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I think this is too early to decide, since the software is still sub-optimal. When it'll be clearly showing that it's already better (not sometime in the future, because anything can happen), then it would be up for consideration.
Changing the default IM client isn't something that's to be taken lightly - completely different interface, people have to set it up again, etc.
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DPic
wrote on the 1 Aug 08 at 12:50
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I'm in fully in support of the idea because i have been watching software get better and better *very* quickly, unlike Pidgin. If it isn't ready by then, this won't happen, but i have no doubt it will be and i think it should then replace Pidgin.
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DPic
wrote on the 1 Aug 08 at 12:50
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watching THIS software*
...not just software in general haha
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Popoi
wrote on the 1 Aug 08 at 15:57
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But it's inmature for now... let's wait a some time. :)
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cyphax
wrote on the 1 Aug 08 at 16:33
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I'm for replacing Pidgin with a viable alternative ever since the developers showed they're not interested at all in what their users want, this one looks promising. I'll check it out and if it works well, vote for this one.
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Popoi, yes-- Ubuntu 9.04 is like 9 months away. That is plenty of time
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motang
wrote on the 1 Aug 08 at 17:49
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Not bad idea, but Empathy is going to have to support all the protocols Pidgin does. As I use AIM, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk, MSN Messenger.
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motang, it already does. It supports jabber, salut, google talk, SIP, groupwise, icq, irc, msn, and yahoo.
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biomega
wrote on the 1 Aug 08 at 22:03
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I agree!, Pidgin is the worst IM in the Software world... Kill Him!
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Wonderful idea. As telepathy supports voice and video, we can even trah ekiga.
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bp5109
wrote on the 2 Aug 08 at 00:52
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Ummm has anyone noticed the absolute lack of protocols empathy doesn't support? Yahoo, Aim, IRC, ya know.. nothing major or anything.
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daengbo
wrote on the 2 Aug 08 at 02:06
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Empathy has been trying to get into Gnome for a couple of years now, yet it still isn't making it. I've gotten really frustrated over it. Why isn't Empathy going anywhere? I've reported on it quite a few times.
"The biggest problem with Empathy is the licensing. Gossip is GPL, and putting that code into a library makes the library GPL. Gnome doesn't like GPLed libraries. They want LGPL. The corporate developers of Gossip don't want Empathy to be relicensed. Am I moving too fast for you? No? Good. Anyway, Empathy is at an impass. It has great potential, but it can't get through the relicensing situation without rewriting most of its code. I don't see it happening ... again.
The next big problem is API documentation. There is none. The developer admits this. He has a library with an undocumented API. It doesn't look good. Gnome will not take this project if the documentation doesn't at least move in the right direction."
http://blog.ibeentoubuntu.com/2008/05/and-runner-up-is-gnome-224-maybe-apps.htm l
I've WANTED Empathy to work for a long time because having Telepathy everywhere in Gnome would be a killer feature, but I think we should put our money on something else.
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Well... yes, that really kills things off.
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DPic
wrote on the 2 Aug 08 at 04:36
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Why won't Gnome accept GPLed libraries? I don't think this should be a reason against adopting Empathy. As for API documentation why can't that be put together?
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Polygon
wrote on the 2 Aug 08 at 14:05
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empathy does not look that great. and people here dont realize that pidgin might be getting very close to implementing audio/video support in pidgin, as they have had a few blog posts hinting at it. not to mention if we are planning on doing this for 9.04, pidgin will most likely have it implemented by that time...and then there will be no reason to switch to empathy as pidgin is a lot more mature and has more features
not to mention that empathy doesnt natively support a lot of protocols, and it just ends up using libpurple for the majority of them. If we are just going to be using libpurple...why not just use pidgin and do it natively?
pidgin also looks better GUI wise then empathy. People have said here there is no documented api, there is that licensing thing, pidgin is WAY more popular and has a ton of plugins and developer support behind it, i just don't see 'it has audio/video support' as a very good reason.
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Polygon, while you make a lot of points to say that audio/video support is not a very food reason is foolish. Audio/video is the holy grail, and Linux is fast becoming behind the times at implementing it. People expect to be able to webcam and voice chat in this day and age.
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This will probably happen anyway since Empathy is going to be integrated into GNOME. For now, we should use Pidgin.
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Testing Empathy with Intrepid's pre-release is being discussed on the mailing lists:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2008-August/005070.html
Empathy definitely needs to become default, because libempathy is going to make the online experience for GNOME fantastic. If we can get users comfortable with Empathy, Ubuntu will be a remarkable experience for them in the coming years -- not just for basic instant messaging, but for integration and collaboration all across this environment.
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I prefer Pidgin.
If Empathy supports SIP and most Audio/Video over the IM networks that it supports (MSN, Jabber/XMPP, etc) then I would see it as more a replacement to Ekiga.
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Auzy
wrote on the 10 Aug 08 at 23:43
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Pidgin is one of the oldest chat programs for Linux, and it still has no AV support (after all of this time).
Furthermore, we need more of a good framework. Pidgin's code I have heard is a nightmare.
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helino
wrote on the 13 Aug 08 at 09:56
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I think that Empathy is definitely the right way to go. It shows a lot more potential than Pidgin.
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I'm honestly curious to see what concrete benefits this would offer in exchange for what users would be giving up the default Pidgin.
Here is a summary of the arguments are, with my comments in parenthesis.
Offered benefits I've seen here:
Uses Telepathy (the official site doesn't offer any clear explanation to me as to its benefits)
File transfer on Jabber
VoIP on Google talk (but it has been mentioned that Pidgin will carry voice and video support by Intrepid)
More desktop integration (in what way, I'm not sure)
Better support for more protocols (What is "better"? Which protocols? I can only see Salut, and possibly SIP but that's not listed on live.gnome.org)
Happier user (May be true, but I haven't seen how, yet)
Pidgin appears to be developed slowly compared to Empathy (I'm not sure that's been substantiated; it appears to me that Pidgin just has a longer release cycle)
"Developers showed they're not interested at all in what their users want" (That's a strong accusation, and reminds me of the Funpidgin fork---yuck! Such talk is opinion, not fact, and I feel it is rude to accuse the Pidgin developers in this way.)
"Pidgin is the worst IM in the Software world" (Um, okay, next...)
Gnome will ship Empathy next release (Might have some really nice benefits!)
"libempathy is going to make the online experience for GNOME fantastic" (How so? I really do want to know!)
Get Ubuntu users familiar with Empathy for better integration and collaboration throughout Gnome (...)
"Pidgin is one of the oldest chat programs for Linux, and it still has no AV support (after all of this time)." (Past performance does not guarantee the future is bleak. It has been a choice of the developers which features to implement when, and they weren't so interested in it before. It's open source, after all, so this shouldn't be a major consideration anyway.)
Pidgin's code I have heard is a nightmare. (This is hearsay. Hearsay an easy way to spread falsehoods as facts, especially unintentionally. I have no way of knowing how reliable this statement is.)
Potential costs to switching away from Pidgin I've seen listed:
New interface to learn
Have to set up a new program
Gnome doesn't like GPL but prefers LGPL (That blog is blocked for some reason, but this reason sounds fishy to me. However, IANAL, so why should it make sense to me? As mentioned above, it appears Gnome will ship Empathy next release.)
Empathy has little/no documented API
Empathy is not as pretty as Pidgin (Opinion again, but I share that opinion, though it is a minor consideration)
Pidgin is more mature (This is abstract)
Pidgin has more features (I believe this too, but which ones? Is this really true?)
Pidgin natively uses libpurple already
Pidgin has more users (This is a good point.)
Pidgin has lots of plugins (Major problem in my opinion)
Pidgin is well-supported by developers (This seems to contradict a benefit listed above, but okay...)
I'm not against Empathy, but am a little concerned about switching to it.
Respectfully,
firefeather
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cyphax
wrote on the 17 Aug 08 at 14:14
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""Developers showed they're not interested at all in what their users want" (That's a strong accusation, and reminds me of the Funpidgin fork---yuck! Such talk is opinion, not fact, and I feel it is rude to accuse the Pidgin developers in this way.)"
Just because it's an opinion (of over 90% of your users) doesn't make it an invalid point of criticism.
It wouldn't take you long to see the issue with these developers. What's rude is how they deal with users' complaints. Basically it goes like this:
Pidgin devs: "We have implemented this feature, changing functionality, and we also don't provide an option for switching back to the old functionality"
Users: "But Pidgin developer, we, hundreds of Pidgin users, would much rather see you make an option or reversing this decision since NOBODY LIKES THIS"
Pidgin devs: "Really, we like it better this way, it's better, someone will develop a plugin, which we will not endorse or support. Also, your reasoning is gibberish to us. Case closed"
I am for actively giving such developers the finger. It's a liability and I don't care if these are harsh accusations or not, it's simply how it is. Here, I'll give you 2 links for you to see what I mean.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/30/1822237&from=rss
The ticket in question: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986
Oh and Funpidgin was made solely because of this, and rightfully so.
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More choice is always better.
I would say that Ubuntu should include just for the video and audio chat support.
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Oh and I almost forgot. Pidgin store passwords in plain text. Yikes!
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What about Xfire support for empathy? It would be truly great then.
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lukk
wrote on the 3 Sep 08 at 10:29
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No. Empathy don't support Gadu-Gadu protocol, and there is no win32 version (I've to work with WinXP in my job, and I'm synchronizing all Pidgin settings and history with my home Ubuntu).
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ro986
wrote on the 8 Sep 08 at 19:58
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Empathy seems to do not have the msn http method of connection, instead of Pidgin that have this option. In a connection that has only the http port open, the only way to connect to msn is by using the http method. This kind of connections are likely to be seen in public places.
¿Have I miss a configuration dialog? If yes please tell me I like very much the way Empathy uses gnome-keyring to store passwords.
Sorry for my bad English
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I'd love to see an app that can replace Pidgin, but Empathy is not mature enough yet. Pidgin has many problems, most of which will probably never be fixed because the developers aren't interested, but Empathy is even worse so far.
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As a recent convert from Microsoft Windows to Ubuntu, one of the things that attracted me was the availability of like-for-like software.
I used Firefox, GIMP, Pidgin, Skype, Eclipse, OpenOffice on Windows and found the transition easy as this software exists also on Ubuntu....but I digress...
If Empathy is that great (and I've test run it today on Hardy) then why does it rely on libpurple?
I found Empathy to be inconsistent in it's GUI layout, notably in the accounts dialog...whereas Pidgin's GUI I feel is more professional (consistent and comprehensive). Empathy wouldn't connect up with MSN - I had to use MSN (Haze) which is a name not known and confusing to an MSN user. Empathy won't allow meta-contacts. Pidgin has a nice tooltip info pane for each contact - Empathy does not. One thing that Empathy did is sort my groups alphabetically - Pidgin doesn't. I noticed too that the status of various buddies was wrong - reporting as idle/away when they were not.
If one of the goals (of Ubuntu) is to attract a bigger Ubuntu audience (from Windows people I presume) then it helps to provide the same software they know and love and provide "professional" looking software and not something that doesn't quite look polished.
I'm happy to give Empathy a go when it matures - but right now it's a way behind Pidgin and what I'd expect from an IM client.
I'd hope the powers at Ubuntu seriously consider retaining Pidgin as the default IM client...if/when Empathy proves itself as superior overall, then by all means make that call at that time.
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Auzy
wrote on the 11 Sep 08 at 05:31
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Bernmeister, there is a lot more to Empathy then the gui.. The beauty is the backend, and you can have any frontend really. Pidgin has never integrated that well, and the old folklore is that the code gives nightmares.
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Endolith
wrote on the 17 Sep 08 at 13:53
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Also agreed with Bernmeister. I got into open source software while using Windows by replacing all my non-free software with free equivalents like Firefox and Pidgin. This made it a lot easier to convert to Ubuntu.
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@cyphax: True, an opinion may be a fine criticism, but I personally don't agree with attacking developers of FOSS software. I can see how some people may not like the Pidgin developers, but attacking them won't make better software; it will make LESS software. I wouldn't like to continue working on a project where I spend lots of time developing a useful feature, and then people tell me to throw that work in the trash bin because they personally aren't interested in giving it a chance. You're not getting a representative sample by looking at bug discussions, so I don't think we can say "The users have spoken, and the developers won't listen." I don't have time to read all the bug discussion you linked, but the sheer length implies to me that most of it was counterproductive. Basically, what I'm getting at is that the "developers don't care about their users" criticism isn't useful to me at all and I don't like to see people acting like this.
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@DylanMcCall: Thanks, I can see some huge uses for this Tubes idea.
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cyphax
wrote on the 26 Sep 08 at 09:02
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"@cyphax: True, an opinion may be a fine criticism, but I personally don't agree with attacking developers of FOSS software. I can see how some people may not like the Pidgin developers, but attacking them won't make better software; it will make LESS software. I wouldn't like to continue working on a project where I spend lots of time developing a useful feature, and then people tell me to throw that work in the trash bin because they personally aren't interested in giving it a chance."
While I agree with this in general, the specifics of this case are simply, well, unlike anything I've seen before. There are many good reasons to NOT implement a specific feature yet it is implemented. It's not about attacking developers, it's about giving an opinion, and the desire to move on. Here's the BIGGEST reason I would like Pidgin replaced: with the attitude of these people (Pidgin devs) I'm highly reluctant to install a new version of Pidgin: who knows what's going to change next because they (and ONLY they) think it's better that way? I do not trust that the next Pidgin is going to be as usable as Pidgin was before they changed the functionality this was all about.
"You're not getting a representative sample by looking at bug discussions, so I don't think we can say "The users have spoken, and the developers won't listen." I don't have time to read all the bug discussion you linked, but the sheer length implies to me that most of it was counterproductive."
No, the most of it was "Guys, this is not a good idea, it's annoying, please either change it back or give me an option". And the developers' response is really on that same page. Give it a read, spend 10 minutes on it.
It's not counterproductive, it's about making your program the best out there. After all, if you want people to USE it, you might not want to step on everybody's toes.
"Basically, what I'm getting at is that the "developers don't care about their users" criticism isn't useful to me at all and I don't like to see people acting like this."
Just because it isn't useful doesn't make it less true.
Again: if I have to be reluctant about upgrading to Pidgin current+1 because I don't believe these people know what's good for the interface of a program, and I fear that it's going to be less usable jet AGAIN, I'd rather move on. And that's not an assumption, they have demonstrated it.
And this is seriously only one thing. One more, quickly: they're NOT interested at all in such things as webcam support. In other words: they are not interested in what LOTS of people are interested in. That is blocking actual progress, and while such a conservative stand point is completely their own business, I would choose to move on and start working with people who WILL listen to their users and who don't stop progress JUST because they're not interested in the features requested.
If we want Gnome, Ubuntu and the user experience to improve with each iteration, the Pidgin devs and thus Pidgin simply have to go, as soon as we can replace Pidgin with a viable alternative. It's for the greater good.
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HaMF
wrote on the 26 Sep 08 at 11:35
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I tried empathy twice. I wanted to compare pidgin and empathy and see if I could get away from pidgin. I really wanted to throw pidgin in the trash can! But on both occasions I uninstalled empathy after two days and a few restarts.
Not only because of the lack of features and options (which is an important point too) but mainly because empathy automatically starts up at boot time and trys to log in.
I really can't stand that! And I won't give it another try before empathy breaks with this bad habit. -_-
(And don't tell me that I could "easily" remove it from the autostart. I want _at_ least an option in [empathy]->Edit->Preferences to disable the automatic start.)
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Hey,
for me the biggest problem is the missing OTR support (http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/)
If that is implemented then it can replace Pidgin (if the user wants to).
Thanks!
(OTR is really important, would be a great thing, if empathy would support that.)
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DrHalan
wrote on the 12 Nov 08 at 14:02
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Yeah i want this change too but
(*) OTR is neede of course
(*) all protocols must be support and work equal or the same (also directyl trough telephaty at the moment it just uses libpurple for nearly every protocol)
(*) File Transfers are really needed
(*) The gui must be more mature ( i love pidgins)
(*) If it uses gnomes key-chain it is kinda annoying having to enter it every startup. Think about cahnging that ( Maybe only password request when changing contact data? )
(*) Make it support sounds and notifications
I am using the version shippped with intrepid so i duno if it improved already
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Falconix
wrote on the 30 Nov 08 at 16:40
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Before we start thinking of replacing Pidgin with Empathy, empathy need file transfer support for the major protocols like XMPP, MSN, AOL, Yahoo.
If pidgin get replaced with a client wich doesn't even handle some sort of file transfer support it will be backfired to Ubuntu, new users will think it is ubuntu which not handle the stuff that users use.
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spandanj
wrote on the 17 Dec 08 at 06:36
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Empathy lacks MANY, MANY features that Pidgin has and that I cannot live without. For a rough idea of which ones, just read some of the above comments.
I voted against this because
1) Empathy is yet not mature for Gnome use! Lacks functional GUI and features
And just so everyone knows, let's not shove new softwares at ubuntu users just because they represent the "next" thing out there. User experience should always take priority over pushing the latest technology out there. Right now, pidgin doesn't offer video/audio, whereas Empathy does. Should that be a reason to switch?
NO! because Pidgin + Ekiga gives the same functionality, no, even better functionality with a better GUI than empathy! Which means the usability of these two softwares combined is much better to the user in terms of Ease-of-use and features.
Don't give me empathy until it absolutely surpasses pidgin and user ease-of-use.
And, that applies to any other new feature/software Ubuntu plans to unveil. The rule should be (I hope is) to switch to a new software replacement ONLY if it FIRST improves User Experience overall. Do not role out the new thing on the block because its the "future" or will be. Test it out behind doors. When it's ready with better features and better GUI (better than currently offered) Only then include it in a release.
Currently, empathy is not better than Pidgin. Please do not even think about offering it to me or shoving it down my throat until it's ready to do. Because the last thing I want to find out is that the new replacement application can't do a certain task that the previous default application could.
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Endolith
wrote on the 17 Dec 08 at 15:52
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I bet Ubuntu will release with Empathy as the default client when it is only half-finished, the same way they did with PulseAudio. It will be missing features that Pidgin had, it will be buggy, and everyone will have trouble and complain. This seems to be the trend in Ubuntu, where releasing half-baked features is more important than user experience or stability.
Please be patient.
IF Empathy becomes better than Pidgin, THEN you can replace it. But only after it is stable, has all the same features as Pidgin, and works easily out of the box.
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cyphax
wrote on the 18 Dec 08 at 10:03
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"Right now, pidgin doesn't offer video/audio, whereas Empathy does. Should that be a reason to switch?
NO! because Pidgin + Ekiga gives the same functionality, no, even better functionality with a better GUI than empathy! Which means the usability of these two softwares combined is much better to the user in terms of Ease-of-use and features."
You can tell THAT to all the people with MSN who you WON'T be able to show yourself to because we STILL won't have a messenger with webcam support if it were up to you (apparantly). I know that Ekiga is great and there is a lot to be said for the old UNIX philosophy you're talking about, but if you want to communicate with others, don't forget that they too have to use a compatible client. And they don't. They have skype, MSN, Yahoo, and that's the end of that. You forget that there are 2 parties involved here, not just yourself. This kind of thought processes will make sure Ubuntu lags behind in certain areas.
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cyphax
wrote on the 18 Dec 08 at 10:07
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"I bet Ubuntu will release with Empathy as the default client when it is only half-finished, the same way they did with PulseAudio. It will be missing features that Pidgin had, it will be buggy, and everyone will have trouble and complain. This seems to be the trend in Ubuntu, where releasing half-baked features is more important than user experience or stability."
I'm using Empathy instead of Pidgin these days, sort of like a pilot to see if it'd work. I have to say I don't miss Pidgin already. I'm a fairly simple IM user, and for that Empathy really does do the trick. It needs more polish, more features, sure, but it's never crashed for me and it usually gives me no trouble. For a simple IM client, it seems to work much better than you give it credit for. The one major gripe I have with it, is that ridiculously small input box. Everybody was mad at Pidgin devs when they set the input box to 2 lines and took away the resize option it had. Empathy is even WORSE at that, providing you with just ONE line initially and not letting you resize. Argh!! Other than that, come april, it might be good enough for inclusion. Pidgin has been a dead end for years, this might not be. :)
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Endolith
wrote on the 18 Dec 08 at 14:56
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Everybody was mad at Pidgin devs when they set the input box to 2 lines and took away the resize option it had.
I wasn't. It auto-resizes. They made a good decision.
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borsook
wrote on the 18 Dec 08 at 17:14
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When was that option taken away?? I'm using Pidgin 2.5.2 and the option is there...
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Endolith
wrote on the 18 Dec 08 at 23:49
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@borsook:
There's an option in Preferences --> Conversations for "Minimum input area height", but it's not necessary since the input area resizes automatically to fit whatever you input. The Pidgin developers are good at that sort of thing.
Not good at video, audio, file transfer, or anything other than chat, though.
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borsook
wrote on the 19 Dec 08 at 10:08
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@Endolith - yes, but still can set it to some default size, so that option has not been taken away.
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ethana2
wrote on the 31 Dec 08 at 06:53
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Once empathy matures, they need to make a list of every feature and protocol pidgin supports that they don't and take care of each and every one of them so none of us get left behind..
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DPic
wrote on the 9 Jan 09 at 07:16
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Empathy now supports file transfers and is progressing very quickly! I now think it is ready and should be re-considered for default
KEEP IN MIND
Empathy covers all the bases better than pidgin now except for some small features that cater to fewer users. Regardless, it is still easy for anyone to go head and install pidgin
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Yfrwlf
wrote on the 10 Apr 09 at 23:33
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It says on the Empathy main page: Current features: Voice and Video call using SIP and Jingle.
Well, so far I've been unable to get voice or video working through Jabber, let alone that or even file transfers through ANY protocol on Empathy, and I'm using the latest 2.26.0.1 version.
So, Pidgin still seems to have more features, that would be why it's still the default chat program on most distros.
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I use mostly google talk and sometimes msn, I have no problems whatsoever with empathy.
The only thing missing is file-transfers with win32-gtalk client.
Pidgin is bloated and slow compared to Empathy
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You're joking, right? You think you know better what the users want than the users themselves?
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So you think you know better what the users want than the users themselves.
"In the future" sounds nice and all, but the future isn't here, and Empathy isn't ready, and shoving it down the users' throats when they clearly don't want it will not be appreciated.
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MagicFab
wrote on the 16 Jun 09 at 20:03
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Empathy is a big step back in features, I don't see it replacing Pidgin. It replaces Ekiga effectively, though. It provides new, interesting functionality. However VoIP, perhaps the most interesting, doesn't work. If I didn't work at support perhaps I wouldn't have high expectations about a package that is making its way to the default menus. I would consider this stable when it works for at least 2 releases.
Pidgin has a Windows client which makes it interesting for migration paths, and OTR has a pluggin for it, which can also be used by Mac users (with Adium). People are also used to Pidgin. The transition can't be just "here, we replaced it", as most people won't be part of the current discussions. The import tool is a good example of functionality we need to have to make that transition.
I can see how making Empathy the default IM will expose it more to the Ubuntu user base, but *brace*... it won't be pretty. Installing it side by side would be a more sensible choice IMO.
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ricardo
wrote on the 16 Jun 09 at 22:30
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The default app is not only "yet another" app. It's the entry point for a set of features that the Ubuntu desktop should provide for ANY user (the newbie, the average and the expert). And the selected app should be the better one for many reasons. If so, why not select Epiphany by default instead of Firefox, or Gnumeric instead of OpenOffice.org Calc? They're all under add/remove applications, and so they're easy to install.
That's why I think Pidgin is still a better default IM app than Empathy. Specifically:
- Pidgin has a much bigger user base.
- Pidgin has a great set of features which works very well.
- Pidgin has a great set of plugins (Guifications, for instance).
- Pidgin has a better MSN protocol support (essential for Spanish & other European users).
- Pidgin has a better UI (have you seen the Empathy's Accounts dialog? I'm unable to read the whole account name in the accounts list!).
- Pidgin has a better integration with the Ubuntu desktop (Indicator Applet, Fast User Switch Applet...).
- Pidgin is a much more mature and stable project.
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ricardo
wrote on the 17 Jun 09 at 19:21
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1) User base means VERY MUCH: it creates momentum, critical mass, more eyes for taking care of bugs, etc. But we should not consider it alone.
2) Is REALLY v/v conferencing the main feature people need? I don't know any IM user who uses v/v conferencing, neither Windows nor Ubuntu, at least not massively. And the rest doesn't need to be minor or rarely used.
3) Same as 2.
4) Unable to send offline messages. Unable to send/receive files at full speed. Unable to Unable to see the buddy's avatar in the chat window.
5) I don't think so, but please, tell me why.
6) Seems that's not a bug for the Ubuntu people, because the Indicator Applet is a very important piece of their Ayatana project.
7) Mature maybe, stable doesn't seems to be. I'm unable to login into my MSN account. Maybe a new fix solves the issue.
We're always talking about AV, but please, don't forget the essential: IM is about Instant Messaging. We shouldn't select an IM app basically for its AV features. That's not the first and primary feature for an IM app.
For the majority of people, I sincerely believe they might find empathy more useful... in the future, when Empathy really be ready.
IMHO, of course.
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I think this is a terrible idea for now at least. I've been using Pidgin and occasionally aMSN for over 2 years now.
Things I'd like to see before switching to Empathy:
- Be able to easily import all message logs from pidgin
- Insure that I can have full-speed transfers for the MSN protocol
- Needs to have plug-in capability with the same main plug-ins as pidgin.
- Needs to be a bit less ugly.
- unable to send offline messages
Pidgin already seems to be highly integrated with Nautilus. Why can't the empathy guys just kill this project and work on Pidgin if they don't like it? Pidgin has a pretty developed codebase it just needs more developers.
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Kango
wrote on the 25 Jul 09 at 22:45
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This is bad news that Empathy will be in and Pidgin is out. We'll have to just uninstall Empath and install Pidgin in our organisation.
The greatest thing we use is the pigdin-sipe plugin that gives us interop with MS Office Communicator server.
It works great.
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voice/video is gooooooood, but
no contact merging, no plugin support, with Empathy i need at minimal 2 other window opened (skype, fb chat).
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Zshazz
wrote on the 12 Aug 09 at 05:46
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Woah woah woah... Hold on here ONE second.
Let's get this straight...
You guys are saying "I don't care what the users say, Empathy is better. Pidgin sucks because it doesn't care what the users say."
??!!?!??! *head asplodes*
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Why the hell would ANYONE want to replace Pidgin, which is of a higher quality, supports more protocols and features, and can actually work on somethign other than Linux, for what I can only describe as a half-assed pet project by the GNOME developers?
Call me when Empathy isn't buggy, supports OTR and social networking, and can actually run on Windows.
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Oh, by the way, the latest versions of Pidgin have A/V support, which AGAIN propels it well ahead of Empathy.
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Post your comment
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Blueprint replace-pidgin-with-empathy:
Ubuntuforums.org thread #876847
