Empathy will replace Pidgin in Ubuntu8.10

Article title: Empathy will replace Pidgin in Ubuntu8.10. Linux is a technology channel of the IT lab in China. Includes basic categories such as desktop applications, Linux system management, kernel research, embedded systems, and open source.

Empathy is an instant messaging tool to be introduced in GNOME 2.24. apart from supporting multiple protocols like General IM software, Empathy features real-time communication technology (voice and video ).
According to Ubuntu developers, they are considering replacing Pidgin with Empathy in Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid released in May.

When Pidgin is still Gaim, it is always the default IM tool for GNOME desktop. Pidgin is a pretty good communication tool that supports a lot of protocols (including QQ) and a wealth of additional plug-ins.

However, compared with other IM tools, Pidgin is relatively slow to update and has no support for voice/video for a long time (2.5 may be supported), and its support for IM protocols is not new enough.

When GNOME developers officially decided to introduce Empathy in GNOME 2.24, does it mean they decided to gradually replace Pidgin? After all, Empathy's Roadmap shows that its features will almost completely overwrite Pidgin:

Let's take a look at the new features currently supported by Empathy:

Multi-Protocol: supported by Jabber, Gtalk, MSN, IRC, Salut, and all Pidgin
Account editor (each protocol has its own UI)
Automatic exit (implemented using gnome-screensaver)
Automatic reconnection (using Network Manager)
Private group chat
Powerful dialog window topic engine (Adium topic support will be implemented in GNOME 2.26)
Session record, browse/search session logs
Add and edit contact information
Voice and Video support (through SIP and Jingle)
Powerful libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries (Python binding supported)
Support Collaborative work (using Tubes)
More...

We can see that the latest Empathy has good availability, which is why developers decided to officially introduce it to GNOME 2.24, and Ubuntu developers considered replacing it with Pidgin.

Whether Empathy will replace Pidgin or not, we still hope to have a fully functional and useful IM tool.