Pidgin Vs Empathy

[The Simpleton 2]

I think Windows users might not be very familiar with these two clients (although they are available on Windows), but users of Linux may be regular users of either of these clients. I've been using Pidgin for over a year now and found it just above average. Then I got to use Empathy today and found it to be slightly better, with more features than Pidgin (voice, video, etc). However, I do miss the overall feel of Pidgin. So I wanted to know the opinion of some experienced users - which one do you think is better and which one should I stick to?

[truefusion 3]

One of the first things i did was install Pidgin. I had tried out Empathy, but i found it lacking in certain areas. I don't use video chat or anything like that, so those things are irrelevant to me. When i first started up Empathy, it asked if i wanted to import all my accounts from Pidgin. It didn't have any problems there. Empathy is like Pidgin in certain areas, and both integrate with a specific GNOME panel applet, but Pidgin's plug-in feature is what attracts me to Pidgin.

[Ash-Bash 0]

I have been using Pidgin for a number of years now on Windows, This has been in replacement of Windows Live Messenger 2009. I find Windows Live Messenger is very slow and does not have a good sort of platform if you know what I mean. But then Pidgin is not all great, The theme is just to plane though the features and layout are fantastic and easy to use. I will stick with Pidgin until MSN/Hotmail bring out a better version of Windows Live Messenger that can handle messages without freezing or give you a random error code when trying to login. I also love that Pidgin have a add-ons/extensions website like Mozilla fire-fox enabling users to have more flexibility and fun with there software.

[The Simpleton 2]

I never used the plug-in mode of Pidgin but heard it's really good. I'm on the second day of using Empathy instead of Pidgin and I still have mixed reactions. I think it will indeed be best if I simply go back to Pidgin, and stop worrying about which one is better!

[rob86 2]

Pidgin? Eww. It'll be a while before I use that. It would be alright -- if it actually worked. It almost scared me away from Ubuntu so I have a bad impression of it. Well, technically, it's Ubuntu's fault for ignoring dial-up users. I could never get it connected because Ubuntu's network manager or whatever it's called always said I was offline and Pidgin would complain that I was offline, even though I wasn't! You have to disable and enable it in the options to sign in.I've never used Empathy. I tried Emesene Messenger, which didn't even connect without freezing up, and was quickly removed. For a while I thought I'd be out of a decent messenger on Linux, until I found aMSN - the best option for MSN at least. Just get rid of the skin that comes with it - I recommend the Cold skin, simple, plain and easy to read. Also, one of the developers/admins at aMSN helped me tweak the GUI to my liking. I was impressed by the helpful support. Oh, and sometimes I use centerim. It's especially great when playing a game you can't alt-tab out of, you can switch to another tty to chat. Command line rules!In general, anything on Linux beats the heck out of MSN Messenger, every version of that disconnected me if I even opened a webpage. Win Messenger used to work great for a while (if you don't care for the fancy stuff) until they changed their protocol or something? It always disconnected too. I don't know what they had their time out set at, 5 seconds? Geez!How about getting really desperate? In high school, I used to connect to messengers and irc via telnet. I had to type a dozen words just to say hello to someone.

[The Simpleton 2]

Oh it's too bad that you've got a bad experience with Pidgin - it's really good once you get connected Well I didn't try out aMSN because I don't use my MSN account that much anyway, but I do agree that any messenger is better than MSN messenger!

[BCD 1]

I have used both the clients. Currently using empathy. I have no issues with empathy nor did I had with pidgin. I do not use much of the features of a chat client other than, well text chatting, so anything is good for me as long it works.

[Mordent 0]

Getting Pidgin to work for my accounts was a definite pain at first. Even more trouble with my GMail ones. Overall, though, as I use Linux (Fedora Core 11) rather than Windows these days I'm more than happy with it now that I'm over those first few hurdles. I'll admit I've never tried Empathy, but don't really feel the need to. If your IM's not broken, why try to fix it? I don't need any of the snazzy video and voice chats that people reckon Empathy works well with (though we all know that Linux and webcams don't get on), so I'm more than happy with sticking to Pidgin.Is it better than WLM? Tough to call, though in my opinion it feels a bit...cleaner.

[jlhaslip 4]

I used Pidgin under Ubuntu 9.04 and now am using Empathy under 9.10.Both are fine for me. Like others, I don't have any need for the video aspect of Empathy, and it comes with the Ubuntu 9.10, and seems to work fine for my requirements. Actually, I use Skype Chat for most of my communications with friends and family.

[mahesh2k 0]

I use pidgin on linux system (ubuntu) but on windows nimbuzz is helping me to connect to networks which are not covered under pidgin.Maybe soon they'll add support to those networks. But till then i have to use nimbuzz on windows machine.

[The Simpleton 2]

Wow it's strange that a lot of members don't need the video chat feature at all. Actually I don't need it too....looks like linux users aren't enthusiastic about video chatting!