astrab writes "According to Dirson's blog, Google's just hired Sean Egan (the main developer of Gaim open IM client), just the same day Yahoo! and Microsoft plan to link their respective proprietary IM networks." From the post: "While Yahoo! and Microsoft link their proprietary networks for Instant Messaging, Google bets on Open Protocols to make information universally accessible ... Currently, Google uses XMPP/Jabber specs, but they claim to be supporting open server-to-server federation, and work "to hear from other people in the communications industry about how best to build a federation model that is open, scalable". In fact, there are this month several tests with firms like EarthLink, Sipphone or PeopleCall. " Google Hires Gaim's Main Developer Log in/Create an Account | Top | 247 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 247 comments 0: 243 comments 1: 203 comments 2: 136 comments 3: 47 comments 4: 35 comments 5: 28 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. iChat (Score:1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13, @03:00PM (#13783806) Very neat, glad to see google is committed to cross-platform support.I will be happy when gtalk works with my jabber account in iChat. [ Reply to ThisRe:iChat by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:53PMRe:iChat by welkin (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:55PMRe:iChat by Gropo (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:51PMRe:iChat by FidelCatsro (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @06:55PMRe:iChat by MySchizoBuddy (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @11:27PM Looks like (Score:5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13, @03:01PM (#13783814) they've GAIMed another employee! [ Reply to This Re:Looks like (Score:5, Funny) by JustOK (667959) on Thursday October 13, @03:02PM (#13783830) (Last Journal: Wednesday May 25, @06:28PM) Our loss is their gaim. [ Reply to This | Parent Re:Looks like (Score:5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13, @03:24PM (#13784034) Sheesh. This is a serious topic and you clowns are just playing GAIMs. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Looks like by mordors9 (Score:3) Thursday October 13, @03:47PMRequest by Breakfast Pants (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @07:21PM2 replies beneath your current threshold.Re:Looks like by Leiterfluid (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:42PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Looks like by Eric604 (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:50PM Re:Looks like (Score:5, Funny) by NanoGator (522640) on Thursday October 13, @03:53PM (#13784369) (http://www.ferion.net/ | Last Journal: Monday May 06, @03:16AM) "Our loss is their gaim."IM sick of people msn around with these stupid puns. If anybody here is actually funny, I seek you. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Looks like by bcat24 (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @04:00PMRe:Looks like by NanoGator (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:55PMyou how the saying goes......... by Edzor (Score:3) Thursday October 13, @05:23PMDon't you mean... by Spy der Mann (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:20PM Jobs in OSS (Score:4, Interesting) by PopeOptimusPrime (875888) on Thursday October 13, @03:02PM (#13783819) Just another example of where an OSS junkie finds gainful employment in the dot-com industry. [ Reply to This Hired a month and a half back (Score:5, Informative) by balster neb (645686) on Thursday October 13, @03:21PM (#13784009) According to this [sourceforge.net] page on the Gaim site, he's been working at google for a month and a half now:Working at GoogleI (Sean) have been hired by Google, moved to Seattle, and have been working on the Google Talk team for about a month and a half. The goal of Google Talk is to make real-time communication as open as possible, and in that regard, I've been working to offer all of Google Talk's features into other clients. Currently, I'm working on making it as easy as possible for other clients to use Google Talk's voice features. You can expect Gaim and other clients to be interoperable with Google Talk's voice features in the near future. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Hired a month and a half back by ZakuSage (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:38PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Hired a month and a half back by caino59 (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:48PMRe:Jobs in OSS by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Thursday October 13, @03:25PMBurn me down!!! by EraserMouseMan (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:01PM Re:Burn me down!!! (Score:5, Insightful) by Monkelectric (546685) <slashdot.monkelectric@com> on Thursday October 13, @04:16PM (#13784672) (http://www.monkelectric.com/) I was the second team member on a very popular linux distro ... I also make a very decent salary writing windows software. Does this mean I'm sold out to the man? Or does it mean I need to eat and buy my family food and shelter?Or am I supposed to donate all of myself, and my families welfare for your ideals? Look at the founder of Gentoo, Daniel Robbins ... The guy stepped down when he was 40k in DEBT living his ideals.Could it also be that the way to chang the system is to work inside it? I have influence over products, IT, and software decisions from this position I wouldn't have mooching off my folks and writing OSS software in the basement. [ Reply to This | Parent1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Burn me down!!! by Heembo (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @09:53PMRe:Burn me down!!! by kurzweilfreak (Score:1) Friday October 14, @12:01AMRe:Burn me down!!! by carl0ski (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @10:08PMRe:Burn me down!!! by rtb61 (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @10:42PMRe:Burn me down!!! by viperblades (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @11:08PMRe:Burn me down!!! by LWATCDR (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @11:27PMRe:Burn me down!!! by EraserMouseMan (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @04:24PMRe:Burn me down!!! by niskel (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:02PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.So what you're saying is that ... by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @04:25PMRe:Jobs in OSS by birge (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:41PMRe:Jobs in OSS by macshit (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @07:08PMRe:Jobs in OSS by birge (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @07:37PMRe:Jobs in OSS by AkaXakA (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:28PM4 replies beneath your current threshold. Webcam (Score:4, Insightful) by niskel (805204) on Thursday October 13, @03:02PM (#13783829) This would be great if it somehow sped up development of webcam support in Gaim in Linux. Or even webcam support in some new Goolge IM client for Linux. Asking people to use netmeeting is sortof a pain especially if they are behind firewalls. [ Reply to This Re:Webcam (Score:4, Insightful) by Seumas (6865) on Thursday October 13, @03:16PM (#13783973) Why would I want to see a bunch of people online and talk with them when they could just send me a text message? I can save a history of text chat. I can go take a dump and come back and catch up on the text I missed. I don't have to look at ths person. I dont' have to deal with a bunch of overhead. Video is just a stupid addition to so many things these days (such as blogs).Video is NOT always an improvement. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Webcam by Reducer2001 (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:25PMRe:Webcam by jb.hl.com (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:26PM Re:Webcam (Score:5, Funny) by blindbat (189141) on Thursday October 13, @03:29PM (#13784085) (http://slashdot.org/) bcus my dad cant splel werth crp [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Webcam by swimin (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @08:39PMRe:Webcam by mrchaotica (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:38PMRe:Webcam by Afecks (Score:3) Thursday October 13, @03:42PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Re:Webcam (Score:5, Insightful) by Vidael (809720) on Thursday October 13, @03:43PM (#13784227) Setting aside the corporate necessities for video conferencing; video over IM clients is a great way for families to interact when members are a great distance away. Text and voice is good to a point, but getting to actually SEE your loved ones (in a non-static picture) fulfills a deeper need. I'm sure a psychologist could better explain that than I could.The fact that, in your opinion, video is a "stupid addition" is absolutely irrelevant in today's society. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Webcam by Seumas (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:51PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Webcam by pclminion (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @06:19PMRe:Webcam by Chiisu (Score:1) Friday October 14, @12:11AMRe:Webcam by Deanalator (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:44PMRe:Webcam by Seumas (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:54PMRe:Webcam by JakusMinimus (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:57PMRe:Webcam by scotsalmon (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:00PMRe:Webcam by Rude Turnip (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @04:13PMRe:Webcam by mdkrokz (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @04:26PMRe:Webcam by Seumas (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @06:21PMRe:Webcam by jupiter909 (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:33PMRe:Webcam by Seumas (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:59PMRe:Webcam by mottie (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:50PMRe:Webcam by syphax (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @04:51PMRe:Webcam by mixmasta (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:14PMRe:Webcam by Seumas (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @06:07PMRe:Webcam by generic-man (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:19PMSome people are more visio-social than you... by phorm (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:44PMRe:Some people are more visio-social than you... by phorm (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @09:20PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Webcam by bmalia (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:51PM3 replies beneath your current threshold.Re:Webcam by The Lynxpro (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:01PMRe:Webcam by iamlucky13 (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @08:16PMRe:Webcam by niskel (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @08:02PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. Different methods (Score:5, Interesting) by Iriel (810009) on Thursday October 13, @03:03PM (#13783845) (http://www.stevenvansickle.com/) It's interesting that MSN and Yahoo IM clients are working together to get in on the pie that AOL currently has half of through text chat. Meanwhile, it looks like Google wants to make sure everyone can talk to everyone in hopes that this will attract more people than regular IM, methinks. Afterall, why bother with IM, when Google will have a veritable VoIP service for free ( I know it's not the same, but it could be quite similar ) that plays with others? The only pitfall to this tactic is that you can IM someone a dirty little sercret at work, but VoIP'ing it can get you into serious trouble ^_^ [ Reply to ThisRe:Different methods by gunpowda (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:09PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Different methods by jrumney (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:10PMRe:Different methods by Iriel (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:12PM The most popular IM client? (Score:4, Insightful) by bhirsch (785803) on Thursday October 13, @03:04PM (#13783850) TFA says, "Sean is the main developer of Gaim, the most popular IM client." I somehow doubt that. MSN Messenger is preinstalled on just about every news Windows box. Plus, the standard AIM client has been around for a very long time. [ Reply to This Re:The most popular IM client? (Score:5, Insightful) by Catskul (323619) * <ajs372NO@SPAMpsu.edu> on Thursday October 13, @03:11PM (#13783923) (http://www.personal.psu.edu/ajs372) Just because a piece of software comes preinstalled doesnt mean it is popular. Assuming that a virus infects everyones computer, does it become the most popular piece of software ? [ Reply to This | ParentRe:The most popular IM client? by bhirsch (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:16PMRe:The most popular IM client? by Silverstrike (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:19PMRe:The most popular IM client? by VGPowerlord (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:59PMRe:The most popular IM client? by DragonKai (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:19PMRe:The most popular IM client? by Slothy (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @06:24PMRe:The most popular IM client? by ediron2 (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @07:34PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:The most popular IM client? by BewireNomali (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:20PMRe:The most popular IM client? by humina (Score:2) Friday October 14, @12:34AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:The most popular IM client? by just_another_sean (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:17PMOr maybe... by MsGeek (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @06:24PMRe:The most popular IM client? by Nachtj�ger (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:24PM Oh great (Score:5, Funny) by SpiffyMarc (590301) on Thursday October 13, @03:04PM (#13783851) (http://gurufl.net/) I think he was like, the last person who didn't work for Google.I'm pretty sure I work for Google now too.Anybody here not work for Google? [ Reply to ThisRe:Oh great by jojo1835 (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:07PM Re:Oh great (Score:5, Funny) by chrismcdirty (677039) on Thursday October 13, @03:08PM (#13783893) (http://www.hammer-bros.com/) I don't work for Google.. but if they need me, I currently need a job. You hear that Google? [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Oh great by ClippyHater (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:13PMRe:Oh great by Just Some Guy (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:03PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Oh great by Seumas (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:12PMRe:Oh great by Is0m0rph (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @04:05PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Some fun with puns (Score:5, Funny) by dotslashdot (694478) on Thursday October 13, @03:06PM (#13783865) Shouldn't this be titled "Google Got GAIM?" I'm all for the GAIM marriage thing--it will only help Google Kopete against Microsoft-- but the next thing you know, Google will be saying "Send in the GIMP." What kind of Subversion of moral authority would that be? [ Reply to ThisRe:Some fun with puns by alan.briolat (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @10:06PMRe:Some fun with puns by Baloo Ursidae (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @11:28PM Open up the inter-server links, Google. (Score:5, Insightful) by caluml (551744) <slashdotNO@SPAMspamgoeshere.calum.org> on Thursday October 13, @03:06PM (#13783871) (http://calum.org/) Google need to play the good guys, and open up their Talk servers so that other Jabber servers can connect with them. Until they do this, I'm going to be a little suspicious of them. (I do use my Google Jabber account, but I still keep my other ones too, as I'm not sure of their motives.) Still, good on Google for using an open protocol - I've been trying to explain to people why Jabber is good ("imagine if there were only 4-5 email servers in the world, and you could only email users of your email server") for a long time - and it's been a thankless task. [ Reply to ThisRe:Open up the inter-server links, Google. by nine-times (Score:3) Thursday October 13, @03:23PM Re:Open up the inter-server links, Google. (Score:4, Informative) by drew (2081) on Thursday October 13, @03:38PM (#13784175) (http://www.drewandkim.com/) I've seen a couple of places where people claiming to have spoken with people inside google stated that Google fully intends to enable server to server communication with other jabber servers, but they are still working on the implementation. Of course, this is all hearsay, but it makes sense. Given the scale they are looking at, I would imagine that Google didn't just grab a random existing open source jabber server. They would have written their own in house specifically to meet their needs. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Open up the inter-server links, Google. by mrchaotica (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:43PMRe:Open up the inter-server links, Google. by Baloo Ursidae (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @09:38PMRe:Open up the inter-server links, Google. by ImaLamer (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @03:59PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Problem is spam by markb (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @04:22PM Re:Open up the inter-server links, Google. (Score:5, Informative) by sapped (208174) <mstore1&yahoo,com> on Thursday October 13, @05:10PM (#13785330) From their help pages Federation with google talk [google.com] We plan to support open server-to-server federation. We do believe, however, that it is important to have the safeguards in place to ensure that we maintain a safe and reliable service that protects user privacy and blocks spam and other abuses.So hang in there and it will happen. In the meantime I guess you could email them if you were really anxious: federation at google.com [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Open up the inter-server links, Google. by Baloo Ursidae (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @08:51PMRe:Open up the inter-server links, Google. by caluml (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @09:49PM So what you're saying is... (Score:5, Funny) by mopslik (688435) on Thursday October 13, @03:07PM (#13783875) ...Google aims to maim AIM as it gains GAIM's main brain? [ Reply to ThisThe AIM in Gaim... by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Thursday October 13, @03:40PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:So what you're saying is... by chord.wav (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @05:11PM Re:So what you're saying is... (Score:5, Funny) by charlie763 (529636) on Thursday October 13, @05:18PM (#13785405) (http://chapsrelax.com/) Not to flame, but rhyming is lame. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:So what you're saying is... by MooUK (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:42PMRe:So what you're saying is... by endy64 (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @07:23PMRe:So what you're saying is... by ender- (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @09:19PMRe:So what you're saying is... by mcrbids (Score:2) Friday October 14, @12:43AMRe:So what you're saying is... by nEoN nOoDlE (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @05:36PMRe:So what you're saying is... by hey! (Score:2) Thursday October 13, @07:54PM They're getting into soda pop now? (Score:1) by ylikone (589264) on Thursday October 13, @03:08PM (#13783890) But I must admin, Google Hires rootbeer has a certain ring to it. [ Reply to This2 replies beneath your current threshold. a bad day (Score:2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13, @03:08PM (#13783896) another loss to the open source community, this gaim developer now will be too busy in meetings, 20% free time and other google things. the gaim developement will stall. [ Reply to ThisRe:a bad day by Div3B0mbr (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:30PM Re:a bad day (Score:4, Insightful) by The Lynxpro (657990) <lynxpro@gmaiBOHRl.com minus physicist> on Thursday October 13, @05:05PM (#13785291) "another loss to the open source community, this gaim developer now will be too busy in meetings, 20% free time and other google things. the gaim developement will stall."Are you seriously crying over the fact that the guy will now have more than enough drachmas to buy himself food now? If anything, his hiring by Google ensures that he'll be working on Gaim even more now.Has Firefox stalled with Google hiring some coders? Sheesh, its not like Microsoft hired Linus all of a sudden. [ Reply to This | Parent Open Source Client versus Open Source Server? (Score:5, Interesting) by dada21 (163177) * <{dada} {at} {dnginc.com}> on Thursday October 13, @03:08PM (#13783897) So basically we're going back to the days of IRC, albeit in a different front-end format.It does sound good, in some ways, but I worry about rogue servers and rogue clients. IM has been virtually free of direct spam attacks (I have only received one in my entire life), and I fear that without having some corporation's control in their propietary medium, we'll see more spam and less usefulness.Look what happened with the "open standard" of Usenet. It is SO informative and so readily useful, isn't it? I'm not a fan of most Yahoo Groups but the ones I read are generally spam free (moderators) instead of being spam magnets.Yes, there is a place for open source, but I don't think this is it. I'm willing to hear reasons why Google's desire to have a open server-to-server federation will be good for a product that already offers me everything I need (at the moment). What new features are going to replace the current text-to-text feature that is probably used by 100% of IM's users. Is VoIP really an extension to IM or is it a different product? Aren't there enough programmers added on features to the propietary AIM program that is doesn't seem to warrant the need for a more open standard? Does the propietary standard offer manufacturers more reason to police their networks of abusers, and is it wrong for these companies to assume to make a profit in order to pay for the massive infrastructure needed to provide IM services?I do understand the need to open the standard for client-server interaction. More clients means more features, more stability, and more control over your applications on your computer. It also means more clients for lesser-used operating systems, better integration into non-PC stations (media centers, phones, etc), and possibly more people using the IM system. [ Reply to ThisRe:Open Source Client versus Open Source Server? by UtucXul (Score:1) Thursday October 13, @03:19PM Re:Open Source Client versus Open Source Server? (Score:5, Insightful) by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (813746) on Thursday October 13, @03:37PM (#13784166)