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Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

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Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#241

Post by dheera »

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #77
jdlyga wrote: post #49

Does nobody remember Pidgin? It was one of the first things a lot of people installed on their machines 15 years ago along with Firefox. We used it as an alternative client to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It used to be called GAIM.

Does not everyone still use it? I and most of my friends do. They are also responsible for my favorite bug report ever: https://bugs.gentoo.org/35890

Oh damn, Pidgin. I LOVED that app.

15 years ago I had ONE messaging app that logged me into MSN, ICQ, QQ, Zephyr, Gtalk, Yahoo, AIM, Facebook, and Renren.

On that one messaging app I had either written or downloaded plugins for:

* End-to-end encryption (receiver needed the plugin as well)

* Automatic two-way human language translation via online translation APIs so I could have a conversation with someone who didn't share a common language with me

* Automatic two-way conversion between simplified and traditional Chinese. (I can read both, but traditional is faster for me, so I had it auto-translate all simplified to traditional for me, as well as auto-translate all of my outgoing traditional to simplified on a per-user basis for the receiver's convenience.)

* Ability to create conversation groups across networks, with my account serving as a gateway.

* Automatic rendering of in-line LaTeX math equations.

* Controlling of IOT devices, and allowing access to my dorm room for guests by having them send me an instant message with a certain secret word.

* Cloud-based logs of all of my messages.

* Online gateway that allowed me to access all my message logs from anywhere on any device and any OS with a web browser.

I feel like we've gone backwards. I now have a dozen different closed-protocol, walled-garden messaging apps, some of them even actively try to PUNISH you for trying to decompile and edit them, translation is not automatic, cloud logs only exist on Facebook messenger, E2E encryption is skeptically touted and paraded as some new thing even though I personally had real open-source E2E encryption 15 years ago on ALL my messengers, and everyone is siloed into their own apps and there is no way to send messages across networks.

Sigh. Tech in 2021 sucks. I honestly felt my messaging was way more advanced 15 years ago.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#243

Post by the_af »

alok99 wrote: post #199
CodeGlitch wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest they never knew how to use computers. Computers are general purpose devices, which is lost on the general population who only ever need to check emails and post on social media. Smart phones fit this perfectly. Let's leave the general computing devices for people who actually need that power, just like the early days.

Awfully condescending opinion. How about making _general_ computing devices more accessible via UI/UX to the _general_ public? That doesn't seem like such a crazy idea.

> How about making _general_ computing devices more accessible via UI/UX to the _general_ public?

While I agree with the sentiment, and some of the complexity is not essential, the adage still applies: "everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler". At some point, "general computing" means there's some irreductible complexity that cannot be made simpler without the device ceasing to be general purpose.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#244

Post by psychoslave »

superkuh wrote: post #141
raarts wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daughter (who teaches math at HS) asked me to create educational videos for her kids who don't know how to work a computer. They only know phones.

Kids can't use computers. http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-co...

That’s because so many parents neglectfully don’t forbid them to use computers.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#245

Post by shrimp_emoji »

feanaro wrote: post #223
sergeykish wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is a general purpose computer under there but most people don't interact with it like that. The fact that it can does not mean that it will. A lot of this has to do with the ecosystem and how a device is presented and what the UX is like. Manufacturers increasingly want to lock things down and hide them away. I agree that this trend should be fought.

To me, even a Macbook is hardly a "general purpose computer". :p People love those (including devs).

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#247

Post by jandrese »

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #77
jdlyga wrote: post #49

Does nobody remember Pidgin? It was one of the first things a lot of people installed on their machines 15 years ago along with Firefox. We used it as an alternative client to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It used to be called GAIM.

Does not everyone still use it? I and most of my friends do. They are also responsible for my favorite bug report ever: https://bugs.gentoo.org/35890

Most of my friends are on stovepiped chat systems now. It's really annoying because chat providers have pretty much stopped providing third party APIs anymore so you have friends spread across Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp, Tencent, WeChat, iMessage, and whichever chat system Google is using this month.

I seriously miss the days when all of them would be in the same app no matter what service they were connected through.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#248

Post by gertlex »

smt88 wrote: post #230
astura wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't matter what the official name was, what everyone called it was GChat or Google Chat.

The official name matters when trying to distinguish between Google Talk and Google Chat.

I'd argue the official name de facto doesn't matter when there's been 5+ names for it in the last decade and nobody can keep track of it. Vast majority use it via their phones or in-browser GMail, I suspect.

(On topic: I use it with pidgin still though for the one-on-one chats with a few people!)

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#249

Post by Zak »

surge wrote: post #226
alok99 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awfully condescending opinion. How about making _general_ computing devices more accessible via UI/UX to the _general_ public? That doesn't seem like such a crazy idea.

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 Pay suddenly started refusing to do contactless payments on my rooted phone.

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