Gaim instant messaging, in a browser

Version 0.59.8 of Instant Messaging client Gaim, the most active open source project on Sourceforge, is now installed and available at Workspot.

IM is one of the “killer apps” of the decade, a critical consumer application, which the Free Software world has mastered through openness and dedication. The Workspot demo of Gaim will help to show, to users of Microsoft and Apple operating systems, that GNU/Linux is a competitive and viable desktop alternative.

It’s a demo that may become the talk of cybercafés everywhere. Workspot offers remote GNU/Linux accounts — remote desktops that users can quickly log into, and use, from any Internet-connected machine. Gaim is a multi-featured and multi-tasking IM client compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks.

Since Workspot desktops are persistent, a Gaim user’s sessions will stay alive after he logs out of Workspot, while he travels or changes computers. With the Workspot shared desktop feature, he can even hand over his active session, to anyone else on the Internet.

Gaim’s administrator, Rob Flynn, finds the compounding of IM on a desktop in a browser “… pretty scary. I like it, though.” Workspot will install each future update to Gaim the day it is released.

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