So I just found out that my beloved "Pidgin" (formerly "Gaim") instant messenger client was saving my user names and passwords as plain text in an XML file!! I went to the developers' site to see if the team was doing anything to fix this issue, but their official response (click here to see) is that they are not going to fix it any time soon. Their reasoning behind this is that IM programs are by default unsafe, so why bother....
This team just lost a lot of points in my book.
If you use gaim/pidgin and you want to see this with your own eyes, just go to the .purple directory (if you use linux, it's in your /home/$USER directory, if you use windows, its in C:\Documents and Settings\Application Data folder), and look for accounts.XML... you will find your passwords there.
Now, since it seems that the team is not going to change this any time soon, and since I like my "false sense of security" (I'm quoting the "Pidgin" team) I went ahead and switched IM clients. I'd heard a lot of good things about Kopete, and even though I am not a big fan of KDE (you've probably realized by now that I am a GNU/Linux person) I am willing to give this application a shot. I just installed and it seems to run smoothly in GNOME. I just started using it yesterday, and I haven't really done much with it, but so far so good, even though it is very "KDEee".
1 comment:
1) It's not that hard to edit the source and recompile it. AKA fix it yourself, they aren't your bitch.
2) O NOES someone could break in your house and sign on your AIM LOL
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