Using Finch, The messenger console

Everyone knows Pidgin, the most messenger used in linux. What everyone does not know is that Pidgin has a twin brother that runs in console, called Finch and is equal to Pidgin, except that console is used instead of a graphical interface. The only truth I see 2 reasons why someone gets to use Finch:

There is the possibility of running a graphical environment

Is a fan of console ... like me

Installing Finch

It's in the repository of almost all Ditre,in Ubuntu would install like this:

• sudo apt-get install finch

Arch is installed with

• pacman -S finch

finch run the command from console.

Use Finch

The first thing I ask is to add accounts ... if you had added accounts with pidgin then be available also in finch, are brothers as I said

After their accounts have been added msn, yahoo, gtalk or whatever then they appear on left side a list of your friends. They move through it just with arrows and if you want to start chatting with someone press Enter.

Everything is handled as floating fenestration but within same console, so it is important to know commands to move between windows.

• Out of window: ALT-c.
• Switch between windows ALT-n or ALT-p.
• Open menu of each window: F10.
• Resizing windows: ALT-r and then any arrow.
• Switch to nth window: ALT-n.
• Moving windows: ALT-m.
• See all possible actions (eg, adding accounts): ALT-a.

Finch is now my preferred messenger centerim used before but had some problems and was less intuitive ... I hope they give you a chance