Pidgin (GAIM)

Craig321 · 17 May 2007 at 14:34

I was just looking for updates for GAIM and found they've had a whole new update & look and are now called Pidgin.

Download: http://www.pidgin.im/pidgin/download/ for all you people who use it

I just hope they haven't bloated it

I'll get some screenshots up when I've got it running.

Craig321 · 17 May 2007 at 14:48

I'm quite liking the new look

Still nice and simple, and quick.

MarcLister · 17 May 2007 at 16:43

Looks nice. What is the memory usage like? Is it comparable to Windows Live Messenger in terms of features and functionality?

I tried Miranda the other day but it needs a lot of plugins for me to get it up to WLM level so I just gave up on it until after exams.

Craig321 · 17 May 2007 at 17:07

I don't think it's quite up there with features compared to WLM.

WLM: Mem usage: 25mb, VM Usage: 35mb
Pidgin: Mem usage: 16mb, VM Usage: 7mb

It starts a lot faster than WLM (especially when WLM has MsgPlus on it).

MarcLister · 17 May 2007 at 17:10

Good news on the memory usage. So what major features does Pidgin not have then?

Can I still send/receive files and set a virus scanner to check those files?

Craig321 · 18 May 2007 at 00:20

MarcLister said:
Good news on the memory usage. So what major features does Pidgin not have then?

Can I still send/receive files and set a virus scanner to check those files?

You can definitely send/receive files, but I'm not sure sure on the virus scanning part. I would have though you could assign a virus scanner to it.

MarcLister · 18 May 2007 at 00:24

I've been running Pidgin for a few hours now. I quite like it. Much better compared to the Gaim v2 beta I tried a while ago.

I now know how to send a file but I can't see any antivirus option anywhere.

Craig321 · 18 May 2007 at 00:37

MarcLister said:
I've been running Pidgin for a few hours now. I quite like it. Much better compared to the Gaim v2 beta I tried a while ago.

I now know how to send a file but I can't see any antivirus option anywhere.

Doesn't look like they do have anti virus support built in

I checked the manual/FAQ and it says nothing about antivirus.

MarcLister · 18 May 2007 at 00:37

Craig321 said:
Doesn't look like they do have anti virus support built in

I checked the manual/FAQ and it says nothing about antivirus.

Perhaps it just leaves the antivirus to scan files, or assumes that it does?

Craig321 · 18 May 2007 at 01:32

MarcLister said:
Perhaps it just leaves the antivirus to scan files, or assumes that it does?

Yeah, I guess it relys on you having an anti virus installed.

Any good anti virus will scan files as they're being downloaded, so I guess Pidgin didn't need to add a feature to assign a specific anti virus.

sidefxv1 · 18 May 2007 at 09:06

Just out of curiosity, what IM clients do have built in anti-virus? Since Pidgin is cross-platform it makes sense that it doesn't include an anti-virus...

TBH, I'd prefer not to have a built in anti virus, it'd just seem like a waste since I bought one for windows anyway.

avrc · 18 May 2007 at 09:15

It's been renamed to Pidgin because of a legal tangle with AOL over "AIM" (AIM = AOL Instant Messenger)

Personally I prefer aMSN http://amsn-project.net

MarcLister · 18 May 2007 at 11:53

sidefxv1 said:
Just out of curiosity, what IM clients do have built in anti-virus? Since Pidgin is cross-platform it makes sense that it doesn't include an anti-virus...

TBH, I'd prefer not to have a built in anti virus, it'd just seem like a waste since I bought one for windows anyway.

Nah its not an in-built AV. Its an option in an IM client to specify the AV exe to scan files sent over the IM protocol. In WLM you can select the AV exe and give it some paramaters to scan files.

Pidgin doesn't let you do this, so we assume that Pidgin assumes your AV is scanning all files.

Craig321 · 18 May 2007 at 14:13

avrc said:
It's been renamed to Pidgin because of a legal tangle with AOL over "AIM" (AIM = AOL Instant Messenger)

Personally I prefer aMSN http://amsn-project.net

I can't believe GAIM gave in and renamed their product because it had the AIM letters in.

My guess is AOL copyrighted AIM... the GAIM people copyrighted GAIM...

So now if I made a company called Craigosoft would Microsoft be able to sue me/force me to change the name

?

Anyway... I'm more than happy just to let PC-cillin scan stuff on it's own when it's being downloaded

sidefxv1 · 18 May 2007 at 14:14

@MarcLister: Ah, ok, gotcha.

Craig321 said:
So now if I made a company called Craigosoft would Microsoft be able to sue me/force me to change the name ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Rowe_(student)

MarcLister · 18 May 2007 at 14:15

Craig321 said:
I can't believe GAIM gave in and renamed their product because it had the AIM letters in.

My guess is AOL copyrighted AIM... the GAIM people copyrighted GAIM...

So now if I made a company called Craigosoft would Microsoft be able to sue me/force me to change the name ?

Well Gaim had a previous name I think. GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger. AOL complained so it became Gaim and AOL were apparently happy. Then they moaned again and Gaim became Pidgin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaim

bigmouse64 · 17 Jul 2007 at 15:24

I've just started using this, it's quite tidy, seems it's very plugin friendly, so hopefully they'll be many plugins, similar to FireFox

jbloggs · 17 Jul 2007 at 15:43

Pidgin has been the new name for Gaim for at least a couple of months anyway.

Does Pidgin have webcam support, it doesn't mention anything on their website?

MarcLister · 17 Jul 2007 at 15:45

bigmouse64 said:
I've just started using this, it's quite tidy, seems it's very plugin friendly, so hopefully they'll be many plugins, similar to FireFox

Yes that would be nice to see some plugins for this. There are a few features in WLM that Pidgin hasn't got yet. Nudges is one. Also I can dock the contact list but I don't want to do that, I want to dock the message window so that it fits within the screen and doesn't disappear off the screen.

jbloggs said:
Pidgin has been the new name for Gaim for at least a couple of months anyway.

Does Pidgin have webcam support, it doesn't mention anything on their website?

Not that I've seen in Pidgin.

MarcLister · 20 Jul 2007 at 01:06

Just found http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/ThirdPartyPlugins.

Some third party plugins for Pidgin. Might help some of you out.