The search for a Multi-Messenger
Today I went of a forray of chat clients, I needed one to connect to multiple networks as I have ICQ, Yahoo! and MSN. I tried the following:
- centericq (FreeBSD/Gentoo Linux)
- Gaim (FreeBSD/Gentoo Linux)
- licq (Gentoo Linux)
- micq (Gentoo Linux)
- AdiumX (MacOSX)
- Trillian (WinXP)
- Jabber (WinXP)
- GoogleTalk (WinXP)
- ebuddy (formally emessenger) (Web Based Messenger)
centericq (FreeBSD – centericq-4.12.0/ centericq-4.13.0) which were on my provider’s shell both kept crashing with Bus Errors or Segmentation Faults. Must be their installation.
centericq (Gentoo – centericq-4.21.0-r2) in an empty Gentoo vserver, sadly the ebuild isn’t too good, which means I would need more beside the net-im/centericq package.
~ # emerge --ask --tree centericq
These are the packages that I would merge, in reverse order:
Calculating dependencies ...done!
[ebuild N ] net-im/centericq-4.21.0-r2
Do you want me to merge these packages? [Yes/No] y
Some downloading and configuring later I see this configure line:
./configure --codefix=/usr --host=i686-pc-linux-gnu --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var/lib --disable-konst --enable-locales-fix --with-ssl --with-ssl --disable-icq --disable-jabber --disable-aim --disable-msn --disable-yahoo --disable-irc --disable-rss --disable-lj --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu
Not as easy as I thought it would be, I would have to install a load of other packages before I could install centericq. That combined with the fact that I don’t really want a terminal chat to complement my mutt.
Gaim (WinXP sandboxie – gaim-1.5.0.exe) made me install GTK 2.6.9 and Aspell 0.50-3 on a machine which has these installed under cygwin. A little irritating was that I could not figure out within the first 30 minutes how to connect to multiple networks at the same time. So I uninstalled it and all the packages I didn’t need.
Gaim (Gentoo – net-im/gaim-1.5.0) on Gentoo is a whole different story, everything and it’s mother needs to be installed. That’s not really what I had in mind for a quick install.
~ # emerge --pretend --tree gaim
These are the packages that I would merge, in reverse order:
Calculating dependencies ...done!
[ebuild N ] net-im/gaim-1.5.0
[ebuild N ] x11-libs/startup-notification-0.8
[ebuild N ] media-libs/libao-0.8.5
[ebuild N ] kde-base/arts-3.5.2-r1
[ebuild N ] kde-base/kde-env-3-r4
[ebuild N ] app-text/gtkspell-2.0.11-r1
[ebuild N ] app-text/enchant-1.2.5
[ebuild N ] app-dicts/aspell-en-0.51.1
[ebuild N ] app-text/aspell-0.50.5-r4
[ebuild N ] x11-themes/gnome-themes-2.12.3
[ebuild N ] x11-themes/gtk-engines-2.6.7
[ebuild N ] x11-themes/gnome-icon-theme-2.12.1
[ebuild N ] x11-themes/hicolor-icon-theme-0.8
[ebuild N ] gnome-extra/evolution-data-server-1.4.2.1
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/libgnomeui-2.12.0
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/gnome-keyring-0.4.6
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/libbonoboui-2.10.1-r1
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/libgnomecanvas-2.12.0
[ebuild N ] media-libs/libart_lgpl-2.3.17
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/libgnome-2.12.0.1
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/gnome-vfs-2.12.2
[ebuild N ] app-admin/gamin-0.1.7
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/gnome-mime-data-2.4.2
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/gconf-2.12.1
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/libbonobo-2.10.1
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/orbit-2.12.5
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libIDL-0.8.6
[ebuild N ] gnome-base/libglade-2.5.1
[ebuild N ] net-libs/libsoup-2.2.94
[ebuild N ] net-libs/gnutls-1.2.10
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libtasn1-0.2.18
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/lzo-1.08-r1
[ebuild N ] dev-lang/nasm-0.98.39-r3
[ebuild N ] app-crypt/opencdk-0.5.5
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libgcrypt-1.2.2-r1
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libgpg-error-1.0-r1
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/nss-3.11-r1
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/nspr-4.6.1-r2
licq (Gentoo – net-im/licq-1.3.0) I went to install licq but realized that it doesn’t support Yahoo! messenger.
~ # emerge --pretend --tree licq
These are the packages that I would merge, in reverse order:
Calculating dependencies ...done!
[ebuild N ] net-im/licq-1.3.0
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/cdk-4.9.10.20020809-r1
[ebuild N ] app-crypt/gpgme-0.3.14-r1
[ebuild N ] app-crypt/gnupg-1.9.20-r3
[ebuild N ] app-crypt/gnupg-1.4.2.2
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libassuan-0.6.10
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/pth-1.4.0
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libksba-0.9.14
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libgcrypt-1.2.2-r1
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libgpg-error-1.0-r1
micq (Gentoo – net-im/micq-0.5.0.3) is a ICQ only solution.
~ # emerge --pretend --tree micq
These are the packages that I would merge, in reverse order:
Calculating dependencies ...done!
[ebuild N ] net-im/micq-0.5.0.3
[ebuild N ] net-libs/gnutls-1.2.10
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libtasn1-0.2.18
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/lzo-1.08-r1
[ebuild N ] dev-lang/nasm-0.98.39-r3
[ebuild N ] app-crypt/opencdk-0.5.5
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libgcrypt-1.2.2-r1
[ebuild N ] dev-libs/libgpg-error-1.0-r1
AdiumX (OSX – *.dmg) Problem being that I don’t have my iMac as I gave it to my sister to use, so I wouldn’t have to solve her computer problems any more.
Trillian (WinXP sandboxie – trillian-v3.1.exe) requires an install of QuickTime. I got to choose between Basic and Pro, as I didn’t even know if I like the Basic functions I selected Basic. It then installs the elements I want to use as plugins.
Jabber (None – none) I didn’t try as Trillian fit my needs. Anybody with an opinion for any platform I will gladly post it.
GoogleTalk (None – none) I didn’t try as Trillian fit my needs, but I did find this article
ebuddy (formally emessenger) (Web Based Messenger) by a good friend of mine, handy as a stop gap, but I like a local client. Very handy.
technorati tags: centericq, gaim, licq, micq, gentoo, linux, AdiumX, macosx, trillian, jabber, googletalk, winxp, ebuddy, emessenger, chat
