HGKeeper

---

title: Install

date: 2019-01-16T20:14:59.000Z

replaces:

- pidgin.im/download/

- pidgin.im/download/windows/

- pidgin.im/download/linux/

- pidgin.im/download/mac/

- pidgin.im/download/source/

lastmod: 2020-01-14T05:00:21.000Z

weight: 10

aliases:

- download/

- download/windows/

- download/linux/

- download/mac/

- download/source/

---

## Pidgin

### Windows

This version of Pidgin downloads an appropriate version of GTK. GTK is now

installed locally for Pidgin, and not system-wide, thus Pidgin will not

interfere with other GTK apps on your system.

If you would like to have GTK included in the installer, we have an [offline

installer]({{% sourceforge-download "-offline.exe" %}})

that bundles everything except spell-checking dictionaries.

If you're looking for a portable version that doesn't need installation, [we

also have that available]({{% sourceforge-download "-win32-bin.zip" %}}).

### Linux

We do not provide pre-built packages for Linux and Unix distributions. We

recommend installing Pidgin using your operating system's standard package

management tool.

If your operating system doesn't provide a pre-built package, or if their

pre-built package is out of date and you want to upgrade, then you can try

[building from source]({{< ref "development/building" >}}).

#### Debian/Ubuntu

```bash

sudo apt update

sudo apt install pidgin

```

### FreeBSD

```

pkg install pidgin

```

### macOS

For a native macOS experience we recommend [Adium](https://adium.im/), which

uses libpurple (the core of Pidgin) for much of its protocol support.

If you're sure you want to use Pidgin on macOS, you may find the packages

provided through [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/),

[pkgin](https://pkgsrc.joyent.com/),

[Fink](https://finkproject.org/download/) or

[Macports](https://www.macports.org/install.php) more convenient than compiling

from source. Please note, *we do not provide support for issues related to

installing Homebrew, pkgin, Fink, Macports, or their packages of Pidgin*. Contact those

projects directly with questions or concerns.

If you're sure you want to use Pidgin on macOS and you don't want to use

Homebrew, Fink or Macports, you can [download the Pidgin

source](#source) and compile.

### Source

This download is for the source code of Pidgin {{< param currentVersion >}}.

If you want to **use** Pidgin, you should either download and use our Windows

installer or look for pre-built packages from your operating system

distribution.

If you are looking to **modify** Pidgin, you may want to look at our

[instructions for contributing code from our

repository]({{< ref "development/contributing" >}}).

### Older versions

If you need binaries for older versions of Pidgin, visit our [package repository

main page](https://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin/files/Pidgin). That is also

where you can find the checksums for each file and their corresponding gpg

signatures.

## Finch

Finch is a text-based IM client written in C which uses the ncurses toolkit.