Pidgin --> Unsupported

I was surprised after looking at -Current changelog today:

xap/pidgin-2.0.0-i486-2.tgz: Here's a little excerpt from: http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/WhyPackagesExist "We have no developers using Slack, and furthermore, several of us actively dislike that distribution for its history of broken installs, as well as for its non-existant package management. You cannot create true packages for Slack." Well, I'm somewhat shocked by this, having never (to my knowledge) done anything to any of the former GAIM or Pidgin developers to make them mad at me, Slackware, or anyone on the Slackware team. I guess if they feel it's not possible to make a "true" Pidgin package for Slackware, there's no point in continuing to try. Having put out 7 security advisories on GAIM, I'm quite sure there will be less work here if Pidgin is not included. The Pidgin package has been moved to the "unsupported" directory. For the record, I do not actively dislike Pidgin or any of their developers, but I do plan to use Kopete from now on.

When i browsed the site, the information has been changed into:

We have no developers using Slackware, and we do not support it, due to a history of problems which are caused or made unnecessarily difficult to solve by the fact that its package system does not support automatic dependency resolution. We also recommend that users do not attempt to compile Pidgin from source on Slackware, but instead use the packages provided by the Slackware team. If you insist on trying this out yourself, the only advice we can give you is to ask for help in ##slackware on irc.freenode.org, or on the Slackware mailing lists.

I guess the people who wrote this are using old version of Slackware as Pat does creat true packages for Slackware and it's working up to now.

Well, since it's being placed in unsupported directory, i think i should grab the SlackBuild for Pidgin and compile it myself in the future (sad, but true)

bah humbug, pidgin is not any good anyway, they did not improve it from gaim-1.5 other than a little bit in the GUI no filtering for yahoo so every pr0nbot and spammer can flood your IM with crap, good riddance to bad rubbish i say...

I looked at Pidgin's wiki and that comment about Slackware had been up for about six months before people took notice. At least someone over there changed the entry today (presumably after someone complained to them after reading the change log). Now their wiki recommends that Slackware users go with the official Slackware packages which apparently just went extinct (and I don't blame Pat for doing that either). It looks like their wiki needs yet another upgrade telling Slackers to find some other program. I hadn't used Gaim in quite a while anyway.

Sounds like the pidgin devs don't quite know what they're doing (IMO). Everything I've ever tried to compile on Slackware has compiled, as opposed to ANY other distro, where it is much more difficult.

Whatever, I don't use pidgin anyway.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I switched to Slackware from Mandrake. I didn't want to deal with RPMs anymore.

They were trying to make a point (like the one Pat made about Gnome -- difficulty of maintaining), but their argument is a bad one. They don't need to bother creating Slack packages in the first place, as Pat does that job already. They may find the distro a bit out-of-date and dislike the hassle needed for a successful compile but calling Slackware installs "broken" and claiming that one can't create true packages (Pat can ) were rather silly.

I don't use Gaim/Pidgin much (I use aMSN) but it was nice to have it available when needed for Yahoo etc.. Kopete is still there but I prefer the simple looks of Gaim to the rather crowded interface of Kopete (and yes, I like Gtk more than Qt). I hope Gaim/Pidgin comes back someday.

i do hope that Pat will change his mind and put Pidgin back in xap/ directory

pidgin compiles just fine on slackware-10.2 & slackware-11, the pidgin devs are lamers or ignorant because i did for myself how else did i come to the conclusion that pidgin still has no filters to block pr0nbots and spammers @ yahoo? (i did it and seen for myself) i let it install to usr local and made a symlink of libpurple to /usr/lib because it would not run from /usr/local. i could have used --prefix=/usr but i like to use /usr/local for testing things and if i decide to delete them it is much easier to delete unwanted files out of /usr/local than it is to hunt them out of /usr...

FYI, the thread in pidgin-devel about this issue:

http://pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/2007-May/000645.html

I was really surprised by this myself. The comments on the Pidgin site were really out there, and had nothing at all do to with what the page was actually about. Right after the Slackware rant, they list a number of other distributions they do not create packages for, yet none of them got a personalized flame like the Slackware community.

The new comment about not building Pidgin from source is just completely bizarre. If anything, Slackware has always been one of the best distributions to develop/compile applications on, since it is such a complete system from the start. No need to manually install the compiler or libraries like you do with some of these newer distributions. I have been compiling my own Gaim/Pidgin packages on Slackware since the 1.5 release, and every beta since then. I have never had a problem, and would never have expected to. I really have no idea what they were thinking there.

Besides, as already stated, the Pidgin developer's views have nothing at all to do with building a Slackware package; as that was never their task in the first place. Pat is in charge of building packages for Slackware, he isn't asking any developers to do it for him.

On the other hand, the same could be said for Pat's reaction. So the Pidgin developers don't like Slackware, big deal. It doesn't matter how they feel about Slackware, Pat can package any software he damn well pleases to. It isn't like they are refusing to let him download the source. There is no reason for Pidgin to become unsupported in Slackware beyond the personal grudge that Pat now has against the developers. Granted I can certainly see why he would be upset bu this, but somebody has to be the adult here. The current situation is pretty juvenile, to say the least.

That all said, I have never used the official Gaim/Pidgin packages anyway, since they lack spell check support (due to GTKSpell not being included in Slackware), so this really doesn't effect me personally.

I wonder if the pidgin devs will actually apologise for it, or just brush it under the table and try to forget it happened. The comments on the page were uncalled for and plainly rude, I agree to some extent that Pat's reaction was a little OTT too, but I honestly think I would have done something similar had it been me they were flaming.

I'm now giving kopete a go instead, and I might well stay there.

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H Whatever, I don't use pidgin anyway.

No loss for me either. I don't use pidgen.

What a crock.

I've been using and promoting GAIM for several years and am currently using Pigdin on Slack 11. It compiled fine and is working properly.

Since when are Slackware users a huge burden on any application developers? Are we flooding them with "I tried to install, but I keep getting this error about missing lib_foo" vs. say, the 'buntu crowd with "I clicked the little shiny thing and it just spins. What do I do now?"

Give me a f_ing break. I need to start looking for IM alternatives.

Originally Posted by 2Gnu Give me a f_ing break. I need to start looking for IM alternatives.

Patrick says he's going to use Kopete. Kopete is an excellent IM client. I've used Kopete and like it a lot.
I'm currently using X Chat and am very happy with it.

X-Chat2 and Kopete are both excellent apps. See also Konversation in place of X-Chat