RSSGaim IM Client Renamed to 'Pidgin'
By Nate Mook | Published April 9, 2007, 11:18 AM
The popular open source instant messaging client Gaim has a new name thanks to legal pressure from AOL, now being dubbed "Pidgin." The slightly more bizarre moniker comes after lengthy and secret settlement talks with AOL, which Gaim developers apologized for.
Originally called "GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger," the project was renamed to Gaim after an initial complaint by AOL. After AOL trademarked the "AIM" name a few years later, the company put legal pressure on the developers once again, who sought support of lawyers.
AOL's legal team backed off for a while, but threatened to sue Gaim's lead developer following the beta release of version 2.0 in December 2005. As a result, the project formed an umbrella corporation for protection purposes and began discussing a lasting settlement of the issue with AOL.
"Getting a settlement with AOL has taken FAR FAR longer than we would have ever guessed. On legal advice, we have refrained from any non-beta release during this process as a show of good faith, and to keep AOL from giving up on it. Again, on legal advice, we have also kept this information closely controlled," the Gaim team wrote late Friday.
"At long last, I am pleased to announce that we have a signed settlement and can release our new version. There is one catch however: we have had to change the project's name."
Gaim will now be known as Pidgin, which is the name given to a language created spontaneously as a means of communication between those speaking different languages. libgaim, the library employed by a number of other applications including Adium on Mac OS X, has been renamed to "libpurple."
"I, and all of pidgin's development team have deeply hated the need to keep some portion of our work, decision making and discussion secret for a time. I sincerely apologize that as a result of this need, you all have had no chance to help us with it, and to provide feedback," one developer wrote. "Now that the settlement is signed, we hope to have the final Pidgin 2.0.0 release late this week or early next."
AOL still has a business? Oh I see, now they're just IP wh0res that employ nothing more than a stable of lawyers.
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Stupid freaking AOL...
Yeah that's it. I know I'll get a negative score. I don't care.
BTW, GAIM rocks. Obviously Pidgin does too, but the name will take some getting used to.
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I was fine with aol till their audible ads, it is like a program I am using hijacking my speakers and computer and ramming ads down my throat. then I found Gaim, it made my week, that a good simple alternative has been found to the extremely intrusive aim.!!! been a fan since. I am trying out google talk with friends, so far so good, even loads faster than gaim.
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craziii: Are you .... serious? You were sick of AIM and then found Gaim? Does this mean that you haven't tried Trillian or MirandaIM?
I was initially a Gaim fan - however, the slow development cycle was bothering me. I thought MirandaIM to be a little bit under developed, but after giving it a whirl again 6 months ago, have fallen in love with it as it uses FAR LESS memory than Gaim.
Gaim [or Pidgin]'s worst attribute is its use of GTK+ - which I think is in the same league as Java as a neat concept to provide cross platform application development - but at the cost of the users' experience. It's slow, clunky, and ugly -- it greatly increases Gaim's footprint.
I'm optimistic. I hope that Pidgin develops greatly. I'd like to see it outperform Trillian, which seems to be the best solution for a multi-client chat program on a PC -- but one that I honestly find to be a bit bloated (note: 'a bit', not 'too' or 'majorly') and not as configurable as Miranda.
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Hey Brah! No worries. AOL likes make big stink over nuthing.
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Indeed, good software is good software.
AOL does not make good software.
It needed a new name anyhow since it does so much more than just the AOL network now.
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AOL is bunch of a******s.
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I have been a loyal GAIM user because their product is stable and full of **great** features.
I don't care what name they go by. It's a great product. I look forward to the new release - whatever the name.
p.s. why does AOL even care? don't they have bigger fish to fry?
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The name change is good. While it doesn't roll of the tongue too well, I read about the definition of pidgin and determined it was at least a creative choice. It could also have a duality to it's meaning since it's name sounds like the bird, it could easily give it a unique mascot.
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I think the name change is no big deal. The only important thing is that the project can now get on with business as usual.
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Cool I guess. I like the Gaim name more.
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