Originally, the only available ICQ client for Unix was Mirabilis' java version. Although featureful, it consumed a vast amount of system resources and ran sluggishly. gicq is an unofficial ICQ clone, written in C and based on GTK, a lightweight, flexible, and object-oriented toolkit used by the GNOME and Mozilla projects. It's small, fast, and (IMHO) attractive, and contains most of the basic features of the official Mirabilis client.
gicq is available from
http://www.korsoft.com/gicq/. gicq requires libicq, which available
from the same site. It also requires glib and gtk, which you can get
from gtk.org. You should have recent
versions of glib and gtk installed, gicq has been tested with gtk 1.1.15.
gtk 1.0.x is NOT supported. With gtk 1.2 right around the corner, it's
just not worthwhile to develop for the old 1.0 series. If you want to
compile with the optional GNOME support, make sure you have GNOME 0.99.x -
you can get that from gnome.org.
GNOME 1.0 should also be out very soon.
Compiling should be fairly easy. It should go something like this:
Since gicq does not yet support creating a new account on the
ICQ servers, you must already have a valid user. At the bottom of
the gicq main window is a status pop-up menu. The first time you
choose "Online", a login window will appear. Enter your ICQ number
and password and hit "OK". This information is saved into the file
~/.icq/icq.rc. If you mistyped your password, delete that file and
log back on.
Once you've connected, you can search for other ICQ users with
the "Search/Add Users" feature in the menu. You can search by
e-mail address, their name, or their UIN (their unique identifier
in the ICQ network). Note that when you hit search, the window
will disappear and a search results window will automatically appear
when that information is available. This normally takes only a few
seconds.
Sending messages is easy. If you double-click on someone's name
you'll get a "Send Message" window. Just type your message and hit
"Send" and it's on its way. You can send a URL by right-clicking
someone's name and choosing "Send URL". Also available in the context
menu are features to retrieve away messages, get information on a user,
and rename and delete users.
Since I wrote gicq primarily for myself, I've concentrated mainly
on the features I use regularly. Features that yet need to be implemented
include user authentication, invisible lists, creating a new account,
and high-level features such as chat and file transfer. The new tcp
support in libicq 0.30 will make the last two possible. Other priorities
include internationalization and better GNOME integration.
Sean Gabriel <
gabriel@korsoft.com>
Installation
$ tar xzf libicq-0.30.tar.gz
$ cd libicq-0.30
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install
# /sbin/ldconfig
# exit
$ cd ..
$ tar xzf gicq-0.30.tar.gz
$ cd gicq-0.30
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install
Using gicq
The Future
February 20, 1999