I'm not sure about Empathy.

[calrogman]

Now, I don't know about you guys, but from what I have heard a lot of you are upset that Pidgin is being scrapped in favor of Empathy in Ubuntu 9.10.

I tried Empathy (3 times) and whenever my laptop dropped its wifi connection, Empathy wouldn't let me reconnect to MSN. Everything else was fine, but when I clicked the reconnect button, it'd say "network error" (after no delay, it wasn't checking) and I'd be prompted to hit the reconnect button again. The only way to fix this without closing Empathy was to run
killall -9 telepathy-butterflyin a terminal.

I'm not really sure about you, but I don't consider that a good, or even stable piece of software.

Which do you prefer, Pidgin or Empathy, and why?

[MikeTheC]

Well, I use Adium X myself, so I'm not sure if I can empathize with you on this.

Then again...

[steeleyuk]

The network error bug is known. Fix is still being waited on though.

[calrogman]

Fix is still being waited on though.

What's hard about pinging www.google.com and messenger.hotmail.com, comparing the resuts and figuring out if the network is up, down or if MSN is simply temporarily offline?

[Spiritous]

Not too bothered... If it lets me log on, I'm a happy hippo :)

[calrogman]

And if it doesn't let you log in?

[Spiritous]

Can't find any kind of rhyming animal for that...

[calrogman]

Alliterating animal actually. Another alliteration, amazing!

[Spiritous]

My head hurts... Omg more alliteration o.O!

[LookTJ]

As of right now, My Multi-IM of choice is Pidgin.

[0per4t0r]

Pidgin and Emesene are great.

[heyyy]

why Pidgin is being scrapped in favor of Empathy ?
is it better?
is it a license thing?
does it have more features?

[ibuclaw]

Now I prefer to rhyme in sync with ten.
Iambic pentameter for the win!
Since simplicity says it all for me.
That is why I opted for bit-l-bee!

:D

btw: please don't put in useless tags. Stay ontopic, and keep it constructive. Thank-you.

[calrogman]

why Pidgin is being scrapped in favor of Empathy ?
is it better?
is it a license thing?
does it have more features?

It's more "user-friendly" and integrates better with GNOME apparently.

Here have a link (https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/2009-June/002099.html) to a post in the mailing list.

[potrick]

There's also the non-trivial inclusion of audio and video messaging support in Empathy. Pidgin's promised this for years with seemingly no results, but Empathy has it now. For many new user's Ubuntu not being able to do this out of the box is a real show-stopper.

I just hope by the new Ubuntu release someone's worked out a way to import Pidgin logs into Empathy--if Empathy could do that I'd switch right now.

[Regenweald]

I don't use instant messengers at all but my understanding is that Empathy is in heavy development/testing to be ready for inclusion in karmic final. File those bug reports and help development along. It may not be 100% currently but it could be very soon with your help. it's been decided that this is the way forward for Ubuntu so rather than a vs thread why not start a collective bug report thread ?

[calrogman]

There's also the non-trivial inclusion of audio and video messaging support in Empathy

And the non-trivial lack of support for file transfers.

[Tibuda]

why Pidgin is being scrapped in favor of Empathy ?
is it better?
is it a license thing?
does it have more features?

Empathy got less features, but it supports video chat in some protocols, so I think it is better for the default IM program. I'll stick to Pidgin, as I don't use video chat.

[sertse]

And the non-trivial lack of support for file transfers.

Alternatives to file transfering (email?) is much easier than alternatives to video/audio chat (i.e , get your you and your friend to sign up for skype, and use the skype client etc etc).

Anyways maybe I just haven't explore it well enough, but where are the options for text formatting and avatars?

[Regenweald]

And the non-trivial lack of support for file transfers.

look up BaShare.

[calrogman]

where are the options for text formatting and avatars?

In pidgin.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

And the non-trivial lack of support for file transfers.

This isn't true. Empathy supports file transfers with XMPP, and I believe telepathy-butterfly support for that is coming when the API gets touched up.

Also, the integration stuff is not specific to GNOME. It is desktop-neutral functionality and could be extremely cool when it gets to be widely used. (GNOME 2.28 will at least use it for multiplayer in Sudoku - yes, Sudoku -, to give you a taster). It's absolutely worthwhile to drop Pidgin for Empathy. It's understandable so long as people don't fall into the assumption that instant messaging == a buddy list. Empathy is about a lot more than the buddy list and the chat window. In very vague terms, it is about harnessing messaging protocols as proper infrastructure instead of specific applications.

[potrick]

Okay guys, here's how it works.

Scenario 1: Pidgin as default

New Users: What the crap? No support for video messaging? Ubuntu sucks.

Old Users: LOL, NEWB. Install Skype and somehow convince all of your friend to as well.

Scenario 2: Empathy as default

New Users: use video and audio as expected, without noticing Pidgin lacks file transfers.

Old Users: type "sudo apt-get install pidgin"



The End.

[Nevon]

Scenario 2: Empathy as default

New Users: use video and audio as expected, without noticing Pidgin lacks file transfers.

I assume you mean Empathy lacks file transfers? In that case, I think that it will go more like this:

Empathy as default

New Users: try to use video and audio in MSN. Doesn't work. Try to send files over MSN. Doesn't work. Go to support forums and ask for help. Gets the following reply:

sudo apt-get install amsn

New user: Takes one look at amsn, cries and asks their slightly tech savvy friend to install a pirated version of Windows XP instead.

[Orlsend]

I used Pidgin Since 8.04, a couple days ago I gave Empathy a try. (Similar, but I still think pidgin is better)

I guess ill be ticked off in karmic....

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Here are the slides from a nice presentation on the collaborative desktop, from GCDS:

http://people.canonical.com/~jriddell/gcds-presentations-2009/Guillaume%20Desmottes,%20make%20GNOME%20a%20collab orative%20desktop.pdf

Sorry, can't find a video, but the slideshow is pretty cool. Mostly mockups, but I think it pretty nicely shows the potential here and why it matters :)

[SQuark]

Gets the following reply:

sudo apt-get install amsn

New user: Takes one look at amsn, cries and asks their slightly tech savvy friend to install a pirated version of Windows XP instead.

Alternatively, they'll be told to install Emesene 1.5 and new user will be a happy bunny.


http://people.canonical.com/~jriddell/gcds-presentations-2009/Guillaume%20Desmottes,%20make%20GNOME%20a%20collab orative%20desktop.pdf

Sorry, can't find a video, but the slideshow is pretty cool. Mostly mockups, but I think it pretty nicely shows the potential here and why it matters :)

Looking good! Can't wait to try some of that. :D