Mozilla Messenger?

ID:182416
 
Jul 10 2008, 2:24 pm
Id like to know if anyone is like me.I recently for Firefox III and love it so much,I noticed they had Thunderbird email.So I tried that and I still love it.Now,How many of you think it would be awesome to have a Mozilla Messenger? I would personally download it if it ever came out on the first day.

EDIT:Hm,Maybe Icewolf Messenger?
Jul 10 2008, 4:28 pm
Well, Mozilla doesn't make any such product, but if you want a free and opensourced instant messager, I recommend Pidgin. It's a great IM program, and it is extendable much like Firefox.
Jul 11 2008, 3:09 am
In response to Danial.Beta
Danial.Beta wrote:
Well, Mozilla doesn't make any such product, but if you want a free and opensourced instant messager, I recommend Pidgin. It's a great IM program, and it is extendable much like Firefox.

Pidgin is a fail. I use it daily and I'm consistently impressed by how terrible it is in some areas like basic formatting. (Trying to change the font, for instance, has never worked right. I have to click the size-down arrow twice to talk normally.) Many options are hard to find where they're implemented at all. Pidgin is merely average for open-source software--it is far less flawed than the frelling GIMP, but it ain't no Firefox.

I keep meaning to switch to Trillian but I always forget. Maybe this weekend the time is finally right to do that.

Lummox JR
Jul 11 2008, 4:01 am
In response to Lummox JR
Why not try aMSN?
It's open source, free, and very customizable. I use it on my linux and I'm very happy with it.
Jul 11 2008, 4:05 am
In response to Miran94
Miran94 wrote:
Why not try aMSN?
It's open source, free, and very customizable. I use it on my linux and I'm very happy with it.

Because I don't use MSN; I use the AIM network. Same suck, different venue. A client that doesn't support it won't work for me. Pidgin and Trillian have multi-network capabilities.

(Just FYI, when doing HTML, don't put spaces around the = in your attributes. That's a malformed tag, even though the browser reluctantly recognizes it.)

Lummox JR
Jul 11 2008, 4:37 am
In response to Lummox JR
Bleh,I think you people are missing the point of the topic.If mozilla Did make a messenger,what do you think it would be like?And how many of you would download it?
Jul 11 2008, 4:47 am
In response to Mudkippy
Mudkippy wrote:
Bleh,I think you people are missing the point of the topic.If mozilla Did make a messenger,what do you think it would be like?And how many of you would download it?

I think it'd be like Pidgin or Trillian, only probably better than both because Mozilla has a fairly active developer contingent. It wouldn't have a network of its own but would just be a way to interface with existing networks like those run by AIM, MSN, ICQ, etc.

Of course everything boils down to two things in these programs: What can the network do, and what can the client do? AIM's network has some appalling problems like message length limits in shared chats. MSN's is, well, run by Microsoft. The commercial clients tend to be ad-happy and the open-source ones tend to trip over UI issues.

Mozilla would probably produce a capable client but it's doubtful there's demand for one with all the competition. They would not produce a network of their own unless they could pull off a robust p2p setup.

Lummox JR
Jul 11 2008, 4:57 am
In response to Lummox JR
If they were to run their own network, they would probably just use XMPP, as it is a very powerful protocol, and intercommunicate with other xmpp providers, and at least one other big name uses it, Google.

As for Pidgin failing, I've never had said problems, but I've never wanted formatted text in my chats. That was one thing that drew my to gTalk so much, a clean, simple, no frills chat service. It allowed me to talk to my friends without distractions like 'cute animated puppy background'.

You will be happy to hear that the next big version of pidgin is supposed to have KHTML, which will mean that it will support all the crazy fonts you could ever want, and chat log styles. If I remember correctly. it will actually support iChat designs, so that if you have a favorite iChat chat window design, you can have it with Pidgin.

The one thing I've always felt behind on with Pidgin is missing features like voice chat and video chat. It's actually why I haven't switched my mom to Linux, because she video conferences with her friends.

If Mozilla made an Instant Messenger, it would no doubt be extendable enough that it would be "easy" for someone to add a video/audio interface. It would also support themes, so that the user really had choice in what his IM looked and functioned like.
Jul 11 2008, 5:00 am
In response to Danial.Beta
Danial.Beta wrote:
As for Pidgin failing, I've never had said problems, but I've never wanted formatted text in my chats. That was one thing that drew my to gTalk so much, a clean, simple, no frills chat service. It allowed me to talk to my friends without distractions like 'cute animated puppy background'.

I don't use formatted text either. I have to hit the size-down button twice because otherwise my text is comically large. Attempts to change this default have always failed.

I don't really use instant messaging for personal use; I find it an annoyance. I only use it for work purposes.

You will be happy to hear that the next big version of pidgin is supposed to have KHTML, which will mean that it will support all the crazy fonts you could ever want, and chat log styles. If I remember correctly. it will actually support iChat designs, so that if you have a favorite iChat chat window design, you can have it with Pidgin.

I'd like it to support basic text without my having to jump through hoops to get it to work right.

Lummox JR
Jul 11 2008, 5:05 am
In response to Lummox JR
I've never had that problem, but I have had problems finding the correct way to change the default formatting for the chat log, the red/blue clashes with my dark desktop theme. But I haven't really done any searching.

I checked my settings, and it looks like mine defaults to 12pt, which I think is fair. If I had my way, I'd probably put it at 10pt, but oh-well. If yours are starting larger than that, might I suggest deleting your profile, it's possible it is broke somehow, and the defaults aren't getting overwrote.
Jul 11 2008, 9:40 am
In response to Lummox JR
Lummox JR wrote:
I keep meaning to switch to Trillian but I always forget. Maybe this weekend the time is finally right to do that.

I highly recommend looking into Miranda IM. It kind of generally resembles Trillian, but it is very customizable and expandable (it has LOTS of plugins/addons that provide tons of functionality, AND support lots of IM protocols (MSN,ICQ,Yahoo,Aim, and much more), and it is also lightweight.
Jul 11 2008, 11:05 am
In response to Lummox JR
Lummox JR wrote:
Mozilla would probably produce a capable client but it's doubtful there's demand for one with all the competition.


Agreed. With the multitude of existing clients for all the platforms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Comparison_of_instant_messaging_clients), do we really need one more? Heck there is even Meebo, an AJAX/web-based multiprotocol clent. Sheesh!