Yeah, we tried that where I work, except for the part of developing our own client. People barely used the system despite the fact that me and the other guy that was an enthusiast of the system teached them all about how to use it, after installing and configuring Gaim on their machines. Some people (friends of ours) used irssi with SSL, because we configured a special encrypted port for testing, that unfortunately we weren't able to use from Gaim because it simply would refuse to accept the certificate and make the connection. Even so, it worked and it worked good.
When I came back from my vacation, no one used the IRC system anymore and all were using a poorly configured jabber server without encryption on a machine that crashes periodically because that used the same login authentication as the corporate email account provided for everyone.
The motive, they said, was the complexity of IRC. This complexity was, hm, the same of the actual system or even less, since we had not installed IRC Services on the server.
Maybe if we had developed our own IRC client and made it the most Idiot Friendly possible, we would be able all that nifty features of IRC you said. But the few people with a clue there never have time because they're too busy fixing the mistakes of that large majority of people without a clue. Pity.
Today, nerds ain't the underdogs anymore. We're no longer "uncool". RPGs have gone mainstream. So has the computer. And many other geek/nerd toys and pastimes.
That in my opinion is the biggest problem with Gaim and why I refuse to use it.
In the past I used screen + irssi + bitlbee at home but then wanted to enjoy the features of an integrated desktop environment and started to use Kopete. Despite some stability problems sometimes, it works like a charm and has the global shortcut key to read new messages.
There is a (sort of) work around that you can do for Gaim involving alt + tab, but it is way too ugly for me and I never got acquainted with Gaim and probably never will be, since Gaim is a clear example of the bad UI of the MSN and AIM clients that all projects seen to copy now. Long live the old ICQ UI, with single messages, not chat mode.
I believe that the only client with a global shortcut key and a pleasant working UI was SIM (sim-icq.sf.net), but sadly it appears rather dead now.:-(
Now they only need shortcut keys and a messaging mode.
Seriously, chat mode with windows cluttering the desktop is really unpleasant, and if I need to use a window full of tabs I'd rather use the screen + irssi + bitlbee combo. And have to use the mouse to open every message is just as annoying as having them poping up automatically. Kopete suffers from the very same problem, lack of shortcut keys and a crappy messaging only mode (which combined with shortcut keys is da bomb my brotha).
Until these issues are solved, the Magic Combo will remain the master of IM here.
Slashdot Mirror
What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on so early?
Just one Neuromancer comment in the whole story? Damn, /.is getting stranger with each passing day.
Yeah, we tried that where I work, except for the part of developing our own client.
People barely used the system despite the fact that me and the other guy that was an enthusiast of the system teached them all about how to use it, after installing and configuring Gaim on their machines. Some people (friends of ours) used irssi with SSL, because we configured a special encrypted port for testing, that unfortunately we weren't able to use from Gaim because it simply would refuse to accept the certificate and make the connection. Even so, it worked and it worked good.
When I came back from my vacation, no one used the IRC system anymore and all were using a poorly configured jabber server without encryption on a machine that crashes periodically because that used the same login authentication as the corporate email account provided for everyone.
The motive, they said, was the complexity of IRC. This complexity was, hm, the same of the actual system or even less, since we had not installed IRC Services on the server.
Maybe if we had developed our own IRC client and made it the most Idiot Friendly possible, we would be able all that nifty features of IRC you said. But the few people with a clue there never have time because they're too busy fixing the mistakes of that large majority of people without a clue. Pity.
Today, nerds ain't the underdogs anymore. We're no longer "uncool". RPGs have gone mainstream. So has the computer. And many other geek/nerd toys and pastimes.
Well, I beg to differ.
That in my opinion is the biggest problem with Gaim and why I refuse to use it.
:-(
In the past I used screen + irssi + bitlbee at home but then wanted to enjoy the features of an integrated desktop environment and started to use Kopete. Despite some stability problems sometimes, it works like a charm and has the global shortcut key to read new messages.
There is a (sort of) work around that you can do for Gaim involving alt + tab, but it is way too ugly for me and I never got acquainted with Gaim and probably never will be, since Gaim is a clear example of the bad UI of the MSN and AIM clients that all projects seen to copy now. Long live the old ICQ UI, with single messages, not chat mode.
I believe that the only client with a global shortcut key and a pleasant working UI was SIM (sim-icq.sf.net), but sadly it appears rather dead now.
*global* shortcut keys, I mean. Like ctrl-shift-i to retrieve new messages.
Now they only need shortcut keys and a messaging mode.
Seriously, chat mode with windows cluttering the desktop is really unpleasant, and if I need to use a window full of tabs I'd rather use the screen + irssi + bitlbee combo. And have to use the mouse to open every message is just as annoying as having them poping up automatically. Kopete suffers from the very same problem, lack of shortcut keys and a crappy messaging only mode (which combined with shortcut keys is da bomb my brotha).
Until these issues are solved, the Magic Combo will remain the master of IM here.