Linux Pidgin 2.6 brings voice and video support

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The Pidgin instant messaging program has been losing some ground recently to GNOME's Empathy program as more Linux distributions switch to using this newer instant messaging application. Pidgin 2.5 was released just under one year ago, but arriving today is Pidgin 2.6, which may help in winning over more users. Most notably, Pidgin 2.6 finally introduces support for voice and video communication.

The Pidgin library, libpurple, has received a voice and video communication framework in this major update. Right now though, it's just that, a framework. The only Pidgin protocol plug-in that implements this support right now is XMPP, but greater protocol support is expected shortly.
For the video and audio part we have Mike Ruprecht to thank, who started to implement these features back in 2008, in a Google Summer of Code project, so it was a lot of work to get this far. For now, support for these functions is available only for XMPP, but the developers are working to bring at least partial support to the other protocols that Pidgin uses.

Source : [Phoronix] Pidgin 2.6 Released, Brings Voice & Video
 
Aaahhhh! Finally!

Voice and Video support for Pidgin will take its usability up a few notches.

I can't wait to try it out, even though it has limited capabilities right now.

Thanks for the information.
 
looks like people are rejoicing without actually reading the stuff...

see: "Right now though, it's just that, a framework. The only Pidgin protocol plug-in that implements this support right now is XMPP, but greater protocol support is expected shortly."

not sure how soon is "shortly" :D
 
@vishalrao

At least its a start. The "shortly" in Linux world is usually pretty short, and bearable! :)

Just look at the jumps and leaps of progress Linux has made in the last few years. I won't really be surprised if they bring out wider protocol support within six months.
 
ya, im also hoping the "shortly" really means "short" heh... i would prefer pidgin over empathy/telepathy but the competition will get fierce. usually with open source software (especially the bad rep pidgin developers are getting for their slowness) when they "announce" or "launch" a feature it takes a long time to become stable and/or more widespread simply because its free software being worked on by volunteers in their spare time...

so you expect six months? i think thats a reasonable expectation but lets see if the pidgin devs break their laziness :D
 
Sorry for digging this old thread but I wanted to add something. I just compiled and installed Pidgin 2.6.1 on opensuse 11.1 (RPMs provided in build service have voice/video disabled) and voice/video are working great with google talk. So now linux has at least two major protocols covered in voice chat i.e. google and skype :D

Voice/Video chat is a really sore point for anyone wanting to pimp linux to his/her friends. Its really a deal breaker sometimes.
 
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