Empathy sucks, the most poorly written IM app ever

[Pete Vander Giessen]

> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=602966
>
> So, let me get this straight: this is an IM application, it's for
> communication, yet it manages to hide the new messages so well that I'm
> almost always missing them.

Some of us consider this more of a feature than a bug, though perhaps
some of us are a bit less social, and a bit more apt to like focusing
on what were are doing while we're working at the computer, rather
than letting people jabber at us whenever they want to ;-)

Empathy will pop up a note in the notification area, and change the
color of the messages icon whenever you get a new message.  I've had a
train myself to pay more attention to both the notifications and the
icons -- the latter is _very_ subtle with Karmic's new theme, but I
think, while it takes some getting used to, it strikes a nice balance
between letting me know what's going on, and letting me ignore the
outside world if I'm trying to focus on something.

Your mileage, obviously, as varied.  For now, switching back to Pidgin
sounds like a very reasonable thing to do; one of the beautiful things
about Ubuntu as an OS is its flexibility, and the ease with which you
can install and experiment with new software.

~PeteVG

" ... the original aphorism being 'In comparison with the ancients, we
stand like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants.' The image was a
commonplace by the time Newton used it, his one contribution being to
erase any sense that he himself might be a dwarf."

~ Lewis Hyde