Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger is a free instant messaging application that allows users to communicate with each other in an easy and uncluttered way. This version was designed for old versions of the Red Hat and Debian GNU/Linux operating systems.

Yahoo! Messenger for Linux was quite popular 10 years ago when it was available for the Red Hat 9 Linux and Debian GNU/Linux 3 distributions, providing users with the same features that were available on the Windows version of the client.

Features at a glance

It allowed Linux users to easily chat with their Windows and UNIX friends, using the instant messaging protocol provided by the Yahoo! company. Indeed this is the official version of the Yahoo! Instant Messenger for Linux OSes.

It provided built-in integration with various Yahoo! services that are now long gone. In addition, the user interface was pretty much similar with the one used on the Windows and Mac OS X versions of the software.

The program allowed you to easily maintain your friend list and an ignore list. Support for invisible status and emoticons was also provided, and you could organize your contacts in custom groups. The chat window allowed users to send files, change the font type, size and color, as well as to use formatted text.

It is no longer under active development

Before downloading the application, be advised that this software is no longer compatible with modern Linux distributions. Instead, you should use a recent version of Pidgin or Empathy instant messaging clients.

Yahoo! terminated support for this Linux client way too soon, leaving users with tears in their eyes and a poor collection of open source instant messaging client. Unfortunately, Yahoo! will never bring back support for the Linux platform in its messenger application.

If you use Red Hat Linux 9 or Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 you could still install this application, but it is unknown if it's still supported by the official Yahoo! IM servers.

What is new in this release:

• Improved Emoticons
• Improved Message Archive
• Improved sound on RedHat kernels
• Yahoo! Address Book integration
• File transfer with Windows clients