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Have you guys already forgot Pidgin. I hope not. For starters Pidgin used to be the default IM client in Ubuntu up until Ubuntu Karmic was released. Then it was replaced by Empathy as you must have already noticed. Pidgin 2.7 was recently released with a number of improvements and bug fixes.
Pidgin 2.6.0 was made available a few days ago, on August 19, 2009, and today Pidgin 2.6.1 was released as a bug fix version to the new stable 2.6 series. Among the features and improvements which come with 2.6.0 are:
Pidgin, the popular IM client once known as GAIM, has flown out of the coop today with a new release. Pidgin 2.4.0 is the first update in about three months, but it brings a number of features to the client as well as libpurple and Finch.
Even though the new version of Pidgin (2.5.2) does not appear on http://pidgin.im/, it seems it was released, as you can see here.
Changes:
version 2.5.2 (10/19/2008):
libpurple:
* Fixed a crash on removing a custom buddy icon on a buddy.
* Fixed a crash caused by certain self-signed SSL certificates.
The Pidgin developers have released version 2.7.0 of their open source instant messenger application, adding a number of new features and correcting a vulnerability in libpurple's MSN protocol plug-in
Finch is a TUI (text user interface) IM client for Linux which uses libpurple, the same library on which the GNOME IM client Pidgin is based on. Usually, if you have Pidgin installed, you should have Finch too, unless Pidgin was compiled with the text interface option disabled.
Well, by now most people probably realize that we've released Pidgin 2.6.0. It feels like this has been in the works forever, particularly these last couple weeks.
Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time. New release includes a ton of bug fixes, some new features, and a fix for a security issue.
As a Linux user I know that I should revel in sparse user interfaces and command line driven applications, but for my day to day communications, I prefer Pidgin over XChat. It's just more pleasant to look at, and goes beyond just IRC chat. The problem with Pidgin and Gnome 3 is that it is hard to tell when someone is trying to get your attention.
