Manage updates with the Download AppCNET 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 2.9 fixes a potential remote denial-of-service bug related to displaying buddy icons.
More Products to Consider
-
Connect your Nokia phone to PC to sync data, download software,... -
Join live-video chat rooms from around the world. -
Chat with other people and participate in group discussions. -
Talk with friends and family for free over the Internet. -
Add live Webcam effects to your videos and photos. -
Add thousands of cool effects to webcam video for live video ch... -
Add dynamic effects to your video from HD Webcams. -
Add a virtual webcam with amazing video effects to your video c... -
Communicate instantly with your friends using avatars, PC-to-PC... -
Add a virtual Webcam for video chats software such as Skype, MS... -
Repair, remove SIM restrictions from, and unlock various cell p... -
Chat with your friends from your desktop. -
Run multiple Skype accounts on the same computer. -
Capture, edit, print, and share photos and videos from your Web... -
Manage your e-mails, calendars, and contacts and sync with Gmai... -
Open, view, and extract data from TNEF-encoded messages. -
Input the Instagram user name and download all his photos with ... -
Launch multiple Skype sessions and sign on accounts. -
Download pictures from Instagram to your PC. -
Chat with all your Facebook friends directly from your Desktop. -
Access your Facebook account quickly and easily. -
Unlock your mobile cell phones. -
Instant translate from and to any language. -
Connect and share instantly on the worlds most popular IM netwo...Visit Site Or, Learn More About Windows Live MessengerThis download is served from an external site
closeNOTICE: This link will open a connection to a third-party site. CNET cannot ensure the security of software that is hosted on external sites.
Sponsored Products
-
All versions:
4.0 starsout of 282 votes
-
Current version:
4.0 starsout of 6 votes
-
My rating:
Write review
Results 1-6 of 6
-
"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
-
"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.
-
"Customizable IRC Agent"
Version: Pidgin 2.9
Pros
Customizable
Small footprintCons
No mobile counterpart
-
"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.
Results 1-6 of 6
Add Your Review
Submit your reply
E-mail this review
Report offensive content
Previous Versions:
