Stories about: IM Networks

For many users, getting started with Linux is surprisingly easy. New, friendlier versions of the free operating system, such as Fedora and Ubuntu, feature straightforward menus and automated installations that make switching from Windows to Linux a relatively simple process.

With over 3 million estimated users, Pidgin is an open source instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unix platforms. It works with AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.

The very earliest days of the PC revolution were soaked in idealism. People shared their knowledge with one another freely; the very idea of charging for software was an anathema. The early days of the Internet had a similar rosy view of the world.

IBM is porting Lotus Sametime to Linux, the first time this enterprise instant messaging platform will support the popular open source operating system.

Google is helping to extend an open instant messaging protocol so that IM (instant message) applications based on it will have a standard method for multimedia communications.

If there's one application that has cried out for open standards and open code from the very beginning, it's IM (instant messaging). Proprietary IM clients from the likes of AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have always been invasive, garish affairs, full of ads and each tied to its own network.

Google's entry last week into the IM space gave a high-profile shot in the arm to the open IM protocol XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). The decision to base Google Talk on the XML-based XMPP framework -- combined with Google's considerable market clout -- could shake up stalled IM interoperability efforts, or at the very least gives a big lift to a grassroots Internet standard.

Google will continue expanding beyond its core search engine and push further into Web portal territory when it launches on Wednesday an instant messaging (IM) service with voice communications capabilities.

Linspire Five-0 is the latest edition of the Linux distribution once known as LindowsOS. Hence, it is geared toward Windows refugees. I tested a beta version of the OS and soon realized why I'm glad competition exists in the Linux realm: If Linspire were my only option, I'd probably stick with Windows.

In an ongoing effort to prove instant messaging technology can live up to strict corporate communication standards, vendors of IM technology unveiled a slew of offerings designed to bolster IM security at the IM Planet Conference and Expo in San Francisco.