Vacuum-IM

Submit portable freeware that you find here. It helps if you include information like description, extraction instruction, Unicode support, whether it writes to the registry, and so on.
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joby_toss
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#16 Post by joby_toss »

I have no use for this one, but it is portable, so I voted.

N.B. I waited a bit to up-vote this one hoping someone else will, so it won't be added to my favorite apps list (http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?q=[joby_toss])... now I realize I should stop caring about that...

P.S. @Andrew: favorite apps list link is not recognized as such (because []); is there something to do about that?

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smaragdus
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#17 Post by smaragdus »

@joby_toss
Thanks for voting but as you explained that you had no use for Vacuum-IM I feel uncomfortable- I don't expect anyone to vote just that the program I submitted to become public. Please feel free to remove your vote and of course I will not be offended.

In the database there are messengers that no longer work (either abandoned, or services closed, or both) and I supposed that Vacuum-IM would be appreciated since it is actively developed as one can see at its GitHub page and since it is cross-platform and teems with customization options. I add to the database only programs I consider to be better than at least half of the similar programs already submitted.

Besides Tox protocol I also use Jabber protocol (I have several accounts for different purposes) and I think that Jabber has some advantages over Tox- for example sending messages to recipients not in one's list- this was the way I got help from the developer of Gajim about how to run Gajim in portable mode. Jabber is also better for conferences.

For many years Psi has been my favourite Jabber client and I still like it but most likely it has been abandoned and it is not portable to boot. I also liked Coccinella but as I have mentioned after the decease of the leading developer there is no one to continue its development and Coccinella is virtually dead. For me the best successors of Coccinella and Psi as pure Jabber clients are Gajim and Vacuum-IM and I added the latter to the database because it is easier to be made portable.

I also think that Vacuum-IM has a great service discovery:

Image

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joby_toss
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#18 Post by joby_toss »

My use for this one as well as my favorite apps list are not important. Now that it is public, I'm sure many site visitors (not everyone knows how to display hidden entries) will find it useful as it is a good app, so I will not down-vote it.

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smaragdus
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#19 Post by smaragdus »

@joby_toss
I appreciate your attitude, in my opinion Vacuum-IM is a very good program and that is why I think it deserves to be in the database (open-source, cross-platform, feature-rich, portable, still in development). However I expected lautrepay to vote for it since he was the original submitter and reacted fast when I by omission submitted it to the forum second time.

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Andrew Lee
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#20 Post by Andrew Lee »

P.S. @Andrew: favorite apps list link is not recognized as such (because []); is there something to do about that?
You have to encode the URL this way:

Code: Select all

http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?q=%5Bjoby_toss%5D
There are various webapps that helps to encode/decode special characters in URLs eg.
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/

lautrepay
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#21 Post by lautrepay »

smaragdus wrote:@joby_tossHowever I expected lautrepay to vote for it since he was the original submitter and reacted fast when I by omission submitted it to the forum second time.
Ha, you call me, here I am.
First of all, thanks for adding Vacuum-IM. Much appreciated.
As for my vote, I was in the same situation described by joby: I was waiting for someone else to vote for it. Why? Well, this is a very good program, and I used it for sometime... until I found myself alone. Right now, I don't know of anybody still using a Jabber client. In terms of communication, and at least in my case, the path is "from the smartphone to the desktop". When I'm on the desktop, I open the Telegram client and my browser with Airdroid and WhatsApp Web and I'm ready to go. Sad, but it is what it is. The good times of Odigo are gone...

Anyway, I voted for it. It deserves a public entry.

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smaragdus
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#22 Post by smaragdus »

@lautrepay

Thanks for showing up and voting, I was thinking that you had left the site for good.

Some weekly statistics provided at SourceForge (clients sorted in alphabetical order):

Coccinella - 111 Downloads
Kadu - 19 Downloads
Miranda IM - 7,743 Downloads
Pandion - 5,428 Downloads
Pidgin - 33,356 Downloads
Psi - 3,000 Downloads
Psi+ - 2,109 Downloads

Note that only Miranda IM and Pidgin support multiple networks natively and that all others are pure Jabber clients. And we also have a undocumented number of downloads for CoyIM, JAJC, Jitsi, Instantbird, Miranda NG, qutIM, Spark, Swift, Tkabber, Vacuum-IM and more (the developer of Isotoxin also plans support for Jabber). So my conclusion is that Jabber is not dead. Unfortunately only few of my friends use it but I would rather talk to myself than go back to Skype/Facebook. I also have Telegram but I do not like messaging services which associate accounts to phone numbers. About WhatsApp- I cannot trust something closed-source and even worse- owned by Facebook (I check my browsers almost daily for the abominable Datr cookie).

A question (to lautrepay and to anyone else)- do you think that a messenger like Telegram should be submitted to the database?

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joby_toss
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#23 Post by joby_toss »

Andrew Lee wrote:You have to encode the URL this way:

Code: Select all

http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?q=%5Bjoby_toss%5D
There are various webapps that helps to encode/decode special characters in URLs eg.
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/
Thank you!
link check
smaragdus wrote:A question (to lautrepay and to anyone else)- do you think that a messenger like Telegram should be submitted to the database?
I never used this one nor did I have the curiosity to see what it's all about... no idea what it does and how... Don't use Skype nor Facebook... My messenger needs are simple and completely satisfied by IRC... maybe I'll start using Tox more...

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Midas
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#24 Post by Midas »

smaragdus wrote:A question (to lautrepay and to anyone else)- do you think that a messenger like Telegram should be submitted to the database?
  • Personally, I do. Telegram has been a favorite app for mobile IM and I really think it's one of the best clients all around. But is it portable?

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smaragdus
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#25 Post by smaragdus »

@joby_toss
As I have mentioned, Telegram seems to be very secure. It runs on all kinds of devices and OS. Most (if not all) mobile messengers require first to be installed in a mobile device which is not the case with Telegram- it requires a phone number to send the activation details (as far as I can remember). I have used it on Windows only and it works fine- very stable (I can't remember it to have ever crashed) and very light on system resources. I have been told that the Android version has more features. I remember that one day it was unable to connect because of a serious DoS attack on its servers as it was explained at Telegram's Twitter page.

@Midas
Yes, Telegram is portable, hasn't you tried it on Windows?

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Midas
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#26 Post by Midas »

smaragdus wrote:Yes, Telegram is portable, hasn't you tried it on Windows?
  • Not really, as you have by now surmised from my ignoramus question -- in my defense, I'm seldom actively messaging anyone, there are only two persons on my contact list, both of them family... 8)

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webfork
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#27 Post by webfork »

smaragdus wrote:I am surprised that no one likes Vacuum-IM
Mainly the thing that kept me from testing it was easy access to some server. So many of the other IM clients let you easily jump into Google Talk or some other server so you can quickly get online. Vaccuum-IM seems to need me to come up with the Jabber server and settings. I really didn’t know what to put and one of the reasons I was so eager to test various Tox clients, which are serverless.

Maybe if we added something to the entry about connecting immediately to some service for testing? Is that service discovery you mentioned part of it?

I do welcome a more pure Jabber-only client where so many other tools out there seem to just keep fragmenting the protocol. It’s painful to see how many huge tech companies and services have adopted XAMP only to jump off with some other modified, incompatible version.

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smaragdus
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#28 Post by smaragdus »

@webfork

The service discovery I mentioned just shows which transports are available on the server one has registered at. Theoretically one can connect to ICQ/Yahoo/Gtalk, etc, via Jabber if the server supports these transports (but this is not easy- once I tried that without reading the manual and I failed- I had to read it thoroughly to understand how to connect to ICQ in my case via Jabber.

Vacuum-IM can be tested fully only if one has a Jabber account.

There are many Jabber servers which offer free registration.

This gives a basic idea how Jabber works.

A simple illustration:

Image

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webfork
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#29 Post by webfork »

smaragdus wrote:There are many Jabber servers which offer free registration.
Should we suggest one in the entry so someone can quickly and easily get started with the program?

lautrepay
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Re: Vacuum-IM

#30 Post by lautrepay »

smaragdus wrote:A question (to lautrepay and to anyone else)- do you think that a messenger like Telegram should be submitted to the database?
1) It's not a matter of what class of program Telegram is. If the program is freeware, portable, of enough quality and you consider can be useful for other users, it's a good candidate.
2) There are certain kind of programs (like Telegram) that may become obsolete from one version to another, so sometimes I'd rather wait and make sure that the developer's intention is to continue releasing portable versions of the application. Telegram has portable versions for more than two years ago, so I think it would be safe to add it to the database.

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