gaim alternative?

omgpro · 2005-10-22 23:35:31

there's probably been at least one thread about this in the past, but it's kind of a hard topic to search for, so i was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a good AIM client on linux. i currently use gaim, and it's nice and all, but it's just kind of big and ugly. and you can't skin it or anything. and it just doesn't really feel right. if i'm ever on windows, i use trillian, which is nice because it's skinnable and small and comfortable, albeit badly coded. so, point me to another thread if you'd like, but i was just curious. i noticed gabber looked almost kind of interesting, but there isn't a pkgbuild or anything for it.

dust · 2005-10-22 23:44:00

Why not use abs to make a package for yourself? You could always try a cli aim client like pork.

Cam · 2005-10-23 00:34:27

I use Mercury which is very good and very skinnable. It only supports MSN though.

stonecrest · 2005-10-23 01:45:07

gaim 2.0.0 looks very promising, i'm excited for it.

Cam · 2005-10-23 04:34:47

stonecrest wrote:

gaim 2.0.0 looks very promising, i'm excited for it.

Theres a pkgbuild in AUR for gaim 2.0.0, I presume is pulls it from CVS, SVN or some snapshot repository somewhere.

WillySilly · 2005-10-23 05:17:53

I hope the prefs in gaim 2.0.0 aren't going to be like what the are in cvs.

phrakture · 2005-10-24 15:11:57

centericq for the win!

omgpro · 2005-10-26 23:36:19

i've used to use naim for aim when i wasn't in X, and i have tried centericq, but recently, aim hasn't worked for either of them. it just doesn't connect and i'm not sure why. i was meaning to look at if there was some sort of server or protocol change or something, but never did. i might actually bother to use one of them now if i can get them to work.
in the meantime, does anyone know any way to skin gaim? because i'm pretty sure it's possible at compile...or something like that...idk, i've looked around and couldn't find anything

ecoffey · 2005-10-28 15:47:00

I don't believe you can skin gaim, and that is because the gaim devs are smart.

Why are people so obsessed with skinnable apps?

All skinning does is introduce bloat and annoyance. Instead of devs being able to take advantage of a heavily used widget set (like gtk+ or qt), they end up building all these hacks on top of X (or maybe even something higher level) just so you can flip out skins. It's dumb. I haven't done any official investigation, but imagine the huge number of bugs that all of that will spawn, that the devs then have to take care of, instead of focusing on the PURPOSE of their app.

grrr. *end of rant*

I do know that KDE has a couple (or just one) IM client, but I've never used it, so I can't comment on it.

omgpro · 2005-10-28 18:52:18

i don't really care about the fact that it's not skinnable, i care about the fact it's really big and ugly. of course i'm most likely going to just continue to use gaim because of convinience

shadowhand · 2005-10-30 19:56:07

omgpro wrote:

i don't really care about the fact that it's not skinnable, i care about the fact it's really big and ugly.

User error. My Gaim looks wonderful. Maybe you should try using the GTK-QT package to make GTK apps look like QT apps.

Dusty · 2005-10-30 20:01:11

ecoffey wrote:

I don't believe you can skin gaim, and that is because the gaim devs are smart.
Why are people so obsessed with skinnable apps?
<rant>

I agree totally. That's a perfect rant. A common refrain in my lab lately is "look at this, that's bad HCI". Skinning is bad HCI all the way.

Theming.... that's a little nicer, but you have gtk themes already. I don't know how to use them though. Anybody want to tell me how to config a gtk theme?

Dusty

deficite · 2005-10-31 03:03:03

Skinning is good for 14 year-old inepts using Windows.

dust · 2005-11-01 06:08:02

deficite wrote:

Skinning is good for 14 year-old inepts using Windows.

quoted for truth

omgpro · 2005-11-04 13:04:44

all this about skinnig is true, it tends to be rather stupid and wasteful. however, i still really don't like the huge icons in the gaim windows and the size of the windows in general. i want something small. that will have enough space to see the last couple lines of conversation and maybe one line for typing text. it's kind of wasteful how it is now. atleast for me. gaim seems kind of out of date compared to some messengers on windows, IMO.

Richie · 2005-11-04 19:59:35

Something like that?

BTW: You can use Licq, if you like to install the Qt-bloat. ( )

glib · 2005-11-05 00:55:31

Mine looks like Richie's. Did you honestly not try looking in the prefs for options? Or do you want the icons to be even smaller than that (how close are you sitting to your monitor )!?

omgpro · 2005-11-05 05:31:39

oh. wow. holy crap i'm retarded.

i figured out what i wanted. sorry all :oops:

fatblueduck · 2005-11-08 06:19:17

I thought I should mention bitlbee here. You know it'll look cool because it will run through your *term or console.

There is a package build for it too, in one of the extra repositories.

Arch Linux

#1 2005-10-22 23:35:31

gaim alternative?

#2 2005-10-22 23:44:00

Re: gaim alternative?

#3 2005-10-23 00:34:27

Re: gaim alternative?

#4 2005-10-23 01:45:07

Re: gaim alternative?

#5 2005-10-23 04:34:47

Re: gaim alternative?

#6 2005-10-23 05:17:53

Re: gaim alternative?

#7 2005-10-24 15:11:57

Re: gaim alternative?

#8 2005-10-26 23:36:19

Re: gaim alternative?

#9 2005-10-28 15:47:00

Re: gaim alternative?

#10 2005-10-28 18:52:18

Re: gaim alternative?

#11 2005-10-30 19:56:07

Re: gaim alternative?

#12 2005-10-30 20:01:11

Re: gaim alternative?

#13 2005-10-31 03:03:03

Re: gaim alternative?

#14 2005-11-01 06:08:02

Re: gaim alternative?

#15 2005-11-04 13:04:44

Re: gaim alternative?

#16 2005-11-04 19:59:35

Re: gaim alternative?

#17 2005-11-05 00:55:31

Re: gaim alternative?

#18 2005-11-05 05:31:39

Re: gaim alternative?

#19 2005-11-08 06:19:17

Re: gaim alternative?

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