The Right Tool: Giam, an open source multi-protocol IM client
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Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Gaim is an open source multi-protocol IM client. It gives you one convenient package for housing all of your IM accounts. While it has all the basic IM features it is missing many of the newer ones (such as integrated VOIP). While some people may miss these features, for many users they are more an annoyance than a feature. Also, many corporate environments may allow IM for their employees, but do not want everything available with the major clients. Gaim in its original incarnation was created to bring support for all the various IM infrastructures to Linux, in one convenient package. Since then it has been expanded to have support for most major operation systems including Windows. It is this version we will be looking at today.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
One of the first things you will notice about Gaim is that you have a large number of options during the install. You will have the option of selecting which theme you will like. If you don’t like the theme you can always change it later. The default theme for Windows installs is the Wimp Theme. This theme gives a standard Windows feel to Gaim, and is a good basic choice.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Another option is the ability to add a spell checker into Gaim. Gaim uses the open source application ASpell to provide this support. It supports many languages (including English). The spell checking is automatic. As you type your instant message, misspelled words are underlined in red. A simple right click on the word will bring up a listing of possible words you attempted to type. Select the word you want, click it, and the work is automatically replaced. This can be either good or bad depending upon how you use IM. If it is mostly for business use, then the spell check can be an invaluable tool. On the other hand if you use it mostly for chatting with friends, then spell check can quickly become an annoyance.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
This is where you will add, modify, and delete your accounts within Gaim. The first thing you will need to do is to begin adding your IM accounts. Another feature of this screen is you can manually connect and disconnect from accounts within this window.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
The first account we will add is an AIM account. Since AIM and ICQ are so similar you add your accounts from this same window. You can add multiple accounts so if you have separate AIM and ICQ accounts there is no problem. The first thing you will need to do is input your AIM screen name and password. You can also set your alias if you wish. You can then select for Gaim to remember your password, and notify you if you receive an email to this account.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Once you have added an account your Accounts screen will now display it. From here you can select your account and modify your settings for it. You can check the Enabled check box to connect to this account. If you wish to disconnect from this account you simply clear the Enabled check box.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Now you can add your other accounts. Simply by selecting the Protocol drop down box you can see all of the systems supported by Gaim. There are a wide number of protocols. It’s also worth noting that some systems use the same base protocol and may be listed on here as something different (such as the AIM/ICQ bundle). Simply click the protocol you wish to setup, and you will be given the appropriate settings screen for that service.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Here we are setting up an MSN account. While this is very similar to the AIM account one thing you need to remember is that in MSN you need to put your full e-mail address to register the account.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
While setting up a Yahoo account you need to remember that it is the opposite of MSN, and you do not need to put in your full e-mail address, just the part before @yahoo.com.
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Josh Hoskins
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
Right Tool - Giam, an IM client
One of the major benefits of Gaim on Windows though is resource utilization. While most major IM clients consume around 20 MB of RAM, Gaim uses slightly less than this while supporting multiple IM systems. Not a big difference when compared one to one, but when you compare the fact that Gaim can easily replace 3 to 4 IM clients per system, that become a significant memory savings. Many times client systems which are running slow, can be sped up by simply removing multiple instant message clients and replacing them with a single install of Gaim.
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Josh Hoskins
