I mentioned recently the Facebook Messenger, but it’s only for Windows 7. Does that mean people using Windows Vista, Windows XP or Linux are screwed? Not at all. You can use Pidgin to connect to Facebook chat easily.

Note before continuing: It is especially good to get to know Pidgin if you plan on switching from Windows to Linux or are even just thinking about it, as Pidgin is without a doubt the most-used messenger in the Linux environment.

Step 1. Install Pidgin

Go to www.pidgin.im, download and install the software.

Step 2. Add in your Facebook account

When you install Pidgin for the first time, you’ll be prompted to add in an account. If you’ve already installed Pidgin, bring up the main Pidgin window and click Accounts and then Manage Accounts.

Important note: You do need a name defined for your Facebook account in order for this to work. It’s most likely true you do have a name assigned. If you can access your Facebook page by www.facebook.com/your-user-name, the your-user-name part is your chat login name.

Fill out your account information like this:

"What’s Resource?"

The Resource field is optional; it’s a field that’s specific to XMPP (formerly known as Jabber) servers to separate one logged in machine from another. If you plan on installing Pidgin for Facebook chat connectivity on multiple computers, you can put in any word you want (such as PC or laptop) to separate the machines on a chat level, but it’s not required.

"What’s Local alias?"

This one confuses the crap out of everybody; it’s just a way to trim down very long usernames. You can populate this with your Facebook username, or simply "facebook", or just leave it blank.

Step 3. Get rid of common Pidgin annoyances

I suggest doing the following to make the Pidgin experience a more pleasant and less annoying one.

Minimize new conversation windows

Where: Tools > Preferences > Interface (side tab) > Minimize new conversation windows (checkbox)

New conversation windows by default will jump right in front of you whenever anyone chats you, and that’s annoying. Checking the Minimize new conversations windows auto-minimizes and new chat window that appears and flashes in the taskbar area instead; this is much more civilized.

Disable Buddy logs in and Buddy logs out sound events

Where: Tools > Preferences > Sounds (side tab) > Buddy logs in (uncheck) and Buddy logs out (uncheck)

Facebook users are logging in and out constantly, and if you don’t uncheck these two boxes you’ll hear the "doo-doo-doo" noise all day long.

Disable user avatars

Where: Buddies > Show > Buddy Details (uncheck by click)

Every user in your buddy list will have an avatar (user pic) next to them, wasting unnecessary space, and making you scroll a lot just to get to certain people to chat with. Disabling the Buddy Details compacts the list to just text and makes it a whole lot easier to manage.

This is optional, because some of you may like having the avatar pics there in your buddy list.

Sort by status

Where: Buddies > Sort Buddies > By status

Assuming you’re showing both online and offline users (Buddies > Show > Offline Buddies), you’re going to want the people who are online at the top of the list first.

Tips and info for better Facebook chatting

Understand that you’re going to see logins/logouts in your list often

What a lot of people do in Facebook is login then immediately disable chat. Or at times you’ll see just random logins/logouts in the buddy list. This is normal and there’s nothing wrong with your connectivity or your computer.

Understand that some people are on mobile

Unfortunately it’s the case where you can’t tell whether someone is mobile-connected or not on Facebook chat (whereas you can via a little phone icon in Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger). If you see someone pop online, chat them and they don’t respond, it’s most likely true they don’t hate you but rather are on mobile and can’t respond for one reason or another.

Understand that all chat logs are kept in one long message stream per user in your Facebook account

In Facebook there is no difference between a private message and an instant message. All sent and received chats are treated as one long message stream per user, which you can see at any time in your Facebook account. Just login to facebook.com after chat, click on the user you were just chatting with and see the message log. Everything is there.

This is either a really good thing or a really bad thing depending on your point of view.

Understand that random disconnects sometimes happen

Facebook is a huge website, and its implementation of XMPP sometimes fails just from the sheer amount of traffic going through the system. If you get kicked off periodically, again it’s most likely true that it’s nothing wrong with your computer or connectivity, it’s just Facebook.

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