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Project: Linux  Reviews
Gaim: The game for AOL Instant Messaging on Linux
By Shiv Chadha <shiv@columnist.com>
Posted: ( 2001-08-06 03:20:50 EST by gatha )
Last time I had looked at Licq, a solution for your ICQ needs on Linux. I was supposed to follow up the next with a review of an AOL IM client. As you can see, I ended up taking a bit longer than a week! This week I take a look at a client that'll help you keep in touch with all your "Buddys" on AOL Instant Messenger. Like with ICQ, the only official version available is a Java client. Once again, the lack of an official native client is not much of a problem and there are several Linux clones for you to choose from. The one that I am taking a look at is Gaim, a feature rich, easy to use and lightweight client for AOL.
Gaim incidentally is a perfect demonstration of open source at its best, originally started by one developer, it has evolved into a project involving several people, and which continues to develop further and further, despite the fact that the original developer has not worked on it for a long time. Gaim is also currently involved in dispute with AOL, the latter has served a notice on the authors for creating a name 'confusingly' similar to AOL's AIM. Catch up on the latest at their site.
Gaim is available from www.gaim.sourceforge.net. As always there are a number of packages you can choose from and if you can't get one specifically built for your distribution you could always go with a source tarball. Also Gaim is bundled with a number of Linux distributions, so look around, you may just find it already there (try typing Gaim in an X terminal). If you are of course running an old version of your distribution you would probably want to go over to the site and pick up the latest copy of Gaim, so that you don't miss out on all the cool new features.
 Once you have it installed, open it up and we're ready to proceed. For Gnome users, you'll find it conveniently installed in your programs menu. You may also want to set it up as a dock app, so that it'll always there when you power up your machine, and of course automatically starts when you connect to the Internet. To add the Gaim dock app, right click on the panel, choose Panel, Add to panel, Applet, Network, Gaim. You'll find a little icon depicting the online/offline status of Gaim. Double click on it to start it up. When Gaim starts you'll be presented with a log in screen which earlier users of AOL's AIM should be surprisingly familiar with.
If you've used AIM before, you'll already have a screen name and password. Key it in, click on sign on and you will be on your way to signing in. If you need to create an account, simply use the register option and you'll be taken to a page where you can do that. If you wish to use multiple accounts, click on the accounts tab and it will help you take care of that. Once you are done, click on sign on and you'll be logged in.
 Once you are through with logging in, your buddy list will open up, empty of course for the moment. The first thing that you'll want to do is add buddies. Look at the screenshot below, you'll notice that the contact list is divided in two sections, Online and Edit buddies.
The former displays which of your buddies are online while the latter is a section where you can see your entire buddy list and perform all the modifications you want. So to add a buddy, move over to the Edit Buddies section. You'll find icons here to help you add and remove buddies easily. You can also categorize your buddies into groups, so you could have people listed under categories such a work, office, school etc. Unlike ICQ, AIM doesn't allow you to send messages to people when they are offline. Whenever one of your contacts is online, they'll show up in the online section of the buddy list. To send them a message, simply double click on their name and a message box will start up.
You also have the ability to start things like create chat rooms and transfer files (all these options are accessed by right clicking on the buddy's name).
Gaim is also very easy to configure and customize to your tastes. To be able to make such changes, go to Tools, Preferences. A configuration box will appear.
As you can see, there are a fair amount of options you have. You can change things from the fonts it uses to your `Away' messages, sounds and of course, the inevitable cosmetic tweaks. Within a couple of minutes you should have it configured to your taste.
Conclusion
Gaim is an extremely capable client for AOL IM. It supports all the major features and has a very intuitive interface. From a reviewer's standpoint, applications like Gaim are always judged by how they compare to the original. In the case of Gaim, it not only clones the original perfectly, but the authors have succeeded in created a program that is, in fact, far better than the original. Go ahead and download it, and have fun IM'ing with one of the best clients around, on any platform!
This wraps up my two part review of Instant Messaging solutions for Linux. If you would like to see a client for some of the other services like Yahoo, send me an email.
And if you have any suggestions for programs you would like to see featured here, do drop me a line.
Licq: A solution for your Linux ICQ needs
Other articles by Shiv Chadha
Current Rating: [ 7.07 / 10 ]
Number of Times Rated: [ 122 ]
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