closing the buddy list doesn't actually exit the application

[Felix Zweig]

Binary package hint: pidgin

In opposition to Bug #353112, I suggest that we actually exit Pidgin if the user closes the Buddy List using the window buttons. This is the common behavior in most application; plus it's very hard to recognize that Pidgin is still running by only the arrow in the indicator applet.

To me, it seems counter-intuitive to only hide an application without any clear visual evidence that it's still running if the user actually used the the "close" button and thus an "exit" metaphor.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: pidgin 1:2.6.6-1ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-20.29-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-20-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 12 22:07:12 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20100306)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pidgin
---
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha i386 (20100827)
Package: pidgin 1:2.7.3-1ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-19.26-generic 2.6.35.3
Tags: maverick
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-19-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Do you get the same with Lucid or Maverick? Thanks in advance.

[Felix Zweig (f.zweig)]

apport information

[Felix Zweig (f.zweig)]

This still applies to today's Maverick live image. Even worse: the notification-area entry doesn't show an indicator anymore, so actually there's no way to see if pidgin is running or not.

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks a lot for reporting this, however this is not a bug, rather the intended behaviour of Pidgin, as it is with many other IM clients. The reason for this they are designed to be started and then left to run in the background, so they are minimized to the system try rather than closed. This allows the user to keep the application running without it taking up space in the task bar.

As for telling whether or not it is running, when you open the messaging menu in the panel, there is a right-pointing arrow next to applications that are currently running.