Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop

JDS Instant Messenger (IM)

Instant messaging, sometimes called chat, has moved from primarily a teenager’s social medium to an important communication tool for professionals. It complements email and traditional tools such as the telephone, in many collaborative settings. One key benefit of instant messaging in a business context is the speed and immediacy it offers for making contact and exchanging information through the desktop, at no cost.

Many different forms of instant messaging are offered by large Internet providers and other services. Luckily, the instant messaging tool in JDS supports many of them. JDS’s Instant Messenger is based on gaim, a multiprotocol Internet chat client. Instant Messenger is located in JDS under Launch → Applications → Internet → Instant Messenger.

Through JDS’s Instant Messenger, you can chat with members of any of the following instant messaging and chat networks:

• AOL Instant Messenger (“AIM”)

• ICQ

• IRC

• Jabber

Chat services or protocols not supported by JDS include:

• MSN

• Yahoo!

• Zephyr

Previously, software limited instant messaging participants to communicate only with members of their own network, where they shared the same communication protocol. For example, only a short time ago, AIM members could chat only with other AIM members but not Jabber members. Now programs such as JDS’s Instant Messenger are solving the fragmentation of the instant messaging networks.

With Instant Messenger, you can maintain accounts with multiple instant messaging networks and ...