Empathy for pidgin
The choice is yours.Such is the power of open source.But that doesn’t mean that there are no favourites.Vi editor is the most used text editor while open office remains the most powerful office suite platform.Gimp is a lovely image editor.And if we talk about Instant messaging client Pidgin has been ruling the roost. But things are moving fast, fast enough for Pidgin earlier known as Gaim(GTK AOL Instant messenger).
Empathy Screenshot
The new kid off the block is known as Empathy which rides on a new framework providing a real-time communication on Linux desktops.Empathy is another instant messaging program which supports numerous networks and has lots of features.The project was introduced into GNOME with release 2.24 as the desktop’s messaging client. Empathy was built to take advantage of the new Telepathy framework which enables system wide communication not previously possible.Empathy also utilizes libpurple (the same library as Pidgin) and as such inherited support for all of its networks from the onset. Although a young project, it has quickly grown an impressive set of features, including the geolocation of contacts and support for video and audio chat over both XMPP (Jabber) and SIP. The XMPP protocol is used by numerous networks, including Google Mail and is considered a very important feature of the application.
Empathy, which literally translates as ‘in feeling’, is the capability to share and understand another’s emotions and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to “put oneself into another’s shoes”.
Telepathy framework has three main benefits:
Real-time: Telepathy supports instant messaging (both one-to-one and in groups), voice calls and video calls; it’s less suited for store-and-forward applications like email.
Unified: Many different programs can take advantage of these communications; Telepathy lets these programs work together.
Framework: Telepathy allows the different aspects of communication handling to be divided between different parts of the system, meaning each part is simple.
The GNOME project has adopted Telepathy into the environment so that all applications can have system-wide communication. Just where this technology will take the desktop is not yet clear, but the possibilities are endless. This simple game of Sodoku is a good example of what’s possible with the Telepathy framework.Due to its use of the Telepathy framework, Empathy can tie itself into the desktop far more closely than Pidgin ever could.As free software improves over time and applications come and go, it only stands to reason that what is a common tool today might not be tomorrow. The fact that there is lots of choice is naturally a good thing, after all, competition encourages innovation. It is sad to see Pidgin replaced in GNOME because it has been (and continues to be) a great instant messaging client.
Tags: Comparison of instant messaging clients, Cross-platform software, Empathy, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, GNOME, GTK AOL Instant messenger, Instant messaging, Linux, Pidgin, store-and-forward applications, Technology/Internet, Telepathy, XMPP protocol
I am perfectly happy with Pidgin. I rather wish the two would merge (a la Compiz and Beryl) since they are so similar.
Its sad but we might see some innovation from pidgin & libpurple in coming days
Agree – hate to see Pidgin go. I also like that it’s cross platform so I can use the same IM client at home (Linux) and at work (Windows).
Pidgin has an edge as far as cross platform is concerned.Lets wait and watch.
Same here. I also want to see the power of Empathy on the UI of Pidgin.
I can see the potential, but when I installed empathy it missed support for Msn custom emoticons and Irc (maybe it is not even in the scope of this application). So it’s impossible for me to use it.
You are right.empathy has yet to support custom emoticons for MSN which pidgin does..MSN support like that is a big bonus as they sit on the majority of the IM market and webcam/voip support is considered a must have item these days.
I agree with you. I removed Empathy and installed Pidgin right away because of the lack of customized emoticon and rich text. I am sure it is a great program. But I probably will not use it until customized emoticon and rich text are supported. Pidgin is good enough at the moment.
Without OTR I’m still on Pidgin.
I have tried to use empathy. It’s UI is way much better than pidgin and much easier to use however it’s has lesser options for you to customize it unlike pidgin. At this stage, may cause system to crashes like i did. Thus, I’d continue to use pidgin till empathy gets more stable.
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