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No real need to hang onto these.
old
2007-04-17, Luke Schierer
f96878f16453
No real need to hang onto these.
<?
$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>