Internet Messaging with GAIM

IM has been popularized by America Online (AOL) as a way for AOL users to chat directly with each other rather than speak in chat rooms. As long as the IM clients for everyone involved in the conversation are running, they alert you to any incoming messages. The clients also announce to the server that you are active and listening for messages, so your friends can be made aware via buddy lists that you are available to chat with them.

You can use IM in place of IRC for interoffice collaboration. Ubuntu provides the GAIM IM client for your use. To use it, you need to be communicating with a group of "buddies" who are active IM users as well.

GAIM is a GNOME (GTK-based) IM client that supports a wide range of protocols such as TOC, AIM/ICQ, Yahoo!, IRC, MSN, Jabber, Napster, Zephyr, and Gadu-Gadu. GAIM is a feature-rich message client, and it has support for plug-ins that extend the functionality of the application.

Note

GAIM supports Jabber, an open XML-based IM protocol that can be used to set up a corporate IM server. Jabber is not supplied with Ubuntu, but you can obtain additional information about it from the Jabber home page at http://www.jabber.com/. You can obtain the Jabber server, Jabberd, from http://jabberd.jabberstudio.org/. If you want to use GAIM locally for collaboration, Jabber would be an excellent choice for a private local server.