The widely known cross platform, cross network instant messenger client, GAIM has been forced to change its name to Pidgin. AOL had to force this change upon GAIM because they believe it closely resembles with their own “AIM†Instant Messenger. Pidgin (aka GAIM) has found a new home at pidgin.im.
All new releases had been put on hold due to the legal woes. Now that it’s almost over, the new release must be available within a week or two.
It will surely take some time before people start recognizing GAIM as Pidgin, but I strongly believe that AOL didn’t have to do this because GAIM’s website always had “GAIM is NOT endorsed by or affiliated with AOL†text in their footer. I am a big fan of GAIM because it doesn’t suck loads of memory; it works smoothly with all IM networks without any troubles. I’m one of those AIM users who had never used AIM client, but used GAIM instead. AOL makes lots of money by showing embedded ads on their client, maybe most AIM users disliked it and moved towards GAIM. AOL didn’t like it, so they tried to squash them legally. This is certainly not a good aura for AOL.
via Cybernetnews
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