Pidgin 2.12 Instant Messenger Client Released

[Serafean]

A new xkcd that is perfect for this thread

Right! I forgot SMS.
Apache request log is weird though.

[guildem]

All reinventing the wheel.
We have had encrypted chat since 2004 on ANY protocol. [1] Granted the encryption key size might need some revision now.
We do have an extensible IM protocol that supports group chat, federation and other bells and whistles (like enabling collaborative document editing[2]). It's called XMPP. [3] And it enables the user to chose his client of choice. (My #1 criterion for using anything)

But XMPP has one BIG problem imo, it isn't one protocol but association of multiple protocols. So two clients, or two servers won't have the same implementation. if you want pictures messages, the server and the client must have implemented the protocol to attach pictures... Not so simple to understand...

[peppercats]

Funny how we talk about open over here while everybody I know moves to either FB messenger or iMessage. And I have neither

Same, I have people that always ask me if I have a facebook messenger or a whatsapp or whatever it's called.

Only communication protocols I use outside of SMS is Skype on pidgin via the thirdparty plugin as the majority of my contacts also use it. Otherwise, SMS.

[R00KIE]

Don't forget https://ring.cx/

[Serafean]

But XMPP has one BIG problem imo, it isn't one protocol but association of multiple protocols. So two clients, or two servers won't have the same implementation. if you want pictures messages, the server and the client must have implemented the protocol to attach pictures... Not so simple to understand...

That I have to concede. And from a quick google, there are at least two methods for file transfer. (nothing new though, MSN and ICQ had two too back in the day : P2P and proxy)
One solution would be to create "profiles" ( ... Basic chat< Audio < video ...), somewhat like OpenGL. It seems to work well enough there...
We currently need strong regulatory bodies to enforce some kind of open standard. Like the 1886 US railway gauge change (not a very good example, but it gives an idea of the massivness of the endeavour).

[Hi-Angel]

So... what can it be used for these days? I loved Pidgin when it connected me to YM and GTalk at the same time. But these days IM itself seems to be dying, to be replaced by SMS/Whatsapp and social media.

Of course whatsapp isn't a messenger :P

Pidgin is a generic messenger, the idea is that instead of a bunch of separate apps you'd have a single one to talk to everyone. E.g. I'm using pidgin with Skype, vk.com, IRC, G+, Facebook. Don't you think it's nice that I don't have to hold either a bunch of pages in a browser or separate apps to just write a message through one of those protocols?

[bug77]

That I have to concede. And from a quick google, there are at least two methods for file transfer. (nothing new though, MSN and ICQ had two too back in the day : P2P and proxy)
One solution would be to create "profiles" ( ... Basic chat< Audio < video ...), somewhat like OpenGL. It seems to work well enough there...
We currently need strong regulatory bodies to enforce some kind of open standard. Like the 1886 US railway gauge change (not a very good example, but it gives an idea of the massivness of the endeavour).

Technically, server will advertise their capabilities and clients can discover them and act accordingly. The problem is the majority of these extensions have been proposed for years, seen a few years of going back and forth and at some point the original developer lost interest and nobody picked up the slack. So they're left stuck in alpha/beta/whatever form and rot.

Of course whatsapp isn't a messenger :P

Pidgin is a generic messenger, the idea is that instead of a bunch of separate apps you'd have a single one to talk to everyone. E.g. I'm using pidgin with Skype, vk.com, IRC, G+, Facebook. Don't you think it's nice that I don't have to hold either a bunch of pages in a browser or separate apps to just write a message through one of those protocols?

Of the protocols you've listed, only Skype is in widespread use. Even so, Pidgin is the least common denominator, meaning you get one app to "rule" (in the broad sense) the all, but its features are severely lacking. I couldn't reliably send files over Pidgin even during Yahoo's heydays. Want to snap a picture and quickly send it to someone? Tough luck.

The end result? While I'm technically connected to several networks, I never see 10 contacts online at any given moment these days. The world has moved on.

[Hi-Angel]

Of the protocols you've listed, only Skype is in widespread use. Even so, Pidgin is the least common denominator, meaning you get one app to "rule" (in the broad sense) the all, but its features are severely lacking. I couldn't reliably send files over Pidgin even during Yahoo's heydays. Want to snap a picture and quickly send it to someone? Tough luck.

Well, either it's fixed already, or it was a plugin-specific problem (or either). ATM the only protocol where I'm sending'n'getting pictures is vk.com (just because of all protocols I am only actively communicating there and on IRC), and it works fine there.

[mulenmar]

Don't you think it's nice that I don't have to hold either a bunch of pages in a browser or separate apps to just write a message through one of those protocols?

Haven't you heard? Javascript-running browsers are the new JVM/userspace! To hell with graceful-fallback, just make everyone keep up the wasteful hardware treadmill so they can have the dozen tabs of scripts made necessary open at once! Oh, its all running too slowly? Let's specify a subset of JavaScript (asm.js) to compile ahead-of-time (AoT), and when generating that code to send out, do it only on little-endian hardware -- completely leave big-endian hardware/software out to dry, it barely exists anyway.

Yes, I'm a little peeved at the waste and inefficiency.

[GreatEmerald]

Yeap. During the heydey, I used Pidgin for Google Talk, Skype, IRC, XFire and MSN. Now I'm just using it for Google Talk (which is half-dead) and Skype (which works better than before), and I promoted IRC to Konversation instead. I'm also using Tox, but it's not been stable enough still, also on mobile, to allow good enough video chat, and not enough people on it still. Also WebRTC got real good in the mean while.

But yes, this proliferation of chat protocols is hilariously bad. Indeed, IRC works real nice and there's no need for anything else. It's open, too. Doesn't have that good encryption, but then there's these people working on it: http://ircv3.net/

And back on topic, good thing Pidgin devs fixed the TLS issue. That was preventing me from using Google Talk lately, but now it works again.