I agree that Pidgin guys are lazy. Pidgin's only advantage is plugins.
From last 1 or 2 years I am noticing that mostly they are just fixing bugs. New features are very rare.
Their attitude is like, they will do it only if they personally need it. They dont consider public demands. Common when ur app is so popular u shud take some responsibility even if u r doing it for free.
Most feature request tickets are closed by categorising them as "Plugin required" and leaving it for someone to make a plugin.
As per them, "Voice and video" was top priority when they renamed Gaim to Pidgin but its been more than 2 years and "Voice and video" is still looking at same stage. Infact, they find it funny to fool users on "April 1st" by declaring Pidgin now has Voice and Video.
I am waiting for empathy.
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Checked digsby website, its still in Alpha and not available for Linux.