger Server lets your company protect its internal communications by defining its own namespace, and use SSL/TLS encryption to ensure privacy. The iChat server works with both the iChat client in Mac OS X Tiger and popular open source clients available for Windows, Linux and even PDAs.

    So, yes, we've known since WWDC that iChat will be able to speak to standard Jabber servers, mostly because Apple will be shipping a Jabber server with Tiger Server.

    There's a lot of cool stuff in Tiger Server, and that page is with checking out.
  9. Connectivity to other IM services, too by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Informative
    I forgot one of the neat things about the Jabber server:

    While an open IM application can be useful in a defined group or organization for messaging, obviously, a standalone IM application is of limited utility on its own if you're already communicating with people on other IM networks.

    This is why Jabber supports "transports", server components that allow seamless connectivity with AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, SMS services, and even IRC..

  10. Re:Are you kidding me ? by mitchell_pgh · · Score: 3, Informative

    While Apple and the Mac desktop account for a rather small percentage of desktop users, I firmly believe that Apple has a way of promoting technologies LONG before they become popular. They went all USB years ahead of many of the other manufacturers (in fact, some are still catching up).

    Apple has a way of moving technologies from the geek realm to the "average joe" realm in a very short period of time. I would also suggest that you applaud Apple for using yet another standard vs. creating their own in house brand or simply succumbing to the power of Redmond.

  11. Yes. by Xenex · · Score: 4, Informative

    iChat AV 2.1 can videoconference with AOL Instant Messenger 5.5.

  12. Well... by Xenex · · Score: 2, Informative
    From the Mac OS X Server 10.4 Tiger preview page
    Based on the open source Jabber project, the new iChat server in Tiger Server lets your company protect its internal communications by defining its own namespace, and use SSL/TLS encryption to ensure privacy.
    So, you're going to get secure messaging, but it's not going to be GPG.
  13. mmm, Open goodness by gobbo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apple continues to incorporate open software and strike that fine balance between the usefully proprietary (hardware, GUI) and interoperable standards. The MS dweebs that run the IT where I work keep frowning and scratching their heads when I explain that this or that new Apple implementations of free (beer/speech) software (zeroconf, LDAP, Apache, SSH, etc.) makes their lives easier and more secure. This just helps my arguments.

    Nice thing about Jabber is that it's decentralized and has so much room to be elaborated into some nifty applications that go way beyond text messaging. I was annoyed at Apple for nailing iChat so firmly to AIM, and now it looks like they're fulfilling some of the promise behind having a default chat client that isn't tied to an Apple network.

  14. Re:Are you kidding me ? by ratsnapple+tea · · Score: 5, Informative

    USB? IEEE 1394? 802.11? Touchpads on laptops? Quiet computing?

  15. Except that... by Xenex · · Score: 4, Informative
  16. No Effect by shking · · Score: 4, Informative
    "...will this effect Jabber's overall share of the IM market?"

    Since Jabber already has market share, this move by Apple will not Effect (verb: to create) a share for Jabber. However, including Jabber in iChat may Affect (verb: to influence) the market that already exists.

    OTOH - The Effect (noun: influence) of the ignorant substitution of inappropriate words Affects (verb: to influence) your ability to write clearly. Learn to the difference between english vowels, or you'll be condemned to confuse a cat with a cot (or Al with an eel)

    --
    -- "At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1" -- PC Magazine, Nov. 1994
  17. Re:Maybe Apple can make the damn thing configurabl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have you tried http://www.jabberdoc.org/?

  18. nice clients by hey · · Score: 2, Informative

    For Windows Miranda is nice. On Linux I use GAIM -- it works well and is easy to use.

  19. Re:What we really need by dasmegabyte · · Score: 2, Informative

    I use iChat on my mac, because I like the integration with Address Book. Trillian is good -- support for AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, IRC, MSN and when you add a contact from any of these, it adds it to the server list. Uses its own collapsable groups, so you can mix contacts from different messaging systems/IRC. The only problem with it is that it's heavily skinnable, so the interface is balls slow.

    ATTN ALL UTILITY SOFTWARE AUTHORS: Microsoft/Apple/X.org is much, much better than you are at writing fast, responsive GUI hooks. Don't reinvent the wheel just so some clown can make his AIM client look like those screens in Star Trek. Use the default windowing API and be done with it, skinning is chicken legs.

    Still worth a couple bucks though, if only for the fact that I can dock it to the side of the screen, put an extra teeny tiny skin on it (still rather have a standard window with an 8 pt font) and then show/hide it with a keyboard command. Really helps increase the screen real estate for my IDE (you can NEVER have enough real estate for an IDE, man, not even with that ridiculous new Apple monitor).

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  20. Re:What we really need by AndyElf · · Score: 4, Informative

    While GAIM might have a very good coverage, as far as IM networks are concerned, I can't say that I enjoy running it in the situations when I have to -- e.g. when I am on my BSD box.

    When it comes to MacOS X, there are several worthy contenders: Fire, Adium to name a few. All of them are Cocoa apps and you do not need to run X11 to use them.

    --

    --AP
  21. Re:Old news... by brass1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually they did. Apple, howerver, choose to be subtle about it. Here. And I quote:

    iChat Server. Host your own private and secure inside-the-firewall iChat server that uses your own namespace and works with both Tiger's iChat AV and popular Jabber clients available on Windows, Linux and PDAs.
    and:
    Your Very Own iChat and Blog Servers
    You can now host your own iChat server. Instant Messaging serves as a vital means of communication for organizations of all sizes, so it's useful to deploy and run your own private and secure IM server. Based on the open source Jabber project, the new iChat server in Tiger Server lets your company protect its internal communications by defining its own namespace, and use SSL/TLS encryption to ensure privacy. The iChat server works with both the iChat client in Mac OS X Tiger and popular open source clients available for Windows, Linux and even PDAs.


    This isn't a secret, and you don't have to be an "Apple Insider" to know about it, you just have to (carefully) read the language on their own website.

  22. If you're really geeky... by numbski · · Score: 4, Informative

    CenterICQ

    - Cross Platform
    - It supports server hosted friends list
    - Starts up quickly
    - Supports AIM, MSN, ICQ, YIM, Jabber, RSS, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, and LiveJournal
    - It's free as in speech (GNU)

    AND

    It can be put into a screen on a server, you can detach, then simply ssh into the server from a different location and reconnect to your screen as though you never left. I do this all the time. ;) I have connections to all the major services, a slashdot RSS, and any other RSS feeds I find interesting on our shell server at our data center, and it never skips a beat.

    FYI, if this interests you, contact me for a shell account. ;)

    --

    Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  23. Re:Maybe Apple can make the damn thing configurabl by DrHogie · · Score: 2, Informative

    I wish they had posted Perl scripts -- all the comments that I read merely said "I used This::Library and got it working. It's really easy."

    That being said, I did unmerge jabberd1.4 and got jabberd2.0s3 up and running this morning after posting that comment, and the experience is much better. Changes I make to the MySQL database are picked up by the clients, whereas changes I made to the xdb files in 1.4 were overwritten by the clients.

    I just hate using non-final software in a production environment.

    --
    --DrH, the Sandwich with the Ph.D.
  24. Re:Maybe Apple can make the damn thing configurabl by Doktor+Memory · · Score: 2, Informative

    Jabberdoc is helpful, but it won't do anything for this guy: he's not looking for documentation of a feature, he's looking for a feature that doesn't exist in any of the current server implementations.

    --

    News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.

  25. Re:GPG support by bgarland · · Score: 2, Informative
  26. Re:What we really need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Adium=GAIM

    if you read the adium page you would know this.
    Thats how Adium supports everything GAIM does and more

  27. Re:Helix by infiniti99 · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is a joint effort with Psi, and has a projected release for September (this month).

    The actual protocol specifications are ready, and available on the Delta project page, as jep-rtsp and jep-media. I have not yet submitted them to the JSF to be accepted as formal JEPs, as I already have some other protocol specs in their queue that I want to resolve first (particularly a patch to JEP-0065 to incorporate UDP support).

    On the software side of things, we'll likely be late. This is somewhat related to a misunderstanding regarding the Helix SDK's capability. While the toolkit is quite mature for most purposes, it has never been used in a peer-to-peer fashion, where content is served from an end-user desktop application. This will be a first, but is taking us a little longer to deal with. It might be October before we have a beta.