Chat client?

[Rob Williams]

So, I've been using GAIM for what seems like forever, but the latest BETA is just not my cup of tea. Granted, it's better than 1.5 in some ways, but it still lacks simplicity it seems. One thing that grinds me is that if you type in your password wrong, you need to go into the preferences and remove it before you can try again.

Does anyone use Kopete, or any recent versions of it? I am curious if it's better since I've last used it [over a year], without actually having to download it ;)

[niniendowarrior]

I've used GAIM and Kopete (a couple of months back). While I cannot really say how Kopete is now as compared to before, I never did like it because I was so used to the GAIM user interface. Granted that user interface isn't an issue, my only other gripe is that it starts to truncate messages. I'm a person who likes to go back to my previous conversations, and Kopete does not allow that.

I still stick with Gaim.

[Patrick]

Rob: Why can't you just downgrade to the previous version?

[Rob Williams]

I can downgrade, but there are a few features I like in both ;)

In 2.0, I can log on any account AS invisible before it connects. With 1.5, you have to first log in, and then switch to invisible. That doesn't work to well when people already see you.

I could be wrong, but I've gathered that's how it works.

[Patrick]

I can see why that would be pretty stupid behavior in 1.5. :confused: I don't use invisible much, so I've never come across issues like that.

Have you ever tried naim? I've heard pretty good things about it, as long as you can stand a cli client...

[Rob Williams]

Have you ever tried naim? I've heard pretty good things about it, as long as you can stand a cli client...

I never have, but I am imagining that it would be more stressful than GAIM, hehe. Going to give it a shot anyway, should prove interesting.

Edit: Opening it up was enough to me :D I'll stop complaining about GAIM now.

[James]

Depending on where I am, I use Kopete, Gaim, and centericq (for my CLI needs). I find myself quite comfortable on all of them, although I slightly prefer the look-and-feel of kopete (not surpising since I'm on KDE).

I also use kwallet to handle my passwords, so I haven't encountered the problem you mentioned. I can't comment on whether that issue is there otherwise.

[Rob Williams]

I don't have problems with my passwords. My primarily problem is that GAIM 1.5 requires you to first log on to an account, before changing your status to invisible. I am almost -always- invisible online because there are only a few people I feel like talking to. I am anti-social ;)

Maybe it is time to take another look at Kopete.

[James]

I set myself to away all the time. I'm all about plausible deniability. :)

[Rob Williams]

LOL

That's not a bad idea. Even while invis, people can still message you on AIM. It gives away right away that you just don't want to talk to them :/

[Michael]

Rob,

Ever find your perfect chat client? Just noticed GAIM 2.0 Beta 3.1 came out last month, though that's largely a bug-fix release.

[Rob Williams]

Yeah, the last two beta releases have been great actually. The problems I complained about earlier were fixed for the most part. It's hard to describe the issues really, without taking up an entire page but they were incredibly annoying.

All is good now though. I like where the beta is going. If only they can improve the file transfer with people on other clients we'd be set.

[niniendowarrior]

On my Windows box, I just about had it with Gaim. The GTK incompatibilities were giving me too much of a headache when Gaim and Gimp were on the same machine.

Gimp is much more important for me there, so I dumped Gaim for Trillian.

I wonder if Trillian has a Linux client...

[Michael]

On my Windows box, I just about had it with Gaim. The GTK incompatibilities were giving me too much of a headache when Gaim and Gimp were on the same machine.

Gimp is much more important for me there, so I dumped Gaim for Trillian.

I wonder if Trillian has a Linux client...


Nope, no Trillian Linux client. Though I am not sure how well it runs under WINE.

[Rob Williams]

Kopete looks like Trillian, so maybe it's similar? :P

[niniendowarrior]

I don't know... never did like Kopete. Trillian has a complete set of features for the pro version...

Under wine? Right now, I don't want to mess with that.

[Rob Williams]

I just gave Trillian a test under Wine... I would not recommend it. Though it installed fine, the actual program when loaded would not stop flickering. Maybe an older version would run better, I don't know.

[niniendowarrior]

As I expected... problematic. Thanks for trying.

[Michael]

GAIM 2.0.0 Beta 4 was released with a few new features.

From Phoronix News (http://www.phoronix.com/?page=news_item&px=MzAxNg):

October 18, 2006 -- The fourth Beta release in the GAIM 2.0 cycle has been released. The two major improvements in GAIM 2.0.0 Beta 4 is the default ability when closing the buddy list to minimize to the system tray (previously it required the use of an applet) and communication abilities with NetworkManager. GAIM now has the ability to communicate with NetworkManager to check the network status prior to logging-in. The release announcement can be found here, while Planet GAIM has more details on this release.

[yoshi314]

i use psi under X and mcabber in console. jabber provides transports to many existing im networks (even irc) , so i don't need anything else.