Doce

Today I’ll talk about Pidgin.

Have you heard of it? It’s a IM program – it allows you to chat with people from various protocols – and all in one place. With the additional plugins you can install, there are plenty other things it can do for you…

Funcionality… And Looks!

My previous experiences with other IM programs are limited to MSN and Skype, along with a few Chrome extensions (such as IMO), I have to admit – while Pidgin’s looks may not be so attractive to the eye at first, its simplicity is quite welcome! :D At first, windows popping everywhere – every time to ask for a menu or an option – may be confusing to you, but it has the advantage of grouping all your conversations in a single window – mind not of the protocol you’re using for each contact. And then you can simply hide all windows and all there’s left is a little notifier by the corner of the screen – which is something MSN stopped doing a few versions ago, for example. As for definitions, when you’re done with them, no more jumping from window to window and you’re ready to chat as you please!

The advantage of merging so many protocols couldn’t come without problems. There’s the configuration one, for example. Well, there are plenty tutorials on how to do this, just like: How-To: GTalk. As far as I’ve tested, it’s pretty simple to understand how each of them works and how to manage the configurations yourself. The objective mentioned in the site – keeping the advanced stuff away – may seem a little distant now, but the mentioned tutorials are of great help in case of doubt. When you’re done with your configs, you won’t have to come back them no more.

Plugins and Extensions

There’s a vast list of Plugins and Extensions available for Pidgin on its site: Third Party Plugins, but since I haven’t used anything closer to all of them, I’ll just let you know that the integration with Facebook chat’s working just perfectly! Now I can freely chat with the 2 or 3 peeps I’m interested in. There’s also a plugin for Twitter, but I decided not to go that way because things always get weird when Twitter’s around…

For the record, im my opinion, it’s a simple and easy to use program for those of you who have been lost in the midst of all these IM protocols for ages. No more downloading a specific program for each protocol you’re using. Pidgin keeps everything organized and in one place, keeping the most important functionalities for all the IMs it supports. There are, indeed, some details which it doesn’t cover – but the objective was to hide the protocol away and focus on the chatting experience, thus choosing the main common features. If you ever feel like this is keeping you from the good things, there’s always a plugin there for you – just install it and Pidgin will fulfill once more your chatly needs. I believe the objective of keeping it simple and organized has been reached.

Now for some good links you can enjoy:

• Pidgin.IM
• Plugins
• FAQ