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Linux Instant Messengers
mrAshley writes "This article talks specifically about the antiquated state of the even the best Linux instant messenging software, and generally about the need for software developers to be mindful of younger people, as their social attitudes towards software are going to be much more influential in than any moral or financial consideration.
Simply put - People are communal. Don't make a person who wants to use Linux have to leave behind a method or style of communication."
Gaim and kopete both have all the functionality of the major IM clients. Gaim is available for both windows and linux and also seems to get protocol fixes and other bugs patched much more quickly than the commercial equivalent, trillian...
-*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
No you didn't read the article, they have heard of gaim:
Can you connect to the MSN Messenger network using Free operating systems? Sure you can. There is Gaim, there is Kopete. Are they attractive? No, they aren't. Their interfaces are terrible. Moreover, all you can do with them is write basic IMs. Bye bye overbloated and stupid nudge and Flash sequences. Just the text ma'am. Display picture? Well, it sort of works, but that's all. File transfers? I can swear that you're a lucky guy (girl) when it works. Usually it doesn't, resulting in embarrassing 'Sorry mate, I'm using Linux, you know and, well, could you mail me this picture instead?'.
Is it possible to use an AOL IM account with Gaim and talk with people on Jabber? Is there any IM client that can do that? Thanks.
Um. Yeah.... That's the entire point of Jabber. If you want to use an AOL account, use a jabber server that has an AIM transport. Same with Yahoo! and any of the others.
This whole complaint for the article is just stupid. Yeah, using linux really cuts you out from being able to communicate with people what with there only being a crapload of chat clients for it of which tkabber, Gabber, PSI and GAIM are only a few of the some 30 Jabber clients for the platform.
centericq + screen FTW
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
...will also get you onto Google Talk, which is basically Google's Jabber server.
.MAC chat and not Jabber. Yes, the Tiger version adds Jabber functionality, but my clamshell iBook can't run Tiger. (The cutoff is native Firewire which the first version of the iBook didn't have.)
It won't do voice chat, but at least you can do IM chat. This is better than the iChat which comes with Mac OS X Panther, which can only do either AIM or
Gaim's good on both Linux *and* Windows. The Windows port is solid. And it's Free Software.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaim
Features:
Plugins:
Gaim supports plugins for RSA and GPG encryption, as well as Off-the-record messaging.
See GAIM plugins: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/plugins.php/
More info about GAIM: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=GAIM
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
But, a cautionary note, if history serves, what Microsoft is doing has the petina of old tricks. Should they manage to climb to the top and snuff out other IM services the way they've snuffed out other competitors I predict they once again will begin charging for what once was free. Please help me out here. I am wracking my brain trying to think of a case where Microsoft started charging for something that was once free after they snuffed the competition. Let's see ...
Operating Systems, nope, they never were free (though the service packs and updates have always been free)
IE, nope, free (at least until the government intercedes on our behalf and makes us buy it)
Media Player, nope, free (at least until the government intercedes on our behalf and makes us buy it)
Outlook Express, always free, still free
Office, nope, never was free - though the price has DROPPED significantly as competition has disappeared (remember Lotus, WordPerfect, Ashton Tate, CorelOffice, ...)
PhotoStory, nope, was $29 as part of media pack, but now it's free
Media Encoding tools, nope, was $100 as part of Video For Windows SDK, but now it's free
How about games?
I can't think of a single game Microsoft charges for that was formerly available for free.
How about developer tools?
MSDN, nope, still a pay-for service, though now there is a very nice alternative for free online
SDKs, nope, some used to be pay-fors but now they are all free
Visual Studio, nope, still a pay-for, always was (bundled with MSDN subscriptions though)
SourceSafe, nope, always was a pay-for (bundled with MSDN subscriptions though)
Let's go back further in time ...
Disk Compression, nope, used to be a pay-for but now Microsoft bundles it for free in all OSes
Disk Defragger, nope, used to be a pay-for but now Microsoft bundles it for free in all OSes
Paint, Calculator, Notepad, HyperTerm, etc. etc. always free (and worth every penny ;-)
Please help me out here. There MUST BE at least one example! I mean, after all, it's "common knowledge" that this is a predatory Microsoft practice.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
The two biggest things I've noticed lacking are Nudges and voice/webcam stuff.
Nudges and can more than happily live without.
Voice/webcam support was attemted with an offshoot called gaim-vv (vv == voice and video). But that project has officially been laid to rest with a final note implying that some of the developers will try to merge the work into a later release of gaim.
There are also a lot of pluggins for gaim to support everything from rss to encryption. If you really desperately want a feature, leave a not on the "feature requests" thread of the sourceforge project page on sourceforge. Or if you're desperate and skilled, try to write it up yourself ... this is open source.