Pidgin 2.6.4 (Open Source)

Pidgin (formerly named Gaim) is a multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various different services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3 million in 2007. Both Pidgin and libpurple are free software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Pidgin is a graphical front-end for libpurple using GTK+. Libpurple is notable for its support for multiple instant messaging protocols.Pidgin supports multiple operating systems, including Windows as well as many Unix-like systems such as Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and AmigaOS (through the X11 engine).
Pidgin's HOMEPAGE: www.pidgin.im
Pidgin's TYPE: (Open Source)
Pidgin's DOWNLOAD: Pidgin 2.6.4
Direct download from FH
Pidgin's SIZE: 13.84 MB

Pidgin's GOOGLE HITS: 5.9 Millions
Pidgin has built-in support for NSS, offering client-to-server message encryption for protocols that support it. The program is extendable through plugins, including "Off-the-Record Messaging" and Pidgin encryption, providing end-to-end message encryption.Pidgin features some of the standard tools for an instant messaging client, such as a contact list, file transfer on supported protocols, and conversation and chat logging. Tabbed conversations is an optional feature on Pidgin. The IM window consists of the message window, formatting tools, and an edit box.Contacts (usually known as "Buddies") are added by the "Buddy List" window or by the IM window. As a client that supports IRC and other chat programs, it can also add different IRC channels and IM Chats. Contacts with multiple protocols can be grouped into one single contact instead of managing multiple protocols and contacts can be given aliases as well or placed into groups.
To reach users as they log on or a status change occurs (such as moving from "Away" to "Available"), Pidgin supports on-action automated scripts called Buddy Pounces to automatically reach the user in customizable ways.Pidgin supports some file transfers, with the ability to pause, resume, and cancel transfers and observe multiple transfers in a separate window, lacking more advanced features like folder sharing from Yahoo. However, when used through the MSN protocol, file transfers are slow, as data is routed through MSN servers to the receiver, instead of utilizing a faster peer-to-peer functionality. A Google Summer of Code project aimed to add peer-to-peer functionality in 2007. Support for MSNP15 was added in version 2.5.0 but did not include support for peer-to-peer transfers.As of version 2.6 (released on August 18, 2009) Pidgin has a voice/video framework which uses Farsight2 and is based on Mike Ruprecht's Google Summer of Code project from 2008. That release provides the ability to have voice/video conversations using the XMPP protocol (including Google Talk), though the implementation is not yet fully complete. The framework will also allow for voice/video conversations on other protocols, such as MSN and Yahoo, in the future.
Further features include support for themes, emoticons, spell checking, and notification area integration.-Wiki

Supported protocols:

+ Bonjour (Apple's implementation of Zeroconf)

+ Gadu-Gadu

+ Internet Relay Chat

+ Lotus Sametime

+ MySpaceIM

+ .NET Messenger Service (commonly known as MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger) (no  multimedia support)

+ Novell GroupWise

+ OSCAR (AIM/ICQ/.Mac)

+ QQ

+ SIMPLE

+ SILC

+ XMPP (Google Talk, LJ Talk, Gizmo5, ...)

+ Yahoo (only basic chat and file transfers)

+ Zephyr

Pidgin 2.6.4 Bugs fix's:


+  libpurple

•   Actually emit the hold signal for media calls.
•   Fix building the GnuTLS plugin with older versions of GnuTLS.
•   Fix DNS TXT query resolution.
•   Don't send Proxy-Authorization headers to HTTP proxy servers until we've received a "407 Proxy Authentication Required" response from the server. (thecrux)
•   Added "MXit" protocol plugin, supported and maintained by the MXit folks themselves (MXit Lifestyle (Pty) Ltd.)

+ General

•   New 'plugins' sub-command to 'debug' command (i.e. '/debug plugins') to announce the list of loaded plugins (in both Finch and Pidgin).
•   Always rejoin open chats after an account reconnects.

+  AIM and ICQ

•   Better rate limit calculations and other improvements. (Aman Gupta)
•   More detailed error messages when messages fail to send. (Aman Gupta)
•   The simultaneous login account option is respected when using the clientLogin authentication method.
•   Fix offline message retrieval (broken in 2.6.3)
•   Fix handling of markup on some messages (broken in 2.6.2)
•   Fix SSL when clientLogin is enabled.
•   Fix sending and receiving Unicode characters in a Direct IM

+ MSN

•   Don't forget display names for buddies.
•   Fix a random crash that might occur when idle.
•   Fix more FQY 240 connection errors.
•   Fix a crash that could occur when adding a buddy.
•   Fix an occasional crash when sending message to an offline user.
•   Fix a random crash that might occur when idle.
•   Fix a crash when logging in with some long non-ASCII passwords. (Shaun Lindsay)
•   Cache our own friendly name as the server no longer does that for us. Users of older versions may need to re-set their friendly name as it has probably been reset.

+ XMPP

•   Users connecting to Google Talk now have an "Initiate Chat" context menu option for their buddies. (Eion Robb)
•   Fix a crash when attempting to validate an invalid JID.
•   Resolve an issue when connecting to iChat Server when no resource is specified.
•   Try to automatically find a STUN server by using an SRV lookup on the account's domain, and use that for voice and video if found and the user didn't set one manually in prefs.
•   Fix a crash when adding a buddy without an '@'.
•   Don't show the option to send a file to a buddy if we know for certain they don't support any file transfer method supported by libpurple.
•   Keep the avatar on the server if one is not set locally.

+ Yahoo

•   Fix sending /buzz.
•   Fix blocking behavior for federated (MSN/OCS/Sametime) service users. (Jason Cohen)
•   Add support for adding OCS and Sametime buddies. OCS users are added as "ocs/user@…" and Sametime users are added as "ibm/sametime_id". (Jason Cohen)

+ Finch

•   The TinyURL plugin now creates shorter URLs for long non-conversation URLs, e.g. URLs to open Inbox in Yahoo/MSN protocols, or the Yahoo Captcha when joining chat rooms.
•   Fix displaying umlauts etc. in non-utf8 locale (fix in libgnt).

+ Pidgin

•   The userlist in a multiuser chat can be styled via gtkrc by using the widget name "pidgin_conv_userlist". (Heiko Schmitt)
•   Add a hold button to the media window.
•   Fix a bug where the conversation backlog stops scrolling in a very busy chat room.
•   In the Conversation "Send To" menu, offline buddies appear grayed out (but are still selectable). Previously, only offline buddies on accounts that do not support offline messaging appeared grayed out.

•  Pidgin Preference and Preference Window Changes
•  Removed the "Use font from theme" and "Conversation Font" preferences for everyone except Windows users. The font can be controlled from the Pidgin GTK+ Theme Control plugin.
•   Tabs in the Preferences window are now on the left side.
•   The Browser tab is now visible for GNOME users.
•   Added a Proxy tab shown no matter what environment Pidgin runs in.
•   The Browser and Proxy tabs show appropriate GNOME-specific messages and allow launching the correct applications to change the relevant GNOME preferences if found. These were previously together on the Network tab.
•   Moved the port range spin buttons on the Network tab to be beside the checkbox that enables/disables them.
•   Reorganized preferences on the Status/Idle tab to have one less "section."
•   Reorganized preferences on the Sounds tab to have one less "section."
•   Renamed Smiley Themes tab to Themes.
•   Moved Buddy List Theme and Status Icon Theme selectors from Interface tab to Themes tab.
•   Moved Sound Theme selector from Sounds tab to Themes tab.
•   Changed the Smiley Theme selector to be consistent with the other theme selectors.
•   Rearranged tabs such that Interface is first and all remaining tabs are alphabetized in English.