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Pidgin 2.7 was released today, bringing lots of fixes but also some new features / improvements:

- Pidgin now uses GtkStatusIcon for the docklet, providing better integration in notification area


- Added UI for sending attentions (buzz, nudge) on supporting protocols - something a lot of users were missing (but I for one am very annoyed by it):

pidgin attention buzz


-Make the search dialog unobtrusive in the conversation window (by making it look and behave like the search dialog in Firefox):

pidgin 2.7 search


- Default binding of Ctrl+Shift+v to 'Paste as Plain Text' in conversation windows so you can finally paste content via websites in Pidgin


- Show file transfer thumbnails for images on supporting protocols (currently only supported on MSN).



The rest of the changes are protocol specific. One important change has been made to the Yahoo! protocol: Pidgin now retrieves the pager server address from Yahoo!'s servers directly which should fix forever (hpefully) the logging in issues related to Yahoo changing the address. These are just the most important new features, but many other minor features were added. A complete changelog for Pidgin 2.7 can be found HERE.


Pidgin 2.7.0 can be downloaded via Pidgin.im - for now only Windows binaries and source files are available for download.


Pidgin 2.7.0 is not available in it's Ubuntu PPA for now but it should be available soon (hopefully). You can add the Pidgin PPA using the following command (for any of the following: Hardy, Intrepid, Jaunty, Karmic or Lucid):
echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu `lsb_release --short --codename` main | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pidgin-ppa.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys A1F196A8



If you can't wait, there is an Ubuntu PPA which provides Pidgin 2.7 already (for Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid only). Add it using the following command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:frasten/ppa


Then upgrade to Pidgin 2.7:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade



Special thanks to Antelmo for the Frasten PPA!