[Techtalk] Simple replacement for AIM with Pidgin

[Poppy Lochridge]

My experience has been that Google considers many things "less secure apps" - which is not absolutely an indictment of the app. I encounter this regularly with Windows clients who want to use Outlook with their G Suite account. (Outlook security has never been perfect, but has come a long ways from where it used to be - and the biggest security risk is what it always has been - the person at the keyboard)

If you're still concerned, you might be able to create a second Googlemail account for Chat, keep it segregated from your current one. Unless there's a better suggestion out there - I haven't used Pidgin in some time, not sure what it's currently supporting.

--Poppy

-----Original Message-----
From: David Sumbler [mailto:david at aeolia.co.uk] 
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2017 9:32 AM
To: Elwing <elwing at elwing.org>; LinuchChix - techtalk <techtalk at linuxchix.org>
Subject: Re: [Techtalk] Simple replacement for AIM with Pidgin

On Fri, 2017-03-03 at 08:41 -0500, Elwing wrote:
> > 
> > On Mar 3, 2017, at 3:01 AM, David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > I have an elderly friend, Margaret, who lives at a distance, and 
> > whose computer I attempt to maintain remotely.  She really depends 
> > on me to help her out when things go wrong - usually things like 
> > "not being able to get any email", which often turns out to be 
> > simply that she has accidentally closed up all the folders in 
> > Evolution.
> > 
> > I use Ubuntu 16.04, but Margaret is using Ubuntu 12.04.  Despite the 
> > fact that support for this ends in April, I am reluctant to update 
> > it, because any such change will confuse and upset her.  At the age 
> > of nearly 90 she finds any change hard to cope with.
> > 
> > For years we have communicated via AIM using Pidgin.  Now it appears 
> > that AOL are stopping this facility from the end of March.  So I 
> > need something which can replace it.  It needs to be as simple to 
> > use as what we are used to.
> > 
> > Can anyone suggest a service which we can use instead of AIM and 
> > which will mean the minimum of change from Margaret's point of view?
> > 
> > David
> > 
> Google Talk/Jabber?  Both are supported by Pidgin and while you might 
> have to do an initial setup of Pidgin for her to use it, she won’t 
> really notice a difference.

I have now tried both of these.  The Jabber registration page has an out-of-date security certificate, so I tried Google Talk.  I already have a googlemail account so I logged in on Pidgin with this.  But Google then requires that I allow "access for less secure apps".  I have done this with some unease, because although I don't use gmail, I do use my Google account for various other purposes.

Presumably this is actually a problem with Pidgin, recognised by Google.  (Or perhaps Google are simply wrong.)  Still, I would rather use an account which is unconnected to anything else I do, just as my AIM account is.

So - any further suggestions of possible suitable IM providers?

David

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