gaim = pidgin ->> not updated

**myke** · August 27th, 2007

I really like Gaim. Really I do. But apparantly it's changed it's name to the rather un-cool name of Pidgin. And it has a horrible purple logo/color scheme. Even so, it'll remain my messenger of choice as long as I can't see the features and overall look are still up to par. And I didn't like kopete so I'd rather not have to go there which would be the second most viable option.

However, the version of Gaim in the repositories is 2.0.0 Beta 6 which is way out of date with the version of Pidgin which it now should be in line with 2.1.1 since it's migrated (pun intended) to it's new moniker.

Why does it take so long for such a widely used program to get updated in the repositories??? Major ones such as Firefox and OpenOffice are updated regularly and since Gaim/Pidgin is the main messenger program for Ubuntu especially those that utilize Gnome vs KDE, why so long migrating the beta Gaim it's current Pidgin form???

Please udpate this program as soon as feasible in the repositories. I'm using Feisty, the current stable Ubuntu version so I'd think it'd be time to update Gaim/Pidgin.

**ddrichardson** · August 27th, 2007

There has been a lot of talk of this and apparently it's in the codebase for 7.10.

If you want to install it now with repo support then there is a howto here.

**myke** · August 28th, 2007

Thanks. After doing a little more research, I was surprised at how many folks out there have created repositories of their own just to backport Pidgin into Feisty. The one I found that was the most comprehensive including plugin support was here: http://www.trausch.us/pidgin

However, when I uninstalled Gaim vs the new Pidgin, I was unimpressed. There didn't seem to be any improvements ... none that I could notice or that affected my use ... and the icons that differentiate what protocol each person is using in a large buddy group are no longer part of Pidgin which I found annoying. It's a really useful feature that I find helpful considering how split my IM base is between Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and GTalk.

I'll wait until the official Ubuntu backports are updated. Maybe by then Pidgin will catch back up to the beta of Gaim that's in the repositories now. It may have had some underneath-the-hood improvements but nothing else seems to be all that better. And put my protocol icons back in!

**ddrichardson** · August 28th, 2007

Yes the icon change is a bit odd. Remember though that the change to Pidgin is a necessary one for the developers who had a law suit pending against them from AOL for trademark infringement.

**hikaricore** · August 31st, 2007

Nothing is stopping you from just continuing to use GAIM.
You can still always download it from the older repos or compile it yourself.

Not a big fan of Pidgen here, I use it at work for some reason (i forget) and it's a pain in the *** not know what service folks are on.

**leftyfb** · August 31st, 2007

You know, we really need to let the pidgin dev's know we don't like the lack of protocol icons in the buddy list. They seriously think the MAJORITY of users prefer it this way. Funny thing, every single person i've talked to about this either agree'd with me or didn't care. Not one person prefers the lack of protocol icons. Every person agree'd that they shouldn't have made this decision without consulting their users. I have tried to voice my opinion to the devs but they come back and insist this is whats best for us.

So please, if you care at all, go voice your opinions ....
devel@pidgin.im is the only way I have found to to this. They don't have any forums or any easily found way to contact them. I got this from the bug report I replied to here: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/414

They just brush our concerns off saying protocol icons "have no valid use".

**DizzyTech** · September 1st, 2007

I'm sorry to say that my tutorial is now obsolete: Pidgin isn't in mlind's repos anymore. I suggest that you use Debuntu.org's repo; I updated my tutorial for it. Check in Synaptic if you have the mlind repository, because Pidgin will be listed under local and obsolete.

**aaaantoine** · September 5th, 2007

Originally Posted by ddrichardson

Yes the icon change is a bit odd. Remember though that the change to Pidgin is a necessary one for the developers who had a law suit pending against them from AOL for trademark infringement.

That very lawsuit is probably why they dropped the protocol icons.

**MorphiusFaydal** · September 7th, 2007

Just to make $0.02 known... I like the lack of protocol icons. I don't care what you're using... Having the new icons makes it real easy to tell who's online, who's away... Without having to look for some miniature icon superimposed over the already-ugly AIM logo.

Although it *does* confuse me why Pidgin hasn't been backported to the official repos by the devs... I understand that it's in line for Gutsy, but IIRC, Pidgin 2.0.0 game out *before* Feisty's release....