Um... Haller-Sucks is right. Pidgin was already portable, before Haller touched it. There's even an official how-to on the subject:

http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Pidgin#RunningWindowsPidginFromaUSBDrive

Haller is just wasting his time "making" Pidgin portable.

Every time I opened "Preferences", it crashed.

Here's a preference for ya: Quit crashing.

Back to Miranda IM.

I have tried neither the "official how-to" version nor Haller's portable version of Pidgin, but judging from the installation instructions for each, it seems Haller's version is a lot easier to install. That seems to me to be reason enough to justify making it.

I previously had both the official portable version installed and it worked perfectly. I then went and installed PidginPortable and again, it runs perfectly. I had to copy the .purple directory, but I'm ok with that. The "official" version has a WORKAROUND to make it portable. It does make it portable, but it's still a workaround.

Question on proxy settings: What is the best way to set up the proxy in Pidgin? My company uses a corporate proxy server on port 8080 that requires a login and password. I have entered that information into Pidgin in the networking tab and on each account separately, and have had no luck connecting. Error: could not establish a connection with the server: HTTP Proxy Connection Error 407. I've dealt with 401's before (who hasn't) but 407? Any ideas?

This is in response to Meter. Ever try A batch script? I know a guy that made it really easy for you.

http://portabilly-tea.blogspot.com/2007/10/updates-for-pidgin.html

To Erind, The Official isn't a workaround. Haller's is a workaround. I'd hardly consider a rename/rearrangement a workaround. Calling environment variables from a seperate exe is a workaround. Lets face it, Haller has lost his touch and is only working on software that is already portable. For Example. Zsnes, already portable...but yet he puts his name on it. Same for DosBox.

This program is simply amazing. best multi-protocol IM program out there. More simple than Miranda, and free, unlike Trillian. http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/pidgin_portable it's stable and amazing. Two thumbs up

Stable and reliable for me.
Works well behind all my proxies and firewalls.

wow, after all these years! finally a stable, fully featured replacement for Trillian! Yay! Those who tried GAIM and never liked it, trust me, this is much improved!!

For those of you who haven't visited Mr Haller's site (and there appears to be a lot) the idea is to have a Portable Apps launcher running Portable Apps therefore making everything fit. It's like Microsoft buying out a software company and NOT changing their software to Microsoft Whatever!
Toilet_Duck, why did you bother commenting? Lots of others could have done if for you! :)

Freaks making nicknames attacking someone who is creating something... for free.
I pity anyone who cares about your opinion Hallers-Duck.

I've used this recently in a corporate environment and experienced the problem of not being able to connect. I've installed on USB, tested on a laptop to see if it connected. No, kept getting an 'install GTK dll' problem. Same issue at work. However, It does work on the PC I originally downloaded it on. I think it need Administration right or sometime like that, hmm? I really like this program otherwise.

I just rolled a true portable version of Pidgin using the instructions from the link in this entry. It's pretty easy; I recommend it over the PortableApps version if you like having control over how your apps are structured. For RAM misers and customization freaks, though, Miranda IM is definitely better (5 mb RAM usage versus the 20mb plus that the GTK+ Pidgin uses).

I don't understand why John Haller bothers to develop a portable launcher for Pidgin. The Pidgin devs have already built in portable functionality. The work John Haller is doing for this is completely unnecessary.

@Erind

The way the Pidgin FAQ describes how to create a portable version is NOT a work around. The clumsy re-hash of Pidgin at PortableApps is in fact a work around.

2.5.3 has problems. It hangs when you close it down. I had to uninstall and switch back to 2.5.2 for the time being.

Did anyone notice Haller only started getting to work on Pidgin AFTER the devs made Pidgin into portable app. I remember him stating a refusal to work on Pidgin because there would not be enough people using it. That slap to the face from the pidgin devs must have hurt.

Pilot Yang: I remember what your talking about. Haller was insisting that gaim/pidgin would not have enough of a fanbase to give him reason to "make it portable". Yet now he spends his time making this application portable...even thought the offical development team has done this already. Gotta love it.

pidgin portable from portableapps is a LOT easier to get up and running than the official pidgin guidelines for making it portable. and the portableapps version makes all your custom settings portable, too... it updates your settings as you switch PCs which the regular pidgin version doesn't. haller even asked the pidgin devs if they would like to do pidgin portable themselves as the official portable version but they didn't want to be responsible for that much windows-specific code and were happy to let him keep doing it. it's easy and it works right and that's why it's been downloaded over 5 million times. don't listen to the anonymous user above creating multiple names and having a conversation with themself.

hi, i've just tryed to use this pidgin portable thing and its been USELESS!
well i've probz done something wrong, but i clicked on every single thing, filled in every thing in every diforent way and NOTHING.. at home and at college, it just keeps telling me i can't connect..

so id say unless your a computer/internet wizzard, its fairly useless, unless im just missing something easily spotted, could any 1 help? =]

Take the time to follow the official pidgin portable walkthrough, you get a much cleaner package at the end.

I sync my pidgin installation between computers, which is fine and dandy for the portableapps version, until you open pidgin on both computers at the same time, at which point it gets messy and conflicts start popping up.

Official portable walkthrough has no such problems.

No support for Skype yet? Or I'm wrong?

At winpenpack.com is also available a Pidgin portable edition with facebook support, through the pidgin-facebookchat plugin already included in X-Pidgin! I have found it here: http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php?view.551

I've been using Pidgin Portable as my main IM for a long time and it has always been great. Some day I may go through the method of making the official release portable with their method (and hope I don't have to do it with each update), but have never got around to it. Like Haller or not, his apps are pretty easy for Novice users to get portable apps (though I myself am above novice, I've just taken the lazy route).

Too bad Pidgin still doesnt support audio and video chat on Windows. :(

@mcqfesijiba - Pidgin Portable actually does make use of the official method to make it portable (which is why Pidgin links to us as well) but we add additional portablization to that via the launcher to update paths in your settings so things keep working (like custom pounce sounds and things), better setup the environment variables for PURPLE and ASPELL and clean up the bits that Pidgin leaves behind on the local PC when in the official 'portable' mode.

@John Haller. I thought most custom pounce sounds were portable relative to .purple. In fact, any paths that a plugin relies on are also relative to .purple
Wasn't this like when you implied that Pidgin OTR and Pidgin Encryption were not portable?

@rokth You're right. I've had nothing but success using a proper portable Pidgin build (batch made, not the needless PortableApps version) to run pounces, plugins, etc. all relative to the .purple settings directory. My 2 cents.

I think you can manually type paths into pounces that are relative. It's far easier to just click Browse and select it, though. As always, if you're a portable geek who doesn't care about leaving bits behind and are comfortable manually configuring it all and manually typing relative paths, you're fine using the guidelines.

The official procedure of making Pidgin portable really works, what I wonder is why the developers don't release an official portable version. If such a version was available (including GTK+) I am sure it would be very popular and the users would be spared lots of efforts and time.

I just tested it and fully agree with smaragdus: Pidgin is natively portable with some very minor massaging of paths and files (IMHO, the hard part was making GTK+ fall into line).

BTW, current upstream version is v2.10.11.

@ Midas: Thanks ... and updated ;)

Is it possible to make Pidgin portable without using portable launcher?

@Peter202: Yes -- please see the "Official Procedure" linked above. See also the "Forum topic".

I usually never complain when there is a way to make a program portable but I have just wasted about half an hour updating (copying, moving, deleting, renaming) the native compressed version of Pidgin. And I forgot that the working Facebook plug-in was not included in the package and had to download it separately (but before that I deleted the "unknown" Facebook profile). Why do the developers still keep the no longer working Facebook-XMPP plug-in and do not adopt the working Facebook Chat (purple-facebook) plug-in is a mystery to me. Pidgin developers offer an offline installer (containing GTK+) and GTK+ for Windows yet they do not intend to provide a compressed portable-ready version for Windows. Updating Pidgin is a pain, as it is a pain to make it portable on first run.

WOW I find this really interesting that this software has been being downloaded or at least talked about for 9 years. Some of the first comments talk about this being worthless and a waste of time cuz Pidgin already has a Portable version. There is also talk about Haller wasting his time doing this... hmmm so what am I doing here also wasting my time? lol Anyway in my opinion any and all discussion even on so called "worthless" builds serve a purpose. If nothing else I get a link in my email letting me know that there is something I can go see and waste my time on some "worthless" and not needed software. Aint life great?
MIKLO

@MIKLO: It sure is. Thanks for wasting my time... 3:)