Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

RyanCacophony · 2009-07-10 16:28:57

Hey guys, I was wondering if people have suggestions for CLI based IM clients. I used Finch (ncurses pidgin) for a while, but I dont like the idea of having a sort of virtual desktop fr all of that stuff (you have IM windows floating around and such in the terminal), so I was looking for something else.

I heard about bitlbee, and I use IRC, but it seems like a meh kind of solution for me.
I also heard about climm, but i havent seen screenshots or read any reports on how well it works

Ghost1227 · 2009-07-10 16:42:48

Never used climm, but here's a screenshot. I like bitlbee myself.

Procyon · 2009-07-10 16:58:51

There is a little known one called gtmess. Although it hasn't been updated since December 2007, (makes me realize it's been over two years since I last used IM), it's quite good.

lifeafter2am · 2009-07-10 17:01:49

I sometimes use naim.

RyanCacophony · 2009-07-10 17:05:28

A good suggestion I got on IRC: centerIM

Looks to be pretty fully featured.... i'll get back after I try some of em out later on

RyanCacophony · 2009-07-10 17:27:07

Ghost1227 wrote:

Never used climm, but here's a screenshot. I like bitlbee myself.

Yeah, I saw that screenshot actually, doesnt really explain much about how it displays buddies or anything else is displayed

archlinuxsagi · 2009-07-10 17:31:24

I been using gtmess on console. It is stable and its dependencies are lesser..

RyanCacophony · 2009-07-10 17:35:32

Also, I suppose I should mention, I mainly use AIM and MSN, but support for other protocols is useful....

linkmaster03 · 2009-07-10 19:17:49

I use bitlbee and I've grown to love it. It will seem a little weird and impractical at first going to your IRC client (irssi in my case) to message people, and it will take time to get used to the commands, but in the end you'll find yourself not being able to have it any other way. It supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, ICQ, and some other protocols I bet.

The gist is that all your buddies join a channel and use /msg to talk to them. They join the channel when they log on, they quit when they log off, and they are voiced and devoiced according to their away status. You can set your own away status with /away. A new channel is created and you are automatically sent into it if a groupchat is started. Bitlbee supports MSN groupchats for sure, not sure about other protocols.

I set up a BNC with my bitlbee server. When I exit my IRC client, my status is automatically set to away. When I open it up and connect, my away status is removed. This way, people can contact me even if I am not there and I can read their messages when I get on.

The only thing I missed when I moved from Pidgin to bitlbee a while back was having the windows flash in my panel when I had a new IM. My terminal obviously wouldn't flash when I got a new message, so sometimes it would take me more than an hour to see if I got any new messages if I was busy in Firefox or something. In the end I used this script in conjunction with a wmctrl command to make my terminal flash in my panel when I got a message.

Last edited by linkmaster03 (2009-07-10 19:24:13)

dannytatom · 2009-07-10 19:23:29

I've always used irssi w/ bitlbee.

moljac024 · 2009-07-10 19:23:52

The only thing holding me back from using bitlbee full-time is the lack of support for file transfers...that's something I need

Sakurina · 2009-07-10 19:55:06

I use pork for AIM; it's pretty nice except it tends to have issues with < and > characters; everything else works fine.

Isengrin · 2009-07-11 03:14:00

RyanCacophony wrote:

A good suggestion I got on IRC: centerIM
Looks to be pretty fully featured.... i'll get back after I try some of em out later on

+2

I'vel been using it for months whenever Kopete fails or I'm X-less, and it works freaking great. Simple and still full-featured.

Last edited by Isengrin (2009-09-14 16:20:33)

jbusch · 2009-07-11 04:19:52

Has anyone tried out barn owl yet? It looks pretty new, I might have to go check it out now that we're on the subject.
http://barnowl.mit.edu/

- J

sirmacik · 2009-07-18 00:19:57

Maybe you should try ekg2? I don't remember now, but surly it supports also IRC.

ilembitov · 2009-07-18 07:12:38

mcabber is quite popular and nice.

tadzik · 2009-07-18 08:51:52

for me, mcabber is the only quite usable thing. Really, after getting used to its interface I don't really want to go back to any other clients, even with gui. One day I'll write xmmp client as comfortable as mcabber is.
Regards

papounet · 2009-07-18 09:18:33

for jabber there is also http://www.gnu.org/software/freetalk/.

cheers

Mr.Elendig · 2009-07-18 15:17:00

weechat is getting xmpp/other plugins too

deadlylife · 2009-07-18 21:07:56

pork

sirmacik · 2009-07-19 18:35:09

ilembitov wrote:

mcabber is quite popular and nice.

This is also very good choice [;

mitzekotze · 2009-09-14 16:10:06

I'm actually using centerIM but I have thought of switching to bitlbee. The only reason which keeps me on centerIM is the log support and the audio notification of events like on/off going buddys or incoming messages. Can some of the bitlbee users here give me a hind how I can realize these things with Irssi?

Runiq · 2009-09-14 16:30:05

Hmm... bitlbee does look nice. Thanks for those notification scripts, if I can get them sorted out, I think I'll switch from mcabber.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-07-10 16:28:57

Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#2 2009-07-10 16:42:48

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#3 2009-07-10 16:58:51

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#4 2009-07-10 17:01:49

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#5 2009-07-10 17:05:28

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#6 2009-07-10 17:27:07

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#7 2009-07-10 17:31:24

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#8 2009-07-10 17:35:32

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#9 2009-07-10 19:17:49

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#10 2009-07-10 19:23:29

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#11 2009-07-10 19:23:52

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#12 2009-07-10 19:55:06

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#13 2009-07-11 03:14:00

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#14 2009-07-11 04:19:52

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#15 2009-07-18 00:19:57

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#16 2009-07-18 07:12:38

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#17 2009-07-18 08:51:52

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#18 2009-07-18 09:18:33

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#19 2009-07-18 15:17:00

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#20 2009-07-18 21:07:56

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#21 2009-07-19 18:35:09

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#22 2009-09-14 16:10:06

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

#23 2009-09-14 16:30:05

Re: Console/CLI/*curses based IM clients

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