CNET Editors' review
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.
Publisher's Description
From 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.
What's new in this version: Version 2.10.1 fixed remotely-triggerable crashes by validating strings in a few messages related to buddy list management in AIM and ICQ, problems linking against GnuTLS in Gadu-Gadu, and IPv6 fixes for Bonjour.
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All versions:
4.0 starsout of 281 votes
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Current version:
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"wont connect to aim"
Version: Pidgin 2.9
Pros
none to mentioned
Cons
cant connect
Summary
Wont connect properly to aim. Loads exactly 4 of my buddies. Also wont connect to facebook. The faq offers no help as the links are mostly dead.
Can anyone help!? For now its completely worthless, but if I can get it going ill definitely rate it better -
"Great IM client"
Version: Pidgin 2.9
Pros
1. Supports almost all major chat client
2. Good feature set
3. Open source!!Cons
None so far
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"Flexible, friendly and stable"
Version: Pidgin 2.9
Pros
Fast and easy accounts configuration. Uses very few system resources, and works well. The tagging is useful and fun to use.
Cons
None relevant. TB has no skins or color themes, but the standard look is fairly adequate..
Summary
Fast and easy configuration of e-mail accounts, both POP and SMTP linked. It feels like using very few system resources, and works seamlessly alongside with Outlook, which I keep using for my professional e-mails.
Its best characteristic is being intuitive: whoever has ever used some e-mail client can use TB, and will find any functional feature he or she has ever loved. You cannont give it a specially "pretty" looks but if you want fancy looks and visual effects better than efficiency there's always Incredimail, which isn't bad at all... -
"Great IM Consolidator"
Version: Pidgin 2.9
Pros
When Yahoo IM updated to version 11, I no longer had the ability to store my archives locally. Pidgin solves that problem, and I do not have to look at ads anymore either!
Cons
The default smilies are lame, but you can import sounds and smilies from other clients. Occasionally, the other IMs such as Yahoo change servers which requires some work to get Pidgin reconnected.
Summary
A great solution for those who do not like the ads that other IM clients have, and for those who want to archive their IMs locally (they are even in plaintext and are searchable!). I do not have friends on multiple clients, but if I did, I could use Pidgin to chat with all of them.
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"Customizable IRC Agent"
Version: Pidgin 2.9
Pros
Customizable
Small footprintCons
No mobile counterpart
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"Best IM client available"
Version: Pidgin 2.9
Pros
-Looks native on all platforms
-Simple and easy to use with no unnecessary bells or whistles.
-Easy to configure.
-Plug-ins and themes.Cons
It's fairly easy not to realise that someone has messaged you; it doesn't make as much of a fuss as other IM clients.
Summary
A must have IM client for users of all IM protocols. It's perfect for use with the Facebook Chat protocol, and it seems like more people are using this protocol than any other. Looks and works perfectly on openSUSE Linux and Windows XP.
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"Couldn't install"
Version: Pidgin 2.7.11
Pros
Wish I could say . . .
Cons
Didn't install.
Summary
I had a problem downloading the GTK whatever it's called. Too bad. I really liked Pidgin on my Linux partition where it seems to work flawlessly.
Nevermind. I got it to install correctly. I guess they were serious about closing all open applications before beginning. Who would have thought? Anyways: 4 Stars!
Updated on May 30, 2011 -
"Supports IRC chat without the need of an IRC client-"
Version: Pidgin 2.7.11
Pros
As well as a general messenger,which supports Aim,Google Talk and others,Pidgin supports IRC chat. So if you have Pidgin you NOT NOT need to use any other IRC Chat messenger to connect to IRC channels.More user friendly than an IRC client too.
Cons
Pidgin does not support voice or video chat on Windows. Only the Linux version of Pidgin supports voice and video chat. But not the Windows version. Why?
Summary
When I first tried Pidgin it did seem that I would not be sure how to use it. So I used Instantbird which I still use.Which is a simplified version of Pidgin but with not so many features. But I recently stated to lean how to do IRC chat. And I found that the many IRC Chat clients are just too complicated and difficult to use. And some of the IRC clients are not free on Windows,although they are on Linux. And so I discovered that Instantbird which I have got does do IRC chat. The default channel is Freenode but on Instantbird and Pidgin you can connect to any other IRC network,Undernet for example.By typing in the IRC web address.Instanbird connects you to the IRC Channels and you can chat in IRC and do commands. But Pidgin does more because it finds channels for you, and it will scan and find a list of channels on the IRC channel network you are connected to. And you can just go onto the channel and chat instantly.Where as Instantbird,although it connects you to IRC and you can go to any channel by selecting join channel and typing the channel name. Instantbird does not have a channel finder like Pidgin does.Pidgin will also save channels for you so you can connect to them automatically next time you start Pidgin. And it is much more user friendly than X Chat IRC.Because to chat you just type in the messages the same way you do in other accounts,Aim and Google Talk. And the reply s are displayed the same way as in normal messaging. So when you are on IRC in Pidgin or Instantbird,you use it the same way as a normal messenger. So with all of that going for you in Pidgin,who needs an IRC client? and it is good for normal messaging too,supports MSN Yahoo,Google Talk etc. But windows Pidgin does not support voice or video chat on Windows. But there are other messengers for that. Although Linux Pidgin does but only video chat for Google Talk on Linux only. But the most helpful feature is the IRC support. So if you use Pidgin for IRC you will never have to use an IRC chat messenger again if you have got Pidgin.Because it is much easier to use than an IRC client.It is a pity more people don't know that they can use Pidgin for IRC. But they do now! Andrea Borman.
I was able to join IRC channels and chat easy. And create an IRC channel for a friend. And Pidgin did it all for me. And I was able to use IRC commands which you have to do to register a username and register a channel. But this was not a problem in Pidgin. I recommend Pidgin as a fully functional IRC Chat client and messenger. Andrea Borman.
Updated on May 6, 2011 -
"Seems fine"
Version: Pidgin 2.7.11
Pros
Works as I expected
Cons
None noticed so far
Summary
I don't make extensive use of all the functionality in Pidgin - I simply wanted an alternative client for IM via GoogleTalk, since I don't like the UI of GoggleTalk's own client. In this respect, Pidgin does exactly what I want - plain, problem-free IM chat. Happy user.
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"Good Integrator of Instant Messaging Services"
Version: Pidgin 2.7.11
Pros
- Integrates many different IM services
- No new account required
- Notification
- Support for File TransferringCons
- It is not fancy looking (there may be Skins, I did not look into it and did not use it very long)
- The Facebook connection could be a bit confusing (I believe you have to have a username in your Facebook account separate from email)Summary
I think it is a good program, although I prefer Digsby, which also integrates emails and Facebook stuff other than chat. Digsby is also nicer looking only because there is easy switching of skins in the settings/preferences. Both programs seemed to me to use very little system resources.
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