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Yahoo releases their Messenger for Linux/FreeBSD 80

Posted by HeUnique from the finally! dept.
As the title says - Yahoo released their Yahoo Messenger for Linux and for FreeBSD. You can find it here. The Linux versions have been tested on Redhat 6.0,6.1 and 6.2. I really hope that Yahoo will think more about Linux/BSD users who want to use other Yahoo's services like Yahoo's Financevision service. Do you hear me Yahoo?
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Yahoo releases their Messanger for Linux/FreeBSD More

Yahoo releases their Messanger for Linux/FreeBSD

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  • Yep, you can make custom away messages with no problems.
  • Does Jabber include the Yahoo protocol in its collection of supported protocols? I know that's in the stated goal but I can't find whether it already does.

    "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is"

  • Who gives a crap about LinuxPPC - its about Market Share.
  • jabber.com sucks, their website is a pain - mega images on the front page, with no size tags... think I'll take a nap while it renders.
  • Just like the good old days of trying to find Apple shrinkwraps in the isles of you favorite software store...Their would be mountains of x86 software and then a little "courtesy" section for the Apple freaks that had 4 or 5 pieces of software.....
  • Re: "You chat with someone who's name is HansonFan?"

    One small note: it's not MY screenshot. It's from yahoo! (http://us.yimg.com/i/mesg/linux.gif)
    Disclaimer: I never was, nor will I ever be, a member of the hanson fan club.

  • Why not use the feedback link & ask Yahoo? Even though I currently have Mandrake, I still asked about this and also the *remote* possiblity of them releasing (if not opening completely) the source.

  • How the hell is this "+4" informative?

    It contains a one line subject and three words of content. Had it mentioned the special feature of jabber or told us why it is better than other clients it might have been informative... but this, this is just sad.

    Slashdot's moderation system still isn't quite there. Hopefully it will continue to evolve into something actually usefull.

    ---
    Solaris/FreeBSD/Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Linux/ultrix/OSF /...
  • This is NOT for Linux. Or FreeBSD. This is for Linux ON i386 and FreeBSD ON i386. It also happens to be proprietary software that you won't see me getting near.
  • I've tried both and it looks to me that the Yahoo! offering is much more complete than the AOL offering. Plus, at least on my system the Yahoo! client automatically uses your web browser to jump to pages for client setup (Add friends to your group, etc). I haven't actually used either client yet, but first impressions are worth a lot.

  • This is a very nice piece of software - much nicer than the hoarde of ICQ clients for Linux (or for that matter, the official ICQ client for Windows). I was thrilled to see that it uses GTK - nothing bugs me quite as much as companies that insist on using some obscure widget set, making their application look dated the day it is released.

    I applaud Yahoo for their release, and I also ask: why don't all the free ICQ clients for Linux work as simply, and as nicely, as the Yahoo messenger?
  • I sent them a note about RedHat is not Linux! [redhatisnotlinux.org] with the bugs form.
  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first messenger service to have an offical FreeBSD or Linux client? Yahoo! has always been good to the FreeBSD community, be it sponsoring FreeBSD events or just saying how much they love FreeBSD. Kudos to Yahoo!
  • because Slack support RPMs (well 7.0+) and Red Hat is supposedly everyone's preception of Linux. Besides I don't believe they would want to waste their time packaging debs and making tar balls. I think a tar would have been better with a shell script to so an easy install to move it to the bin directory (not that a mv or cp is too hard ;-) )
  • Heh, chances are good it runs in a Linux emulation on BSD... any BSD users attest?
  • Er, forget the parent post... they already have FreeBSD versions anyway :) Then again the Linux emulation is available for the other BSD's isn't it?... so they could benefit from it anyway.
  • As one of the many Debian users out here, I'm wondering where the deb's are at? At least alien was able to change it to a deb easy enough.
  • there is realplayer for linux powerpc (and linux alpha, for that matter, and IRIX, and AIX, but all unsupported):

    check it out [real.com]

  • They've tried.

    As long as people continue to say "I'll use blahblahblahIM, what the hell, it's free" without questioning weather or not the source is available, or on what platforms it runs on, these proprietary implementations will proliforate.

    It's a newbie thing. The sites are looking for a low cost (as in bandwidth and server load) to keep people coming back to the site. User lock in on an emotional level, pushing .5k fragmented strings around the net is very lightweight and people come back for it again and again. AOL has built their entire network around IM and they still attract people because of IM.

  • As other people have commented, this is only for i386 Linux and FreeBSD. I have a lonesome Sparc Linux machine at work that would love to have a Yahoo branded chat client rather than the "Java" versions on the web or GTKYahoo!. (yes, I am aware of the open source nature of GTKYahoo and I probably should contribute, but until I do, they are moving along sloowly)

    I'm new to non-i386 hardware, and I'm only now coming to terms with one of the other good points of open source: You aren't locked to one platform!

    So, I suggest you do what I just did. Submit a kind note asking Yahoo! to either build a version for $OS on $PLATFORM, or better yet, ask them to GPL it :-)

  • Linux && FreeBSD != i386. Linux runs on many platforms and FreeBSD also now runs on Alpha. As a non-intel person I'd like to see other platforms supported as well. Personally I would like to see it available for both Linux and FreeBSD on Alpha.

    For now gtkyahoo is available, works well, and will be pretty cool with the soon-to-be-released version 0.17.
  • Guess I can rm all of those ugly text-based versions of messenger now. Anyone know if this linux version support custom away messages? I know this was one of my biggest complaints with programs like everybuddy [everybuddy.com].
  • The only problem with Jabber is that is requires the Helix GNOME packages. For those of us on Slackware and other "non-supported" distros we are sort of left in the rain.

    I use Everybuddy [everybuddy.com]. I've been reading the development list for a while and I am convinced only good things are going to come from it. I mean come on, one program that does four protocols, or four programs that do one protocol. Let's do the math here people.
    ----
    "War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left"

  • Re:everybuddy (Score:3)

    by TheHaas ( 13095 ) on Saturday August 12, 2000 @08:29AM (#860863)

    I concur - I have been using Everybuddy for quite a few months, and have had no troubles with it. It's fast, and friendly, and it checks spelling.=)

    The thing is - I have some friends on Yahoo, and some on ICQ. The fact that you can talk to them all with one program (and people who use AIM and M$ IM, which I have never used), it's fanstastic. Add to the fact that it's free (as in speech) makes it even better.

    so, check it out - http://www.everybuddy.com [everybuddy.com]

    - mikeh
  • Another obvious point: Why is this "for linux" when it only includes RPMs? Shouldn't this say "for RedHat"? Just like AIM earlier, it's labelled as "Linux" just because it works with Red Hat. What about Debian/SuSE/Slackware etc.? rpm2tgz doesn't seem to work for either.
  • What could possibly require root logon to install a messenger? Now I have yahoo trying to root my box too?
  • Very cool. Unfortunatly it's no different than the client already available, so I see no point in switching from Everybuddy. Now, if they can get it to be like the Win version, I would switch. I like the different tabs in the Win version: news, stocks, weather, etc. It would be nice to be able to have the same functionality in the Linux/FreeBSD version as it does in Win, including the skins.
  • As one of the many Debian users out here, I'm wondering where the deb's are at? At least alien was able to change it to a deb easy enough.

    I never trust aliened packages... I clicked the 'feedback' button and not only asked for a .deb and a slack .tgz, but i even offered to make them for free. ;)

  • SpeakFreely [speakfreely.org] is a multi-architechture open source program that deserves mention. It supports crypto and is primarily designed for voice chat but also includes IM type messaging.
  • This is not the usual RPM troll but... I installed the RPM and there is only *one* file in there! Something like this could have be distributed as a bare executable.
  • RealPlayer _does_ exist for Linux/PPC!

    RealPlayer 7 is now a stable release (gold). Platforms include Linux/i386, Solaris, Linux/PPC, ultralinux, Linux/alpha, irix, and aix.
  • I'll admit, some of Yahoo's practices don't thrill me, but some of their services are good. And, from this, their software is too. Unlike AIM and ICQ, which have little (or sucky) "official" support for Linux, Messenger for Linux is very slick and nicely done. I don't use the service itself all that much, but this is a quality piece of software, and I applaud Yahoo for the effort they put into it. Nice job.
    -----
  • The IETF is already working on a common protocol for all instant messaging systems. Like we have the email protocols. And IMUnified (http://www.imunified.org/ [imunified.org]) is working towards implementing a standard protocol. Yeah, this org. has y!, ms, and other major players, so we can expect these prop. co.s to implement a common protocol and make it an open standard.

    --
    #define __mjplusplus
  • apt-get update apt-get install rpm rpm -i --nodeps ymessenger-0.93.0.i386.rpm 'nuff said.
  • And it does not launch the browser if it is not already running.

  • Linux PPC (Score:3)

    by isolation ( 15058 ) on Saturday August 12, 2000 @05:20AM (#860875) Homepage
    We really need to push for Real Player, AIM and Yahoo on linux PPC also.
  • I have been using it for some time so there's another application I can move from my notebook to my "real" workstation :-)
    Another thing, it's version 0.93.0. Is it just me or are all these messenger services around afraid of the big 1.0?

    ---

  • jabber!! (Score:3)

    by semis ( 14252 ) on Saturday August 12, 2000 @05:21AM (#860877) Homepage
    www.jabber.com [jabber.com].
    Nuff said.
  • I was using Yahoo messenger for a while and although I liked their interface, every once in a while I'd realize that it hadn't trasmitted the message and given no warning. Presently I am using MSN Messenger which at least lets me know when the other person is typing a message and also lets me know if the message didn't go through. ICQ has bloated so much that I am avoiding it. Any recommendations on a good IM?

    Founder's Camp [founderscamp.com]

  • I dont really care but.... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Whoa, I never posted on this before. I guess its good that yahoo is recognizing other peoples needs. I dont use Linux, but I know someone who does, and he has nothing but good to say about it. Big up to Bobdiya
  • Will this connect to the other servers like ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger?

  • screenshot [yimg.com]

  • First AIM now Yahoo messenger (Score:4)

    by stakk ( 133169 ) on Saturday August 12, 2000 @05:26AM (#860882)
    Now I will be just as unproductive in Linux as I was in Windows. I for one am damn happy official messengers are being created. I need to keep in touch with all my windows friends ya know.

    Wait I haven't got any windows friends...
  • Everybody says jabber. I cannot get a damn jabber client to compile and run properly on Linux. I tried Gabber, and even installed the bazillion c++ glue libraries it needs. Client did not work. I tried Jarl, which is in Perl/Tk, and it would come up with a blank display.

    Why is there not a jabber-supported jabber client for Linux? What about Java?

  • It definitely shows the Linux/BSD/*NIX world is getting more and more important to corporate business. It may not be much, but it's an important step.

    The simple fact Joe User sees there's Linux/BSD versions available will trigger curiosity, and that can't be bad. The more he'll see that the products he's using are available for other platforms platforms, the more this person can think about changing platforms because he won't have to learn new software.

    Most users don't give a fsck if they're running their software on an evil OS or not. They just want their applications, including me.

    My .02 on that one, no more.

  • A Great First Step (Score:3)

    by IntelliTubbie ( 29947 ) on Saturday August 12, 2000 @05:27AM (#860885)
    Now that they've released Instant Messanger, it's only a matter of time before they release their popular Instant Messenger software! BSD freaks and spelling geeks rejoice!

    Cheers,
    IT
  • As someone else said, try Everybuddy.

    However, for more open-source clients for ICQ and AIM, try Micq [chatzone.net] for console, and GAIM [marko.net] for AIM. Search freshmeat.net [freshmeat.net] for more...

  • Re:"Any recommendations on a good IM?"

    Yea. IRC. [netscape.com]

  • Take a look at this [jabber.org] location. It holds many variants of jabber clients. For example, I wanted to give kjabber a try which can be found here [jabber.org]. I'm not on the jabber network yet, I'll try soon.
  • The yahoo client actually adds some functionality as compared to GTKYahoo, namely conferencing. I'd rather use a free speech client, but until GKTYahoo has conferencing support, I will use the free beer one from yahoo. AOL's on the other hand, added nothing as compared with GAIM.
  • That was the first thing I did... before /. even posted the story. :)
  • I was really amazed that alien worked so easily for the Yahoo Messenger. Not one error, and the binary even get's tossed in /usr/local/bin. Unlike AOL's rpm that causes all kinds of warnings with alien.

    Just be sure to check what you are installing when using alien. :)

  • Yes but an entry in the RPM database makes it easy for people to uninstall it if a) they've forgotten the location/name of the file, or b) are newbies and don't know how to go hunting through the system and deleting the file. RPM is also nice, as graphical tools can give you a quick at-a-glance look of what's installed on your system by parsing the RPM database.
  • I don't think that's the only problem with Jabber :)

    I get very bad vibes from watching Jabber's development. I sincerely hope that it doesn't catch on.

    Granted I can't back this up very well at all, but... bad vibes, man.

    ~Chris
  • I know this is slightly off topic, but does anyone know where I can get a Yahoo protocol spec? I have been wanting to develop MSN and Yahoo protocols into a chat application I'm writing for fun, but all I can find are C libraries (this program is in Java).

    AIM and ICQ specs were very easy to find, but not Yahoo.

    ~Chris Carlin
  • I like to see these things ported to linux. I use them mainly 'cause it's what my friends use. I really appreciate the ones that at least provide a java version. Hopefually more will continue to provide linux or at least java versions of their instant messanger produts.
  • AIM/ICQ etc always sort of gave me the willies - who knows what's going on when I run them?

    On the other hand it should be a lot easier on Linux to detect any sort of rogue transmissions that some snoop program buried inside AIM/ICQ might be sending... how long were all the Windows programs out before anyone found out what dirty tricks were being pulled?

    ---

  • Hitting the enter button to send shows on your screen, but nothing is actually sent until you do the Ctrl+R ("Send Messages"). This is something that bugged me for a few hours til I finally figured it out. Have you tried that?
  • Gigen a recent post about linux games not selling (prob due to Linux boys&girls not wanting to pay for stuff, but I digress), and Yah00.com now running w2k/IIS5 on its front end I wonder weather this unix support will continue.

    Now if they started running all this stuff in Java it would be way easier to port the apps between the free*nix, OS X, windoze etc..
  • Sorry, but until Jabber implements their promised HTTP proxy support, it's just not an option for a large number of users behind firewalls.

    ---
  • ahh... ooops? :)

    Fixed.

    /me goes to drink more cola to wake up..
  • was getting kinda used to gtkyahoo and now this comes along. This have to do anything with the linux AIM? Whats next, linux MS Messenger?

    _joshua_
  • Sorry, but I'm a tad anal when it comes to proper spelling.
  • You PPC snobs. We need all of the above for Linux and BSD m68k!! Seriously, what we need is the source. That way all of the BSD and Linux platforms can thrive. In addition, suppose I don't like the GTK toolset. Having the source makes it possible to change that.

    Anyway (since you are for some reason low modded) to repeat:

    We really need to push for Real Player, AIM, and Yahoo on Linux PPC, *BSD PPC, Linux m68k (and SH3 and others) and BSD m68k (and others).

  • I don't see how these companies expect to profit from Instant Messaging. I've never seen an ad on LICQ.

    As far as I can tell, having ICQ, AIM, YIM, etc just serves to divide up the users onto different programs. How convenient for us.

    Sure, no company is going to give in and let the other win, but this is just a pain in the ass. All my friends use ICQ, but all of my (non-technical) relatives use AIM.

    Luckily there are some programs like Jabber that solve this, but where is this whole IM competition going? Who is profiting from having to develop independently and maintain servers and bandwidth for this?

  • It works great for me (Score:3)

    by Spirilis ( 3338 ) on Saturday August 12, 2000 @05:33AM (#860905)
    /usr/local/bin/ymessenger has been great so far, but file uploads don't work; in fact when I last tested it, file uploading caused the connection to drop. Haven't tested file downloads since I haven't tried it with any Windows users who have a more well-developed yahoo client. Funny thing is, ymessenger didn't tell me my connection dropped... I was just going by the 'spirilis has logged off' message from Yahoo chat. It uses GTK 1.2 for its GUI, and I think it's pretty sleek.

    Makes me wonder, though; Yahoo just sorta released it shortly after AOL released AIM for Linux... I guess Yahoo had this client all along? It's version 0.93.0 so unless they're playing a version number game, they've been developing it for a while... All around sleek looking though. For other open-source Yahoo clients, check out Chimmy's Yahoo Client [mercyground.co.uk] (ncurses/console based), GTKyahoo (the link off freshmeat 404's for me... hmm--it's www.unixtools.org/gtkyahoo/) and Everybuddy [everybuddy.com].

    Everybuddy does ICQ, AIM, Yahoo and MSN messengers... but the buddy list interface takes some getting used to.

  • everybuddy (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    seriously guys... use everybuddy. open source, fast, and incorperates AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo! IM into one interface. If you can code, even better, add a feature or two! www.everybuddy.com
  • Do I need Chainsaw Linux [chainsawlinux.com] to compile the god damn jabber clients? Some of these libaries are bleeding SHUT UP AND DIE BITCH edge.

  • linking observations (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    the yahoo client has one executable with no supporting libraries. it doesn't even link to libstdc++. just copy the ymessenger file to "install" it. do you really need an rpm for that?

    the aim client, otoh, has several shared libraries that need to be installed. and it links with a very specific version of libstdc++. not very distro-portable. i ended up making a symlink to my version of libstdc++ so it would run. yuck.
  • yes, it will.

    this is from the feature [jabber.com] list:

    Easy setup and configuration for sending and receiving IM's to AIM and ICQ

    Find or add Jabber, AIM* and ICQ* users to your friends list

  • How about releasing libraries so that others can create their own clients. At least they won't have to release the source to their "holy protocol" and we can have our own custom apps. A libyahoo that everybuddy can use that wasn't reverse engineered.

    ---

  • Re:But wheres the Unix version? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    do me a favor: go outside today, and just say hi to someone , see what happens.
  • I mean, come on... producing binaries for the other architectures should NOT be that hard.

    But you know... I almost hate to see this. AIM/ICQ etc always sort of gave me the willies - who knows what's going on when I run them? I feel a LOT better running GAIM/GnomeICU etc.

    ---

  • Makes me wonder, though; Yahoo just sorta released it shortly after AOL released AIM for Linux... I guess Yahoo had this client all along? It's version 0.93.0 so unless they're playing a version number game, they've been developing it for a while...

    You're correct. It's been around at Yahoo for quite a long time. Remember that many of the developers at Yahoo! use FreeBSD on the desktop.

  • Thanks for fixing that up! Some things really just poke ya in the eye, y'know?

    With all due respect to the good Cmdr Taco, it's a welcome change from his "I make spelling mistakes and I don't care." position.
  • You must hate reading posts here! Of course, if you ignore grammar, it's not so bad.

    One of the important considerations, though, is that many of the people who contribute here do not speak English as a primary language.

  • I just installed this yesterday on a Mandrake 7.1 box, and ive had it up for about 6 hours now and no slowdowns/crashes yet. It uses the GTK tool kit so it fits in with GNOME pretty nicely.

    Great Job Yahoo!
  • I think I'll continue using the fabulous, open source gtkyahoo and yahoolib [unixtools.org]. Remember people, there really is a difference between free and free.

    By the way, kudos to the author of this program, the 0.17 snapshots have been keeping me productive telecommuting for months now!

  • Will this connect to the other servers like ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger?

    No, I doubt it -- but you might try everybuddy [everybuddy.com]. It does icq, aim, yahoo, and MSN. It's still only partially functional (while others get it work great with ICQ, I have been unable to get it to send messages; receiving ICQ messages works great, however), but it's a nice little package. As it improves, it looks like it will be pretty good.

    -schussat

  • The site has Messenger [that M-e-s-s-e-n-g-e-r for you /. grammarians (i bet i'll make a grammar or spelling mistake now)] for Linux and BSD, but the title says for Unix. I didn't see any versions for Unix anywhere. If they make a mistake like that how do we know that the versions they have arnt for plan9 or os2? :-P

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