10 reasons to use Pidgin instead of MSN Messenger
Posted by Jean-Baptiste Jung on Jun 15, 2008 in Misc • 32 commentsSince Windows XP release in Sept 2001, MSN Messenger became a de-facto standard for Instant Messaging, at least for many people. Though, the offical client distributed by Microsoft is slow, contains advertising and force you to update if you want to continue to use it. So, here’s 10 good reasons to replace MSN Messenger by Pidgin.
Pidgin is open-source
An open-source software have many advantages: It's free most of the time, and its source code is accessible, so you can be sure that no backdoor exists in the program
Pidgin can deal with 16 IM protocol
Of course, Pidgin works with the MSN protocol, but also on AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo! Messenger and Zephyr, for a total of 16 IM protocols.
Remember some years ago, when you had to download a new client just because the friend you wanted to talk to didn't use the same protocol as you? With Pidgin, this time's over.
Note, Pidgin can also work with the Skype protocol.
Pidgin is advertising-free
Microsoft makes lots of money with the Windows Live Messenger ads. Pidgin developers aren't that interested in money: The software is advertising-free, which results in more speed and less memory use.
Pidgin is quicker than MSN Messenger
Make a test and see: Due to the fact it don't have any ads or useless features as in MSN, Pidgin starts 2 to 3 times quicker than the official MSN client.
You can use more than 1 account at time
If you have a msn account for your job and another one for your friends and family, you'll be able to connect both of them at the same time. With MSN Messenger, it's one account, and that's all. I remember a time when I used two different versions of MSN Messenger in order to chat with two different accoounts at the same time, but with Pidgin, that's not going to happen again!
Pidgin is cross-platform
You're a Mac user, your browser prefers Ubuntu and your girlfriend works on Windows? No problem, anyone can use Pidgin on his or hers favorite operating system. Note, on Mac OS X, this is not really Pidgin but a similar software called Adium, and which have almost exactly the same functionality as Pidgin.
Pidgin can be used in command-line mode
Most users will probably don't care, but the ultimate geek will be very happy to know that Finch is a Pdigin command-line version, in Lynx style!
Pidgin use a tabbed interface
Why taking all the available space on your monitor when a single window is enought? If you like tabs in Firefox, you'll love it in Pidgin. Right, you can use MSN Plus to have tabs in the official MSN client interface, but why installing one more software add-on when you simply can install a better IM client?
Fear of being deleted? Pidgin will tell you.
In the world of instant messagers, you can easily become paranoid: Did she blocked me? Am I still on his friend list? It's kinda easy to know, if you're a Pidgin user: Just put the mouse cursor over one of your contacts name, and you'll see if you're still in this person's buddy list.
You can modify your friend's nicknames
The basic MSN user often put a very loooooooong nickname, or even worst, tell everyone about his mood as his was on twitter. And for you, nothing more boring than to be forced to open a conversation window just to be able to know who is that person. With Pidgin, it is possible to locally edit the screenname of your buddies.
Download Pidgin for Windows or Linux
Download Adium for Mac OS X
Download portable Pidgin for Windows
It’s obvious that Pidgin is damn better than MSN messenger (now WLM).
I wonder what proprietary product is better than its open-source equivalent?
Pidgin is indeed better than MSN, by a country mile.
However to answer Emesto Sanchez’s question: Photoshop. GIMP doesn’t even come close as far as I can see.
@Paul: Even if I love the Gimp, I agree that Photoshop is better. Well, or maybe it’s just that i’m more used to it.
@jbj
You are right. Photoshop is wayyyy better than Gimp. And I personally think that this software deserves every penny it is worth.
Photoshop is magic. Nothing can come ever close. GIMP has bad interface, and for years they did nothing to improve it. Photoshop has even improved interface with thses CS versions. I use Photoshop for years, and every day I learn something new, amazing program.
But not many other proprietary software is better then open source ones.
There is no reason to use Pidgin over MS. The Pidgin devels are every bit as fascist as MS…
http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986
Dont use Pidgin! Use https://www.meebo.com instead. Screw developers that dont care about their users!
Meebo.com is a very good online IM software, but it offer less possibilities than Pidgin or even msn.
And about the devels, I didn’t read the whole story, you seems right in a certain point in my opinion, but I still think that Pidgin is by far better than msn (no ads, launch more quickly, etc, etc).
Not to mention the availability of portable pidgin, and plugins. However one function I miss on MSN is the “nudge”. However, I can see myself moving to meebo if they improve on the general aesthetic. Why a Web application choose to stick to the “panel” interface of desktop chat applications is beyond me.
I’m agree with you: Meebo is generally very usefull (and in any better than live messenger which you simply CAN’T use if you’re not on Windows) but the design isn’t that great, and a bit too slow to load.
Well, if the Ads are such a annoyance, one could easily remove the Ads with a-patch.
Pidgin is a great app, don’t get me wrong, but until one can view/send webcam and use audio/mic using pidgin to talk/vidchat with msn users, i’ll still be using msn messenger live.
@bela1: Yeah, let’s hope Pidgin developpers will ad audio/video support as soon as possible!
“plateform” is meant to be “platform”
@garoth: Thanks for correcting my mistake
I can’t seem to make it automatically supply my password and join a channel on IRC though…
Trillian isn’t opensource, but it is free.
Doesn’t tackles as many IMs, but all my friends are there already.
doesn’t have a portable version readily available but there’s a guide there somewhere on how to do it.
Something else worth looking at is Mercury IM (http://www.mercury.im). Is is also open source and cross platform (Windows, Mac and Linux). It’s offers features not found in many other non-microsoft MSN clients such as video support. Highly recommended.
@Roberto: Thanks for the usefull info!
I’m not using pidgin for a long time but I must admit that you are right, it is much better that msn messenger. I will continue to use it.
i agree with you i turned to Gtalk from msn just because of it was never getting out of beta and connection errors were so usual then gtalk seemed to be life saver until pidgin launched i was really amazed to see its feature and versatility of different IM’s the best feature of pidgin over msn messenger is its open source (and we do love open sources dont we?) seconds its fast and easy on memory and dont slows down when there is alot of processing going on.
In regards to post number 8 by Neowster.
“However one function I miss on MSN is the “nudge”.
Type /nudge in the chat window of the person you want to nudge. Done
Pidgin (no video /audio) = crap
Pigdin is opensource
Ok opensource is good, nothing to say here. (although there are zillions of opensource programs that exist and pidgin is just one of them.) But it has to be noted that OpenSource does not exclude crappiness. A program can be OpenSource and Crappy.
Pidgin can deal with 16 IM protocols
But can it fully support the major protocols?
Fully = All features (or atleast excluding newest ones)
Major = Those in highest demand (MSN)
Pidgin is advertising-free
“Microsoft makes lots of money with the Windows Live Messenger ads.”
Ok Microsoft makes money with the ads, but what’s the harm if the ads are unobtrusive and the product delivers high functionality?
” Pidgin developers aren’t that interested in money:”
Many companies back OpenSource project in a bid to make profit (canonical, red hat, sun), does that make them or their product bad?
Also, may I remind you that not only Pidgin developers are uninterested in money, but also in their users….
“The software is advertising-free, which results in more speed and less memory use.”
Admittedly a WLM client with advertising may require more memory and processing than an ad-free WLM client. But that does not mean that a WLM client with advertising is faster or requires more memory than pidgin! The speed and memory factor depend on many things, including which libraries/platform are being used. Only proper benchmarking can determine that. In any case, WLM does not feel heavy, works seamlessly.
Pidgin is quicker than MSN Messenger
“Make a test and see: Due to the fact it don’t have any ads or useless features as in MSN, Pidgin starts 2 to 3 times quicker than the official MSN client”
Tried that. Ok WLM takes some time to start, this is because of the new protocol being used, not because of the ads - other clients that can use different versions of the protocol, like mercury, can enable you to see that, the newer protocols take more time to connect! And pidgin which lags far behind in WLM protocol support is using an old version (less features) of the protocol hence the less time.
“Useless features”
Which ones? Nudge? I use that. Audio/Video? I use that one too. Winks? Not so much but once in a while. How useful a feature is, is a subjective issue, but face it, IM has evolved and users are loving it.
You can use more than 1 account at time
Use messenger+
It’s an addon(à la plugin) for WLM.
Pidgin is cross-platform
For it to work on windows, GTK libraries are required, which add an extra overhead, contrary to WLM which works natively. Also Windows support and integration is not as good as on linux.
And again, while being cross-platform is good, it does not preclude non-crappiness.
btw Can you explain this: “your browser prefers Ubuntu” ?
Pidgin can be used in command-line mode
“Most users will probably don’t care”
Exactly.
Pidgin use a tabbed interface
“but why installing one more software add-on when you simply can install a better IM client?”
Why do you install plugins then? Do add functionality? Same here.
And to answer this question of yours, the answer is because there is NO better IM client (for the msn protocol).
Why?
Because WLM is the official protocol, and is the only one to support it fully and properly. No need to reverse engineer or use other tricks. Other clients are condemned to play catch-up.
Fear of being deleted? Pidgin will tell you.
Can’t see that on WLM. Although online tools exist for that, I am not sure whether they can be trusted (Spam) - but surely this is not a “good reason to use Pidgin instead of MSN Messenger”.
You can modify your friend’s nicknames
You can do that on WLM.
Does webcam between MSN and Pidgin work?
@fluxy: Wow, you just beaten the record of the longest comment ever on this blog!
Some of your arguments are good in my opinion, but some aren’t.
I agree that plugins are a good thing in general, but why should I install WLM plugins while I can just install pidgin and get all what I need? (Even if I miss the webcam support, just like any other Pidgin user I guess)
Btw, I don’t use Windows anymore so I can’t have an objective advice about WLM now.
About the “your browser prefers Ubuntu”, it’s just a stupid typo. Sorry for that, I meant “Your brother” (English isn’t my primary language, so I can make typos sometimes)
@Matt: No, Pidgin can’t display webcam.
@jbj:
LoL you do have a nice blog (great resources) but I so hate pidgin that this post had to be as exhaustive as possible =)
Even I cannot give a very objective advice as far as pidgin is concerned, because I really hate it, but then, my reasons are pretty correct as well. I reiterate my position as far as IM is concerned, use a specialist program as far as possible, and for msn, WLM, Mercury, aMSN and emesene (buggy) are best (in the said order). Please note that Mercury, aMSN and emesene are all cross platform and free (mercury isn’t opensource the rest are.)
Pidgin is one major hurdle in linux conversion (especially in my country) - which is yet another reason I hate it.
and yeah “but why should I install WLM plugins while I can just install pidgin?”
>Simply because base WLM is much much much better (supports ALL msn features) than pidgin.
[C'est pas grave, je croyais que c'étais moi qui n'arrivais pas à comprendre =) ]
@fluxy: Well, that’s what I call a personnal choice. You prefer using WLM with plugins, I prefer using pidgin without plugins because it totally fits my needs.
Thanks for the compliment about my blog, btw =)
WLM has a very annoying interface. I’ll only use it when my friends beg me to sign on and I’m using Windows. Otherwise, Pidgin is far superior for just general chatting. If you want all the features, it’s obvious you’re going to want to use the software specifically designed for that particular network. Pidgin does a lot of things at once, but it doesn’t do any of them superbly, and I’m fine with that. I can always use the proprietary software if need be, then switch back to Pidgin.
Pidgin is smaller and use less RAM than MSN. But I don’t know how to use a webcam in pidgin, does it support this feature. Now I use Miranda which is tiny IM (118 kb) with basic feature for IM. But Pidgin is my favorite IM application.
I will admit, i do use WLM, but it have been tempted to switch to pidgin. The only thing stopping me is plus! sounds. My friends and I love annoying each other with the sounds you can send with WLM plus!
If you could do that on pidgin, i’d download it in a heartbeat lol
P.S. I am write in thinking you can’t do this is Pidgin right? If i’m wrong, slap me and tell me how to do it please ^_^
1. Most people do not download from the official site but from other third party that advertise downloads. Meaning the delivered executable can contain all sort of virii. And the package is not signed…
2. A lie. Can barely use those protocols missing everything but the text chat in most cases. Also the all 16 is less. To give you an example Google Talk and XMPP is the same thing. So do bother to understand what you copy/paste instead of just cluttering the webspace.
3. Pidgin main developer makes a lot of money out of this too. Long ago there was a group of people sick and tired of not having Audio and Video support. They were thrown out and they made a separate project called gaim-vv (gaim was one of the long list of names changed to lose track of bugs and feature requests). The deal was they would make the video part stable and than they merge with the main application before version 2. Dude got a comfy job at Google so he changes the insides to fit some Google particularities and the whole gaim-vv becomes useless. He got a lot of money, the users got a crippled app.
4. Do you count things like audio, video, file transfer, custom smileys and the others as useless? And I am not so sure if this is not just wishful thinking as some of the MSN libraries get preloaded.
5. -
6. Is not so cross platform. It needs an external library (gtk) which in turn lead to breaking other installed apps because of not enough testing from the development team of pidgin. So there’s a price involved.
7. You said most users won’t care. I rest my case.
8. -
9. -
10. -
Bottom line is more like 4 reasons. And you have all the missing features each counting as one. So the score is negative in the end.
Nice try!
@Ion Ion: I had the same kind of comment on my French blog where I posted a similar article. Seems some people really loves Pidgin and other just hates it
1: Possible. I use apt, personally.
2: Sorry if I made a mistake
3: Maybe he does, but the software isn’t filled with ads.
4: Audio/Video are useful and every Pidgin user is waiting for it, that’s a sure thing. But are “winks”, etc useful?
6: It’s better to have to install gtk than don’t having any software (For exemple, a GNU/Linux user who’d like to chat on msn…) Gtk is far from being perfect but at least you can use it on both GNU/Linux and Windows.