HGKeeper

$page->title = 'What Is Pidgin?';

require('inc/template.inc.php');

<h1>What Is Pidgin?</h1>

<p>

Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD,

and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using

<acronym title="AOL (R) Instant Messenger (TM)">AIM</acronym>,

ICQ, Jabber/<acronym title="eXtensible Messaging and Presence

Protocol">XMPP</acronym>, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu,

<acronym title="Internet Relay Chat">IRC</acronym>, Novell GroupWise

Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime,

<acronym title="Secure Internet Live Conferencing">SILC</acronym>,

<acronym title="SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging

Extensions">SIMPLE</acronym>, and Zephyr.

</p>

<p>

Pidgin can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks

simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AIM,

talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in

an IRC channel all at the same time.

</p>

<p>

Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer,

away messages, and typing notification.

It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features.

A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify

you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy

goes away, signs online, or returns from idle; and plugins, consisting of

text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify

on away, spell checking, tabbed conversations, and more.

</p>

<p>

Pidgin runs on a number of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and

<a href="http://qpe-gaim.sourceforge.net/">Qtopia</a> (Sharp Zaurus and

iPaq). Looking for Pidgin for OS-X? Try

<a href="http://www.adiumx.com/">Adium</a>!

</p>

<p>

Pidgin integrates well with GNOME 2 and KDE 3.1's system tray, as well as

Windows's own system tray. This allows you to work with Pidgin without

requiring the buddy list window to be open at all times.

</p>

<p>

Pidgin is under constant development, and releases are usually frequent.

The latest news regarding Pidgin can be found on the

<a href="/index.php">news page</a>.

</p>

<h1>What is Finch?</h1>

<p>

Finch is the text-based version of Pidgin. It supports the same

IM networks, but you can run it in a console window. You can use

it on Linux, BSD, and other Unixes.

</p>

<h1>What is libpurple?</h1>

<p>

libpurple is the programming library that powers Pidgin and Finch.

It's responsible for connecting to all the IM networks, and for

managing your accounts and preferences. It's writtin in C and

makes heavy use of GLib.

</p>

pidgin/old.pidgin.im