Well I have had enough. I had made a simple post to help out the multitude of people who I know are not shifting or opting for GNU/Linux because of their IM problems. I am appalled to hear that people find my pompous attitude disgusting. Actually its me who should have been disgusted long ago. Its strange that people on this mailing list can not take some simple tips in a healthy way.
People have given me loads of 'gyan' on how to configure Gaim, Kopete and the like. Let me tell you friends, I have spent the better half of a year trying to configure them, I have tried the so-called normal easy settings. They do not work. I can not comment on people who claim to have got them working from behind a SQUID proxy, but in my case they do not work. The proxy blocks ports such as 5050 and 5222, which are directly used by Google Talk and Yahoo!, and since our sysadmin left its not possible to get them opened. At this point let me point out that my purpose was to make a post to help out others, and not seek help for myself. If you find it unacceptable, then very well, but do not spoil the fresh air. As one of the members have pointed out, I can do some hacking on Gaim by downloading its source code, etc.. I am already on my way my dear friend! And by the way I had tried contacting Google long time back but to no avail. I definitely find your patronosing attitude exteremely disgusting. But do you realise that there are scores of people who do not give a damn about hacking Gaim, who would love to use GNU/Linux if only they had an easy way to solve some of their problems.
Someone also pointed out that Mark had asked us to leave the WIndows users alone, and concentrate on new users. Interesting point, but can you tell me how you would keep the 'new' user 'glued' to GNU/Linux after they find that they can not use their favourite IM service from behind the proxy? Not everyone has the energy to scour the net and hack around to arrive at a solution. I have the time to do it, but hardly any one else has.
So Mr. Philip, Mr. Joshi, and the others, if you can not stand some healthy tips, do not stand them, but do not spoil the atmosphere by your raves and rants!