Softpedia >News >Linux >Open Source Software
Softpedia Homepage   

Pidgin, One of the Best Chat Programs on Linux, Receives Massive Update

The developers have fixed a large numeber of bugs and crashes

Jan 29, 2014 07:31 GMT  ·  By
Pidgin logo
   Pidgin logo

Pidgin, an IM program that lets you login to multiple chat networks simultaneously, has reached version 2.10.8.

Pidgin 2.10.8 is one of the biggest updates made in the recent history of the application and incorporates a huge number of fixes, changes, new features, and overall improvements.

The Pidgin messaging app can be considered the most complete one available for the Linux platforms and supports a lot of protocols: IM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MXit, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr. Even more can be supported with the help of plugins.

According to the developers, the app also supports many features of these chat networks, such as file transfers, away messages, buddy icons, custom smilies, and typing notifications.

Highlights of Pidgin 2.10.8:

• Python build scripts and example plugins are now compatible with Python 3; • A potential crash that occurred if libpurple gets an error attempting to read a reply from a STUN server has been fixed; • A buffer overflow that happened when parsing a malformed HTTP response with chunked Transfer-Encoding has been fixed; • The handling of SSL certificates without subjects when using libnss has been fixed; • URLs longer than 1,000 letters are now handled properly; • An untrusted certificate error for AIM has been fixed; • A possible crash when receiving a malformed message in a Direct IM session has been fixed; • A buffer overflow with remote code execution potential has been fixed; • Buddy list import/export from/to server has been disabled (it didn't work anymore). Buddy list synchronization will be implemented in 3.0.0; • A bug where initial IRC status would not be set correctly has been fixed.

A complete list of fixes and changes for Pidgin 2.10.8 are available on the official website, encompassing the other versions, along with their modifications. Download Pidgin 2.10.8 right now from Softpedia.

Update: The developers have notified user that Pidgin 2.10.8 has known problems logging into some XMPP servers, including Facebook Chat. A fix is incoming.