Pidgin 2.4.3

Publisher's description of Pidgin

Pidgin (formerly known as Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for BSD and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks. Pidgin users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle; and plugins, consisting of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, and iconify on away.

Version 2.4.3 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

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Editor's review of Pidgin

Your mother uses AOL Instant Messenger. Your spouse prefers MSN. Your office insists on Yahoo. What are you going to do? You could run all those chat clients at once, or you could use Gaim, now renamed Pidgin. Like Trillian, Fire, and other third-party IM clients, this open-source messaging application lets you access multiple IM networks from one window, including Google Talk and MySpaceIM as well as lesser-known protocols such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu.

Pidgin's biggest change is the redesigned interface. The Buddy List can be viewed in Basic or Advanced mode, and the most important features, including the Plug-in List, have been graduated from the Preferences window into their own panes. Twenty-two plug-ins come prepackaged as Pidgin repositions itself as a highly extensible chat client.

The IM features are unimpeachable: smileys (you can find tons of emoticons on the developer's site), file transfers, and multiperson chats. The Buddy Pounce feature lets you automatically perform certain actions (play a sound, execute a command, open an IM window) when a contact signs on or off. Pidgin also gets lots of intangibles right: logging and time-stamping, for instance, are well-executed and easy to access. However, it lacks IP telephony and video conferencing, and there are still some bugs--most notably in the Help menu. Still, Pidgin remains a highly recommended text-only messaging app.

User reviews of Pidgin

• Average user rating: out of 160 votes
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  Pidgin

  Not happy with the new Pidgin.

  by: JoyceNgo on 08-Jul-2008 06:34:21 PM

  Pros: The only great thing about it is it's better than AIM 6.x and has many functions. I could go on Google Talk and AIM, Yahoo, etc. It's not a memory hog either.

  Cons: There's nothing good I could say about this program anymore. It gets bigger everyday with the most NOT obvious updates and then out of nowhere it updated and changed almost the whole interface. Unless you use Linux, the spell check doesn't work even if you have it available (happened to me), when doing directIM, you can never see the file sizes you are sending or receiving. They changed the IM windows, and as you type, it causes the text field to bounce up and down because it's supposed to "adjust to your text" and gets bigger as you type more in it.

  The "*USERNAME HERE* is typing..." text in the IM window is extremely buggy for me and it comes and goes as it wants whether the person is typing or not. What ever happened to that cool keyboard icon on the top right that shows when users are typing?!

  They make the most unnecessary changes, yet every new thing they add, they cause more bugs and then they more bugs must be fixed; which is the reason why this program updates way too often. How unfortunate :(

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  Pidgin

  Great Program - Works Like A Charm

  by: Rob20850 on 11-Jul-2008 02:00:27 AM

  Pros: It's a very simply, yet, very powerful piece of software. I just started doing some freelancing work at home, and this ables me to be on multiple IM's at the same time, using 1 program. It's very easy to setup, and doesn't bog down system resources. You have to try it for yourself, I wouldn't see why this software doesn't end up in the top10 most downloaded.

  Cons: There's really not much I don't like about it. I guess you could say it's 'boring'. It's not all flashy, but it doesn't need to be. I prefer the 'work quietly in the background' type programs anyway.

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  Pidgin

  Pretty nice!

  by: Traveosa on 15-Jul-2008 09:03:23 AM

  Pros: Pidgin features almost all of the best features. It supports nearly all if not all the networks. Its free, it runs off of open source GTK+ and it allows different plugins! *It also works with vista...i have tried it*

  Cons: No webcam/audio chat. That was kind of a let down. File transfers don't work too well. Direct connect doesn't either.

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  Pidgin

  I'm in love

  by: crevelingm on 18-Jul-2008 09:53:41 PM

  Pros: Extremely light weight, and does everything the bloated IM clients like AIM are just beginning to catch onto. Everyone's icon and status are in the buddy list (Buddies -> Show details), as is the ability to set your status and type status message right in the buddy list window. Buddy pounces allow me to know when my long distance girlfriend signs on AIM by playing a sound. I play a lot of video games, and you can set pidgin to only play a sound when you receive an IM in a conversation window that is out of focus.

  Pidgin also can removes all of the crazy fonts and colors from incoming messages of idiots who set AIM to use them, or you can keep seeing them in their formats if you really want to. Buddy aliasing is great, though the other clients have caught onto that by now. TABBED IMS also rock, but the jerks at AIM have copied that too.

  But the truth remains that AIM is an ugly program targeted at teenage girls, hogs memory, and still displays advertisements that nobody wants to see.

  Cons: This is not a complaint specifically about the software, but I have a logitech G15 keyboard with an LCD display and Pidgin is the only IM client that does not yet have a plugin written for it for this keyboard. SOMEBODY PLEASE WRITE ONE FOR ME :)

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  Pidgin

  Not the greatest

  by: tonsmel on 24-Jul-2008 11:31:16 AM

  Pros: I like Pidgin because it allows me to chat using all of my accounts at the same time rather than logging in one by one.

  Cons: I don't like that there is no connection to my email accounts. I wish it had something...Maybe then I would have kept Pidgin...Trillian is just simpler and more organized for me.

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