Shoutbox

is there a good messenger for linux that supports plus' tags and has some of the same features like desktop contacts? gaim and amsn are crappy, and mercury seems good, but i cant get it to launch ;<

any suggestions?

A good messenger client that supports Plus! tags? That'd be fantastic.

Gaim sure needs desktop contacts, I agree. I used to be unsure about Gaim, but I like it now. I don't know what Terillian is like these days, but it was a bit rude when I used it [on Windows though] five or six years ago. Might be worth a look.

Gaim also supports SLIP and Jabber, and I'm trying to get all my contacts to move to SLIP so it suits my purposes. It's also got tabbed chats, which is one of my favourites.

All Linux/Unix messengers also support the one thing Plus! removed from it's featureset, which was one of the most important features but was sold in a deal with the devil. [Don't get me wrong, I think it's great what Patchau did in regards to getting better Plus! support for later MSN versions. I just... that important feature was missed.]

Anyway, if you want a feature bad enough, you could always build it in yourself

Anyway, Gaim supports the most important Plus! feature: longer messages. I just probed it and it fails at 2k characters.

i use gaim, and ive recently started using kopete for no reason, which i think is one of those " not all graphics and colours, but still awesome" kind of programs.

i just wish someone would make something for linux/unix, that would rox then

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Originally posted by Verte
Gaim sure needs desktop contacts

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why does Gaim need that? IMO it shouldnt have that at all..if you want that i suggest you put that in a feature request over at http://www.amsn-project.net/

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Originally posted by ICQ

quote:

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Originally posted by Verte
Gaim sure needs desktop contacts

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why does Gaim need that? IMO it shouldnt have that at all..if you want that i suggest you put that in a feature request over at http://www.amsn-project.net/

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I think you've got your messengers mixed up

I'm looking at working on a number of Plus! features into Gaim, but with my current schedule and the quality of Gaim code it will most likely never get done.

@ICD: I've heard good things about kopete in the last couple of days... Hmm.

Kopete is good if ur a KDE Fan.

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Originally posted by ICQ
Kopete is good if ur a KDE Fan.

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Well, if you care about all your apps looking the same. If you install from binaries, which most Linux users do, it doesn't matter any more than that.

And if you're a source-y, you've probably already got KDE headers and what not laying around anyway, no matter what window manager you use.

And if you REALLY care about how it's going to look on your fluxbox desktop, say, you're going to have to hack whatever you get. [this is somewhat why I want desktop contacts for Gaim...]

I feel like I've already posted here. Strange .

Anyway, of the three main Linux clients (aMSN, GAIM, Kopete) I'm using Kopete atm, mainly because I'm using KDE (it's nice and shiny on my new Feisty Fawn) and it works quite nicely. It also looks slightly better than GAIM (what's its new name, I forgot) and a hell of a lot better than aMSN (which is a shame, since aMSN has the most features - most notably custom emoticon and webcam support).

I considered making my own client which used nice fonts and mimicked the official MSN client as much as possible (with a couple of Plus! features thrown in for good measure), but Linux GUI programming can be horrible. So I'm gonna try running WLM in WINE over the next few days.

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Originally posted by andrewdodd13GAIM (what's its new name, I forgot)

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Pidgin - yeah, I keep forgetting that.

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Originally posted by andrewdodd13
Linux GUI programming can be horrible.

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So people say. Programming for X in C is not fun at all. However, the higher level tools are usually pretty good. Gtk is a lot to digest and I've never used Qt but I assume it's the same story. There's a really good python front end to Gtk, who's name eludes me Otherwise, you will find ways to automate widget creation