As I was waiting for the final release of Gaim (2.0.0), I saw some news on the Gaim's RSS a couple of weeks ago and I've rushed in to see what's new in the Gaim's world (maybe an Easter present?). But I was really disappointed to see that Gaim will no longer exist, starting with 6th April. Hold on guys, here comes the good news: Gaim is now known as Pidgin and the final 2.0.0 version will be released later this week or early the next.

Now, you may wonder what happened and why the name changed after so many years? Well, let me tell you that this is not the first time when the project formally known as Gaim had the name changed. Many years ago, in a land not so far away, when the project was started, it was called "GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger" and, shortly after, they had to change the name to Gaim (short from the original one), because the big and popular AOL company complained about the project's name.

Years later, when Gaim was not a baby anymore, AOL trademarked "AIM" and once again they complained about the Gaim's name. Developers were threatened, lawyers were changed several times, but this process could not go on forever and the Instant Messaging Freedom Corporation was born to make Gaim legally responsible and to create a real settlement with AOL that would get this nightmare dismissed. All this was kept confidential until fully settled. Beta releases of the 2.0.0 version were still coming (as a way of showing people they were still working on the project) [...] and when you think we (the users) could have had the 2.0.0 release long time ago.

Finally, a settlement was signed with AOL, the project name has changed to Pidgin (libgaim is now known as libpurple) and the team can release the most awaited version of Gaim Pidgin. Also, Pidgin has a new home from now on, www.pidgin.im.

"I, and all of pidgin's development team have deeply hated the need to keep some portion of our work, decision making and discussion secret for a time. I sincerely apologize that as a result of this need, you all have had no chance to help us with it, and to provide feedback. [...] The project has not changed; this is our 2.0.0 release, not some new program that requires new version numbering." - Sean Egan, the Guy In Charge.

Last night, the Pidgin developers released the LAST beta and I've given it a try right away. Here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

First steps



Main window



The first conversation



The settings





The plugins and the tray icon



Happy chatting everyone and always remember "Pidgin is NOT endorsed by or affiliated with AOL".

You can download the latest version of Pidgin now from Softpedia.