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Pidgin 3.0 Alpha 2 (2.96.0) has been released

The Pidgin team has released version 3.0 Alpha 2 (2.96.0) of the instant messaging application, marking a significant development milestone. This alpha release introduces initial support for end-to-end encryption via the OMEMO protocol and drops support for older protocols like XMPP and IRC. Users can download the source code for testing on Unix-like systems and Windows.

Background

- Pidgin is a free, open-source instant messaging (IM) client that lets users chat across multiple networks — like AIM, ICQ, IRC, XMPP (Jabber), and others — from a single app. It was hugely popular in the 2000s when people had accounts on several incompatible chat services. - The project has been dormant for years. The last stable release (Pidgin 2.x) came out in 2017, and for a long time it seemed abandoned. This 3.0 Alpha 2 release signals that development is alive again, though it is still years from a finished product. - This matters because it reflects a broader trend: the slow, volunteer-driven revival of old open-source desktop apps (like Winamp's open-source successor or the resurrection of certain GNOME apps) as users push back against proprietary, centralized, and ad-funded messaging platforms. - The alpha is incomplete — many plugins and protocol support (e.g., IRC, XMPP) are still being ported from the old Pidgin 2 codebase. Users who try it should expect bugs and missing features.

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Pidgin 3.0 Alpha 2 (2.96.0) has been released

Background

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