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Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

pidgin.im

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Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#11

Post by Melatonic »

mdasen wrote: post #7

I really miss Adium ( https://adium.im ) which was based on Pidgin's libpurple. Adium had such a great user experience. It was built with native widgets and also incorporated chat themes that were implemented using WebKit's rendering ( https://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&cat_id=5&sort=... ). It was fast and memory friendly given that it was a native app and the themes were just small templates offering a di…

Yeah the days of integrated chat messengers seem to be dead. I loved Trillian way back when and all of the UI customization options.

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#12

Post by dijit »

valbaca wrote: post #2

oh pidgin. Throughout my life (as a millennial) chat went this way: 1. IRC 2. IRC, Yahoo messenger, Aol Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger (mostly based on your ISP in the early days) 3. All + Skype (video!! wow!) + Google messenger. *This was when pidgin was invaluable* (there was also some Duck app for macOS?) 4. Skype started charging and since everyone was on Facebook, everyone moved to Facebook messenger. Text mes…

Similar.

1. IRC

2. ICQ

3. MSN

4. IRC (again)

5. Skype and Facebook

6. WhatsApp

7. Facebook again

8. Still Facebook (very sticky)

9. IRC + Slack (some communities) + Discord (some communities) + Facebook/Whatsapp + Signal + Telegram + Matrix + Zulip

Yeah, I think we need a new libpurple.

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#13

Post by 8ytecoder »

valbaca wrote: post #2

oh pidgin. Throughout my life (as a millennial) chat went this way: 1. IRC 2. IRC, Yahoo messenger, Aol Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger (mostly based on your ISP in the early days) 3. All + Skype (video!! wow!) + Google messenger. *This was when pidgin was invaluable* (there was also some Duck app for macOS?) 4. Skype started charging and since everyone was on Facebook, everyone moved to Facebook messenger. Text mes…

GTalk - you could install it without admin and it was blazing fast.

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#14

Post by kitsunesoba »

mdasen wrote: post #7

I really miss Adium ( https://adium.im ) which was based on Pidgin's libpurple. Adium had such a great user experience. It was built with native widgets and also incorporated chat themes that were implemented using WebKit's rendering ( https://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&cat_id=5&sort=... ). It was fast and memory friendly given that it was a native app and the themes were just small templates offering a di…

There also used to be plugins for iChat (which later became Messages) that added support for MSN Messenger, making for a no-fuss nicely streamlined chat experience across a decent range of networks (AIM, XMPP/Gchat, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger).

So between modded iChat and Adium, on Mac OS you had the choice between minimal and kitchen-sink style IM clients, both of which were free and had no ads. OS X had also hit peak refinement around that time, between 10.2 and 10.6. It was a brief but golden age for Mac users with a lot of IM friends.

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#16

Post by syntheticnature »

dijit wrote: post #12
valbaca wrote: post #2

oh pidgin. Throughout my life (as a millennial) chat went this way: 1. IRC 2. IRC, Yahoo messenger, Aol Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger (mostly based on your ISP in the early days) 3. All + Skype (video!! wow!) + Google messenger. *This was when pidgin was invaluable* (there was also some Duck app for macOS?) 4. Skype started charging and since everyone was on Facebook, everyone moved to Facebook messenger. Text mes…

Similar. 1. IRC 2. ICQ 3. MSN 4. IRC (again) 5. Skype and Facebook 6. WhatsApp 7. Facebook again 8. Still Facebook (very sticky) 9. IRC + Slack (some communities) + Discord (some communities) + Facebook/Whatsapp + Signal + Telegram + Matrix + Zulip Yeah, I think we need a new libpurple.

Part of the lack of 'new libpurple' is that companies have grown much more adept at/focused on removing third party clients. Discord in particular, IIRC, will even ban users for using third party clients.

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#17

Post by tjader »

dijit wrote: post #12
valbaca wrote: post #2

oh pidgin. Throughout my life (as a millennial) chat went this way: 1. IRC 2. IRC, Yahoo messenger, Aol Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger (mostly based on your ISP in the early days) 3. All + Skype (video!! wow!) + Google messenger. *This was when pidgin was invaluable* (there was also some Duck app for macOS?) 4. Skype started charging and since everyone was on Facebook, everyone moved to Facebook messenger. Text mes…

Similar. 1. IRC 2. ICQ 3. MSN 4. IRC (again) 5. Skype and Facebook 6. WhatsApp 7. Facebook again 8. Still Facebook (very sticky) 9. IRC + Slack (some communities) + Discord (some communities) + Facebook/Whatsapp + Signal + Telegram + Matrix + Zulip Yeah, I think we need a new libpurple.

I've been using Matrix + bridges to fill that gap. I use IRC, Telegram, Google Chat, Discord and WhatsApp all via bridges, so I only have to interact with a single interface and all my chats are in the same place.

Before that I used first Trillian, then Pidgin. Then seeking persistence across clients I started using bitlbee to access everything through IRC, but that really sucked for media-heavy things like Telegram. My current setup of my own Matrix homeserver + bridges has been working great and feels way more liberating than using 6 different apps.

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#18

Post by spennant »

dijit wrote: post #12
valbaca wrote: post #2

oh pidgin. Throughout my life (as a millennial) chat went this way: 1. IRC 2. IRC, Yahoo messenger, Aol Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger (mostly based on your ISP in the early days) 3. All + Skype (video!! wow!) + Google messenger. *This was when pidgin was invaluable* (there was also some Duck app for macOS?) 4. Skype started charging and since everyone was on Facebook, everyone moved to Facebook messenger. Text mes…

Similar. 1. IRC 2. ICQ 3. MSN 4. IRC (again) 5. Skype and Facebook 6. WhatsApp 7. Facebook again 8. Still Facebook (very sticky) 9. IRC + Slack (some communities) + Discord (some communities) + Facebook/Whatsapp + Signal + Telegram + Matrix + Zulip Yeah, I think we need a new libpurple.

I started with Talk - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_(software) But I guess that's because I'm Gen-X

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#19

Post by shashurup »

I definitely liked it, however, since whatsapp, telegram, slack etc had joined the game with mostly proprietary protocols it looks like it just has no chance to catch up and it is very sad - I find the ability to choose a client quite important.

P.S. I have even written a plugin for - quickpurple

Re: Pidgin: The Universal Chat Client

#20

Post by ganzuul »

I could never come to terms with the tattered and worn user interface experience for an application that is so prominent on the desktop. Perhaps the widget system is glamorous underneath, but to accomplish its job of getting out of the way of functionality... I can feel the RSI acting up from the time when Pidgin was my only option.

Thanks for what you did, no thanks for repeat business.

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