Gaim


Program Info

Fedora/GNOME menu

Internet > Gaim Internet Messaging

Terminal command

gaim

Program URL

http://gaim.sf.net


No, I didn't say AIMI said Gaim. It's no mistake that the name of this program sounds similar to the abbreviated name for the America Online Instant Messenger. Some clever person long ago said, "GNOME, GTK, those start with a G." Then another person said, "America Online Instant Messenger, AIM, that sounds kinda nice." What happened next? The moment was just like the fabled moment when the world was given the greatest invention in the history of candy, the peanut butter cup. Remember? That was when the guy who had the peanut butter and the guy who had the chocolate bumped into one another and smashed out a new candy sensation. In this case, the two guys were probably the same guy, one of the Gaim developers, and parts of his brain crashed together the G and the AIM. I hope he's not injured.

What's Groovy in Gaim

Gaim is the Ginsu knife of instant messaging. With Gaim, you can talk to people on almost every available IM service and IRC (Internet Relay Chathang on, we'll get to that) and still cut a tin can! If you have an account on any of the protocols that Gaim supportsAIM/ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, Groupwise, Napster, and Zephyryou can talk to anyone on those services by simply setting up your different accounts in Gaim.

The program pulls in lots of the features that are in the IM clients that go with the supported protocols. In the Preferences, you can add AIM buddy icons to your view. There are special features for MSN and Jabber. You can also set sound options and away messages like those in Yahoo! and others.

More significantly, Gaim combines those cloned features with its own bag of fun. My favorite is the tabbed windows. When you get more than one person talking to you on IM, your desktop gets cluttered with so many different little windows that you can't keep track of who talked when. Another very cool option when you use Gaim is the capability to use plug-ins. These work similarly to browser plug-ins, or extensions. Most of the available plug-ins installed by default are practical utilities such as Auto Reconnect and Message Notification. Other plug-ins and additions written by other developers for Gaim include gaim-festival (see http://festival-gaim.sourceforge.net/), to get all of your messages spoken out loud using the Festival Speech Synthesis System.

The layout of Gaim is simple (see Figure 10.1). If you have used any of the big three IM clientsAIM, MSN, or Yahoo!things will look familiar to you. There is one main window with view options for groups, offline buddy viewing, icons, and toggling of toolbars from view.

Figure 10.1. The main Gaim window with a chat window open.


UNDER THE HOOD

GAIM RELEASES

Gaim is often the most active project listed on SourceForge.net. The developers try to keep a regular release schedule. To stay up-to-date, use the Release Notification plug-in.

Gaim also keeps the Windows releases current with the Linux releases. If you have to use Windows somewhere, you can use the exact same interface and stay happy.


TOOL KIT 10.1

Get Talking to Someone with Gaim

Gaim comes installed by default on Fedora but not on Mandrake. If you don't have it, or need to update to the latest version, use your updater of choice or go to http://gaim.sourceforge.net.

Set Up an Account

1.

Open Gaim. The first time you use it, you will see an intro screen because you do not yet have an account set up. Let's start a Jabber account because Gaim lets you register a Jabber account from the program (see Figure 10.2).

Figure 10.2. The Gaim login window.


(Note: To set up an account on the commercial services, you will need to do so through their Web site or IM client.)

2.

Click the Accounts button. If you are already in the program, past the initial welcome screen, you can go to Tools > Accounts.

3.

Click the Add button. You see a dialog box with lots of choices (see Figure 10.3).

Figure 10.3. Gaim's Add Account dialog box.


4.

The first thing you need to do is choose Jabber as the protocol.

5.

Choose a screen name. If your choice has already been taken, an error pops up.

6.

The default server is jabber.org. You can leave that as is. If you ever feel the need to use a different server, there is a list at http://www.jabber.org/user/publicservers.php.

7.

Next, complete the rest of the options, starting with Password. The alias is optional; it's just a nickname. The check boxes for Remember Password and Autoconnect are optional but can be handy as long as you are not on a public computer. Leave Resource as Gaim because that's the program you are using.

8.

The rest of the choices under Show More Options are things you can probably leave alone. If you are behind a restrictive firewall, you might have to set the Port and Proxy Type options. Check out the online docs accessible through the Help menu for more information on these choices.

9.

Click Register to have Gaim contact the Jabber server to register your account. A window pops up to confirm a few of your choices before Gaim contacts the network. Click Register again. You should see a Registration Successful message box. Click OK to close that window.

Add a Buddy and Chat

1.

You have an account; now you need a friend. This is sort of like those boxes at the store that say, "Batteries not included." You have to go get your own friend.

2.

Get that friend to tell you what his or her screen name is. For Jabber, the screen name needs to be in the format screen_name@server.extension, for example dustbunny@jabber.org.

3.

In the main Gaim window, go to Buddies > Add Buddy. You can also click in the main Gaim window and press Ctrl+B. Complete the Screen Name field. The alias is for a name you want to use in place of the screen name, such as "Susan" instead of "dustbunny@jabber.org." The Group field is optional. Choose your Jabber account and then click Add.

4.

Back in your main window, you should see the buddy you added. If you don't see your friend in the list, make sure the option in the menu under Buddies > Show Offline Buddies is checked, in case your friend is not online right now.

5.

Double-click your buddy to open a conversation window.




Linux Desktop(c) Garage
Linux(R) Desktop Garage
ISBN: 0131494198
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 141

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