Saturday, May 10, 2008

Why Pidgin is better than Windows Live Messenger

Never used anything beside Windows Messenger? Then it's time to try out some alternatives! There are several of them, for example Digsby, Miranda and Trillian, but I just love Pidgin.


Absolutely irresistible mascot!

I have a confession to make: When I was considering my switch to Ubuntu I was mostly concerned if I was able to let go of Windows Live Messenger. I was blinded by it's flashiness. It was pretty and even a bit customizable. But I decided I can live few months without it and along came Ubuntu and Pidgin.

I didn't like Pidgin at first. I quite desperately tried to seek for a prettier alternative but there were none. I had no other choice than to stick with Pidgin. But it didn't took long until my eyes opened. It wasn't flashy, it was classy. It wasn't lame, it was user friendly. And eventually I fell in love with it.

There are dozens of reasons why I think Pidgin is better than Windows Live Messenger, but here are the most important ones in my opinion:

1. Pidgin is better because there is no ads

I was always bothered by the ads on Live Messenger. They were annoying and simply everywhere. And I found it quite unethical that there were ads for alcoholic beverages. There are kids using Live Messenger too and they should keep that in mind too when choosing advertisements.

2. Pidgin is better because it doesn't have any super duper cool but useless extra features

Did I ever used any of the Live Messenger extra features? I'm afraid I did not. Though I did accidentally click the nudge button for several times! I only want to talk with my friends, not to bother them with all those strange activities that Live Messenger offers. Don't get this wrong, Pidgin is very versatile too and it has some cool features as well.

3. Pidgin is better because it's a multi-protocol client

Live Messenger allows you to log in with one MSN account at one time. That's so uncool. I have two active MSN accounts and I want to use them seamlessly in the same time. And with Pidgin that is possible. And I could be using these too: AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo! and Zephyr. Pretty awesome, right?

GO GET PIDGIN (runs on all Windows and UNIX platforms)

NB: Pidgin may crash down occasionally on Windows Vista, but it works perfectly fine on XP and Ubuntu.

14 comments:

  1. vielä eilen blogilistan mukaa mul oli vaan yksi tilaaja...

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  2. No en mä ainakaan ihmettele miksi sitä joku muukin haluaa lukea. Se on tosi hyvä :P

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  3. No tänää siel on yhtäkkiä 2 tilaajaa. :p mielenkiintosta...

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  4. Mitä alkoholijuomia on Mesessä mainostettu? Oisko se ees lakien puitteissa sallittua?

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  5. Jos oikein muistan, niin kyseessä taisi olla Black Catin "nosta bailukissa pöydälle" kampanja tms.

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  6. Ai niin muuten olikin, oot oikeessa. Joo... Ihme juttu...

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  7. I tried using Digsby, and I initially loved it, but it used too much RAM. I switched to Pidgin and I'm happy about it :D

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  8. Only two problems with Pidgin. The installation is huge for what it does. A major fault in Pidgin is the inability to send (transfer) files while signed into gtalk or msn accounts. For these, you have to use the native client:( Otherwise, a good multi protocol instant messenger.

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  9. But it does transfer files. It does, for sure.

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  10. I wanted to try Pidgin so I googled for some info about it and see whether it's better than WLM and i came across this site. I know it's 2 years old but still, those key points about why Pidgin is better is crap. There're stuff like Apatch, Mess patch and StuffPlug for WLM, that removes ads, enables polygamy and other tons of features to it. Not to mention there is Messenger Discovery Live, Messenger Plus! Live (which has tons of skins and scripts and plugins which you can use to further enhance whatever part of the chatting experience you wish) and all that are free as well. Messenger Plus! Live alone has over 1 million downloads and has a rich database of skins and scripts, you mentioned that you don't like the extra "useless" features, well extra is always good but there isn't a need to use them and nobody is forcing you to use them. It's the customization and the enhanced extra addons you can use that makes WLM great.

    I would stick to it except my current antivirus program has some conflict with installing it, and i tried hours and hours of research and posted my problem at forums and couldn't find a solution. I know it's due to the antivirus program because i've always installed it fine, but ever since i switched to this new one, it just doesn't work, but i don't want to delete this new antivirus either since it's very good and protects me since i got hacked twice in the last month or so.

    I hope this isn't all there is to Pidgin, it seems weak and not much community behind it that makes it better....

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  11. Awsome :) Much good alternatives to choose from. Windows Live messenger is awful anyways.

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  12. Pidgin is the best messenger for 3 reasons:
    - Multiprotocol
    - Clean interface
    - all what I want from a messenger is to be able to send text messages. That's all!!

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  13. Tried Pidgin 2.10 and couldn't transfer files to anyone on my buddy list... it's now uninstalled and back to windows live crap for me... sadly.

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  14. pidgin is better cuz it has spell check

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