Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client • Hacker News Board

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#371

Post by type0 » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 1:20 AM UTC

ryukafalz wrote: post #282

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it not still do so? I'm fairly certain that I'm using Pidgin 's XMPP functionality to communicate with others that are receiving their end in Google Hangouts .

It used to do XMPP federation too; they might still be exposing XMPP C2S but federation is long gone. Fun fact: if you were on a non-Google server talking to someone on Google Talk and they clicked the button to "upgrade" to Hangouts, on your end they would show up as perpetually "away" and any messages you sent them would be blackholed. Yes, that was as frustrating as it sounds.

OK, now you just solved a mystery to me

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#372

Post by canofbars » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 1:26 AM UTC

peruvian wrote: post #268

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They use one at home to browse the internet and work? I can certainly understand that one would do so on the go, but it seems extremely cumbersome to do a school assignment on a phone keyboard.

Not many are writing papers on their iPhone, but many do on iPads. Mouse and keyboard support are good and so are the apps. I think the average person that doesn't need to do heavy editing, coding, etc. can get by with an iPad Pro w/ some accessories.

I think they probably could get by with an ipad pro but they could do the same thing on a chromebook for a fraction of the price. The ipad pro is only really worth it if you need the pencil.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#373

Post by canofbars » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 1:28 AM UTC

Zak wrote: post #249

surge wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did, it resulted in smartphones and tablets, so what the OP is saying applies still. I would argue that's "general" computing now. They finished what the webTV started, providing a basic platform for people who had only very basic needs.

Smartphones and tablets are trying pretty hard not to be general-purpose computers. iOS devices don't run arbitrary user-specified code unless hacked, and many Android devices are designed not to let the user have real admin rights (i.e. root). This seems to be getting worse, for example Google and its financial institution partners have decided that general-purpose computing and payments aren't safe together. Google…

iOS devices can _run_ arbitrary code without being hacked. It just stops working 3 days after being compiled so its good enough for kids to develop on but not good enough to distribute.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#374

Post by canofbars » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 1:35 AM UTC

tootie wrote: post #213

flatiron wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think discord/slack/teams seem to have shaken up the IM market recently.

Of course, and we'll new dominant players in 5 years. My point is just that none of these do anything radically different from IRC. Channel-based as the primary mode (as opposed to direct) is a bit of paradigm shift in terms of UX, but it's just a veneer on group chats that have existed forever. And obviously, they've all been adapted to web/smartphones as opposed to terminal. But in terms of what kind of communicati…

>My point is just that none of these do anything radically different from IRC.

This is such an IRC user take. On the same level as not understanding what the point of dropbox is when FTP exists.

The failure of FOSS to understand what users actually want is the reason proprietary platforms took off. Matrix is the first attempt to create something similar to what users use and want.

I thought about writing a list of all the things I use on discord which IRC doesn't support but it would be a waste of time because its almost everything discord does. Even basic sending and receiving messages is close to impossible with irc on mobile unless you use a 3rd party service to translate the protocol in to something mobile friendly.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#375

Post by canofbars » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 1:37 AM UTC

proverbialbunny wrote: post #202

tootie wrote: post #14

There's been such an enormous amount of churn in the IM client market for an industry that hasn't seen significant innovation since the days of dial-up.

I'd consider stickies a decent jump. My past self never would have predicted the world has moved to a form of hieroglyphics of fuzzy animals to talk to each other.

Stickers are such an underrated feature, especially platforms that allow user generated sticker packs. Its the number one feature on Telegram imo and the primary reason a lot of people I know use it over discord.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#376

Post by spiritplumber » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 1:52 AM UTC

vlunkr wrote: post #336

spiritplumber wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's terrifying. A computer is something you can use to consume content or produce content. A tablet is something you can only really use to consume content. (Regular tablet, not artist tablet obviously, and those generally have to talk to a computer)

I'm not sure what's terrifying about that. Books can only be used to consume content too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginalia

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#377

Post by kypro » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 2:09 AM UTC

Damn, it's been a while since I've thought about Pidgin. I used to use it every day a decade or so ago.

I was thinking the other day how excited I got about Windows Phone 7 because of how they centralised chats and social feeds from multiple services under a single contact tile. Back then I could see a future where we wouldn't need to log onto Facebook to update our status, or sign into Skype to make a call, but we would instead have a single app which would aggregate all of our communication services into a single UI.

I don't know what happened to that vision. I seem to use so many different communication apps these days. On my desktop I normally have WhatsApp, Signal, MS Teams, Skype, Slack and Apple Mail open at all times and I also keep my phone near me for SMS and calls. Thankfully I don't use social media anymore, but if I did I guess I would also have at least one or two tabs open for Facebook and Twitter.

It seems in recent years platforms have been increasingly restrictive about what you can and can't do with their APIs and chat services such as Slack have ended their support for IRC and XMPP altogether. I understand the move from a business perspective, but it sucks as an end user of these services.

In a lot of ways it seems we've gone backwards from the days of XMPP and Pidgin.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#378

Post by stjohnswarts » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 2:17 AM UTC

filmgirlcw wrote: post #335

thesuitonym wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay but people who aren't mechanics, but drive, still know how to do things like turn the car on, and understand that if they turn the steering wheel right, the wheels point to the right. They understand that the car needs gas, even if they don't really know why it needs gas. People who don't know how to use computers treat them like a magic box that may or may not do what they want to, if they use the right magical…

I think you’d be surprised just how much new car owners/drivers do not know about how to work a car. The number of people I’ve seen confused by how to fill a gas tank — let alone what type of gas to use, is massive. And it’ll only get worse as we move to electric and self-driving cars. And then there is the stuff that is often different car to car, like where lights are, how to adjust certain settings. Want to pair t…

Maybe in Oregon. Everywhere I've lived people haven't panicked over filling up their gas tank? As a matter of fact I've never encountered a single person ever wandering around the gas station parking lot asking other for help on filling their tank....

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#379

Post by stjohnswarts » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 2:19 AM UTC

sergeykish wrote: post #201

unicornporn wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I re-read that piece just a week ago. It's magnificent and now even more true than eight years ago. Spoke to friend this week, she told me she doesn't have a computer. That's increasingly common. People get by with their phones.

But smartphone is a computer, personal computer with telephony hardware. And Android is Linux with different userspace, mainline Linux can boot quite a lot of smartphones. Terminology is so wrong.

We all knew what he meant. It was obvious from the context.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#380

Post by mqus » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 2:22 AM UTC

spijdar wrote: post #276

emilsedgh wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaim was one of the best apps out there. I'd absolutely love to use it. But what do I use it for? Nowadays I talk to people on Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Slack and Telegram and none of them can be used on Pidgin. Not Pidgin's fault I know. Just companies trying to lock people in.

Just a heads up, at least several of those are supported to varying degrees. Looks like WhatsApp is supported through its web API, and slack and telegram's protocols are supported. Facebook messenger is no go, though.

But facebook messenger at least used to work, I know I used it with pidgin before