Why rename GAIM to Pidgin?

[r.hall]

This has been bothering me for a few months.

For the love of god, who's stupid idea was it to change Gaim's name to Pidgin?!

It's the ugliest freaking name ever, and the icon that accompanies it is even worse.

[-grubby]

I like the name Pidgin, but I think it has the ugliest icon in the history of the universe.

[Wiebelhaus]

This has been bothering me for a few months.

For the love of god, who's stupid idea was it to change Gaim's name to Pidgin?!

It's the ugliest freaking name ever, and the icon that accompanies it is even worse.

I agree , but it works so w/e.

[x0as]

They had to change the name, I don't really care what its called.

[Phil Airtime]

This has been bothering me for a few months.

For the love of god, who's stupid idea was it to change Gaim's name to Pidgin?!

It's the ugliest freaking name ever, and the icon that accompanies it is even worse.

AIM wasn't happy with the Gaim name, so they changed it to Pidgin.

It's quite a clever name, all things considered. Nice package, too. I still use Feisty, so it's still Gaim for me.

[Steveway]

They had to change it because AOL owns the copyright of the name of it's AOL-Instant-Messenger - AIM.
So to not get sued by AOL they changed the name.

[Ireclan]

I think Pidgin is a clever name. Haven't seen the icon, though, so I can't comment on that.

[Henaro]

I like the little purple pidgin icon.... I think it's cute (´･ω･｀).

[r.hall]

I think Pidgin is a clever name. Haven't seen the icon, though, so I can't comment on that.
http://www.pidgin.im/shared/img/logo.pidgin.png
It looks like it has a crippling disease.

[FuturePilot]

http://www.pidgin.im/shared/img/logo.pidgin.png
It looks like it has a crippling disease.

I love that icon! I like the name too. I actually didn't like the name Gaim.

[Ireclan]

http://www.pidgin.im/shared/img/logo.pidgin.png

Wow...I'm going to channel my inner highschooler on this one and say: "That bird looks queerer than a three-legged ballerina.".

[Anessen]

But it's cute! Also, who's to say that is a male pigeon?

[-grubby]

But it's cute! Also, who's to say that is a male pigeon?

how can you call that cute? No offense, but I think its about as cute as a dump truck

[Wiebelhaus]

I want to kill it , it looks like a purple george jones.


http://www.freighttrainboogie.com/ImagesAlbums/jones-g-1.jpg


those eyes , like a rabbit that's about to bust a foot.

[Steveway]

The only fact that bothers me on that pidgeon is that it has no tail.
That makes it look strange, also it could look a little bit friendlier.
But it's definately better than the old logo.

[M$LOL]

Why is Pidgin such a clever name?

[Ireclan]

Ever heard of MESSENGER Pidgins?

[p_quarles]

Ever heard of MESSENGER Pidgins?
No need for the sarcasm.

Obviously it's a pun on the idea of a messenger pigeon (note the spelling), but it also refers to "pidgin" language (again, note the spelling) which is a kind of regional or cultural dialect based upon another language. For instance, Jamaican English is often referred to as "Pidgin" English.

The joke is that IMers themselves have developed a fairly extensive pidgin language -- lol, ur, iirc, and so forth.

[LanDan]

it also fits in nicely with the other birds from mozilla
also with the obvious new ubuntu heron comming up....not even to forget the penguin

mor birds anybody?

[Phil Airtime]

Once you're signed into Pidgin, you don't even see the purple icon. You see a speech bubble with a green dot to show you're online.

http://www.adiumx.com/images/logo.png http://www.pidgin.im/shared/img/logo.pidgin.png

Could they be related?

[Henaro]

The joke is that IMers themselves have developed a fairly extensive pidgin language -- lol, ur, iirc, and so forth.

idk if ur rite s0 i wll go ete sum supe k?

do u watn sum supe 2? or do u watn sum crakerz lololmaorofl myob?

[Lucretius]

Pidgin is clever as it's "English", only a trans language/region version of it.

It mirrors the cross compatibility of the software

[Polygon]

another reason for choosing a pidgin was that it was related to a bird....so now there is Pidgin, Finch (the text version) and Adium (the mac os x port)

and i like the icon....although i think it would look a bit better if the bird was skinnier and had a tail

[Billy_McBong]

the icon that is actually used is just the head and that looks fine
i also like the name much more than gaim

[RAV TUX]

This has been bothering me for a few months.

For the love of god, who's stupid idea was it to change Gaim's name to Pidgin?!

It's the ugliest freaking name ever, and the icon that accompanies it is even worse.
I use Kopete instead.


sudo apt-get install kopete

[Polygon]

using a different im program because you dont like the programs icon which you dont even SEE unless you go to the programs homepage is the stupidest thing ive ever heard of.

[RAV TUX]

using a different im program because you dont like the programs icon which you dont even SEE unless you go to the programs homepage is the stupidest thing ive ever heard of.
I use a different program because I like Kopete better functionally.

I actually like both the name and the icon of Pidgin very much.

[raul_]

I thought pigeons were used to deliver messages. I think it's clever


Pigeons have made contributions of considerable importance to humanity, especially in times of war. In war the homing ability of pigeons has been put to use by making them messengers. So-called war pigeons have carried many vital messages and some have been decorated for their service. Medals such as the Croix de guerre, awarded to Cher Ami, and the Dickin Medal awarded to G.I. Joe have been given to pigeons for their service.

From Wikipedia

[Lunixfanboy]

For the love of Mike! GAIM was renamed because of lawsuit pressure from AOL-TimeWarner. This pressure held up development for almost a year (GAIM 1.5 for nearly a year with no updates, anyone?) And pidgin was chosen because it is the language of Papua-NewGuinea, a mixture of French, English and local tongue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tok_Pisin, all of which was provided by the GAIM website folks when they finally settled the lawsuit earlier this year.

[LookTJ]

It was because of the settlement between AOL and the lawsuit. GAIM. AIM is a trademark of AOL.

[CaptainTux]

Di like I did and change the icon to look like the old one. ;)

[toupeiro]

Personally, I think the icon rocks. It looks like one of the Goodfeathers! :lolflag:

[HermanAB]

Why? 'Cause carrier pidgins carry mail? Yo, mama...

[n3tfury]

worst name ever (except for maybe goat), and i HATE pidgeons with a passion. flying rats.

[tdrusk]

At least the mascot looks better than the farting mascot of songbird

[Crashmaxx]

At least the mascot looks better than the farting mascot of songbird

ROFL! I hadn't seen that before. How did it end up like that?

Anyway, Pidgin is a great name. It is rather clever with the bird and the actual meaning. I think the icon is pretty cool. I was disappointed when I saw the taskbar one was a bubble instead. Really, GAIM is pretty crappy, I mean it has become a lot more then an AIM client for Gnome.

[RAV TUX]

At least the mascot looks better than the farting mascot of songbirdI love the Songbird mascot! :)

especially this image (http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3950/crossplatformyo0.png).

[tdrusk]

I love the Songbird mascot! :)

especially this image (http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3950/crossplatformyo0.png).

meh. I hate the farting.

For some reason it discusts me and makes me not want to use songbird (other than it being bloated)

[RAV TUX]

meh. I hate the farting.

For some reason it discusts me and makes me not want to use songbird (other than it being bloated)
I actually never thought of it as expelling flatus but a bird in motion...

FYI Songbird is faster then Firefox, in fact only Opera is faster then Songbird.

[HermanAB]

Well, think how bloated Songbird would have been if it wasn't farting!

[kiddo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin (this is about the language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin_%28software%29#Naming_dispute (this is about the software, Pidgin)

Can we close this thread now?

What's done is done. And I personally like the new name and icon and design direction. They can't please everyone. Read various posts on planet.pidgin.im (http://planet.pidgin.im/) and see how people who rant are truly demoralizing.

If you don't like the name, this is open source, you can change the source and/or fork it.

[RebounD11]

Why close the topic? I laughed my *** off reading it :))

Still wondering how would the name 'goat' fit for an IM... and since some people don't like the name what name would U have given instead of Pidgin?

I would have named it Soacra (Romanian for Mother-in-law) cause that's my girlfriends mother talks to me most :D

[kiddo]

well I would surely have given it an ubuntuish name (like hoary hedgehog, but worse) to annoy half of the slashdot readers :popcorn:

[PartisanEntity]

Some of you put way too much fuss into names. Granted, I would be worried if they had decided to call it Tool For Talking To Friends, Relatives and Employees and Doing Other Things Good Too.

But seriously, who cares? As long as developers put more effort into development instead of names, brands and marketing, I'm happy.

[derekr44]

I've noticed an increase in the use of animals to name open source software projects. Were any hurt during the process?

[sayuki288]

where'd you got the funny looking birds?

[sayuki288]

i don't have any problems about pidgin's

they're cool animals :lolflag:

[Bungo Pony]

When I first saw the "pidgin", the first thing that popped into my mind was the yellow bird on this album cover:

http://www.bizarrerecords.com/galleries/dance/EmeraldsBird.jpg

[tdrusk]

Well, think how bloated Songbird would have been if it wasn't farting!

lmao

[true_friend]

I am concerened with its customization quality as compared to Kopete. User has not even option to change the font, which irritates when default font does not display other languages. I do not care of name...it works fine on windows for me but linux version should be improved...

[phrostbyte]

I use Pidgin, Firefox, Songbird, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Fink, and Goat

[mysticrider92]

I haven´t read this whole thread, but I had a question about it. If Gaim had to change its name, why is naim (basically a CLI version of Gaim) still using the aim part? Is it just so small of a project that AOL hasn´t noticed it?

I don´t really care much about the name change, and it actually is a well thought of name. The icon could use some work though...

[edit] Oh, I just noticed Polygon´s post. But, Naim is still installed under that name. Odd..

[derekr44]

I use Pidgin, Firefox, Songbird, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Fink, and Goat

/reported to animal activists

:lolflag:

[M$LOL]

Ever heard of MESSENGER Pidgins?

Ahahaha, I didn't think of that xD

[Polygon]

I haven´t read this whole thread, but I had a question about it. If Gaim had to change its name, why is naim (basically a CLI version of Gaim) still using the aim part? Is it just so small of a project that AOL hasn´t noticed it?

I don´t really care much about the name change, and it actually is a well thought of name. The icon could use some work though...

[edit] Oh, I just noticed Polygon´s post. But, Naim is still installed under that name. Odd..

most likely cuase aol doesnt want to waste the resources on such a small project that isnt as well known as gaim

and the offical cli version of pidgin is called finch...naim looks like a third party cli verison.

[Christmas]

... and since some people don't like the name what name would U have given instead of Pidgin?

I would have named it Soacra (Romanian for Mother-in-law) cause that's my girlfriends mother talks to me most :D
Ahahaha =))

[Dimitriid]

I like the little purple pidgin icon.... I think it's cute (´･ω･｀).

+1

[klange]

I'm pretty sure "Pidgin" does not refer to the bird (Which is spelled 'Pigeon', btw), but rather to the word "pidgin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin)" - A protolanguage used for communication between two parties without a common spoken language.

It's also a fine name, and thanks to the homophonic nature in relation to "pigeon", it has multi meanings that are all extremely relevant to its purpose.

[sp0onman]

wow so many people with the same answer. anyway the icon is ugly i use the gaim one, looks much better

[Vadi]

I like the new name, and I recommend it with a great sucsess to windows users. Gaim was a worse name, in my opinion.

[abuakel]

wow so many people with the same answer. anyway the icon is ugly i use the gaim one, looks much better

I can't find the old GAIM icon anywhere.. if anyone has an svg, could they please upload it?

[Happy_Man]

I can't find the old GAIM icon anywhere.. if anyone has an svg, could they please upload it?
It might be on one of the old Ubuntu LiveCDs... poke around in one of them and see.

[-grubby]

I like the name Pidgin, but I think it has the ugliest icon in the history of the universe.

As of now, my opinion on this has changed. I love the Pidgin icon now. I can't even imagine ever using GAIM

[King_Critter]

I like the Pidgin icon because it reminds me of the O RLY (http://www.farfromneutral.com/exodus/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/o_rly.jpg) bird. :P

[gameryoshi600]

AIM sued them so they changed it to Pidgin and the icon is uber.

[bufsabre666]

AIM sued them so they changed it to Pidgin and the icon is uber.

yeah but that whole process is complete crap aol sued them becuase back in the aol instant messenger days when gaim came out it was GTK+ aol instant messenger, so they got sued and changed it to gaim, then aol changed its name down the line to AIM and then sued gaim again, even though gaim had been using it longer, i love the whole legal process

as for using it, i would love to use gaim again, i liked the look and feel of it more than pidgin

[FuturePilot]

I like the Pidgin icon because it reminds me of the O RLY (http://www.farfromneutral.com/exodus/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/o_rly.jpg) bird. :P

ROFL. I never thought of that. :lolflag:

[frenchn00b]

This has been bothering me for a few months.

For the love of god, who's stupid idea was it to change Gaim's name to Pidgin?!

It's the ugliest freaking name ever, and the icon that accompanies it is even worse.

I confirm wth they always change the names of they packages; why they never merge good apps, and hence coders, to make better ?
(example sdlmame, sdlmess, mednafen, merging would make stronger)

[Polygon]

They also have icon as a bird because it fits in with other libpurple projects

Pidgin (pigeon)
Finch
Adium (a duck)

[LaRoza]

Any reason this thread was necromanced? It is a well known reason why it was changed, and wikipedia has a good article on it.

For the old icon for GAIM, google "gaim" and then go to images.