Comment 5 for bug 253765

I apologize if this is not the appropriate place for this discussion, but I think the devs should pay very close attention to user feedback during the alpha/beta process for Karmic before making the final decision to replace Pidgin/Ekiga with Empathy. I've tried out Empathy for a few days, and it's just not as good as Pidgin from a usability standpoint, which will hurt with new users of ubuntu. I'm not as concerned with "previous" users, as they'll know that pidgin and ekiga exist, and may install them if they please.

Many of the issues I've encountered are extremely well documented at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EmpathyVsPidginUsability , and most of the usability issues with Empathy still remain. Personally, I had issues with:

-- the "Create" account issue (does this create a new account on the network or am I adding an existing one to my empathy profile?)

-- the "odd default name" issue (it is not immediately clear how to rename an account from "New AIM Account", there is no "rename" or "edit" button, you just have to double-click)

-- it was not immediately clear whether or not the new username/password combo had been accepted

-- Setting statuses - it was not clear from the main contact list how to set statuses for my accounts (globally or individually), especially if the accounts are offline. I do not think it is possible if the accounts are offline.

-- To turn on an account, (they're not on by default when created), you have to enter the "accounts" menu and click the corresponding checkboxes. This is a horrible UI for people with many accounts that might want to be offline on some, but online on others, given that you cannot set your status individually for each account from the main contact list window.

-- I couldn't even add my most-used msn account (others I had added just fine), after trying several times and logging in to hotmail to make sure I wasn't forgetting the password. As far as I could tell, it's a bug with password length, though it could be something else.

I've read the arguments in favor of Empathy, as far as better integration with the Gnome desktop, and that certainly is compelling. I just encourage those with the power of making the decisions to really spend some time with the application thinking about how a new ubuntu user would rate the experience. Having used ubuntu and pidgin for years, I think that the interface in Empathy falls a great deal short of what it should be, and the confusion and frustration to new users is enough to seriously reconsider having Empathy installed by default rather than Pidgin (I have no objections to both being installed, but I understand that's against policy due to the limited size of a CD).