Pidgin vs. Digsby

XionTawa

XionTawa

New Member
In my first test I open the application, and watched it's RAM usage on startup, running, running IMing in 1 window, and running only in the tray icon...the results were:

Pidgin: 10-12MB
Digsby: 5-38MB

Mostly Digsy was sitting in the high 20s or 30s while running, however, Disby is running Facebook and MySpace social networking as well... So it is kind of difficult to choose who won this battle... Retest on Disby just using the same protocols as Pidgin commencing now...
 
Test 2

My second test of performance I only used the 3 protocols in Digsby that I used in Pidgin, and after a few restarts and tests, there was almost no change, Digsby actually sit idle at a higher RAM amount than it did with the mail account and 2 social networking...

So, when it comes to basic performance, Pidgin takes the win...

So far, Pidgin 1, Digsby 0

Next test will be about settings...
 
P vs D - Settings

What they both have:


  • Change your Buddy Icon (works on most protocols)

  • Skin Options

  • Default Formatting

  • IM logging

  • Detailed Status

  • Notifications

What Pidgin has that Digsby doesn't:


  • Addons (Plugins)

  • When idle set to status message

What Digsby has that Pidgin doesn't:


  • Better sorting options (available in Pidgin as a Plugin)

Well, I am going to have to give this one to Pidgin as well...

Pidgin 2, Digsby 0
 
Last edited:
P vs D - Features

Now here is where the real battle is, when it comes to features we have Pidgin's Addons (Plugins) vs. Digsby's Social Networking...

When it comes down to it, Digsby's Social Networking feature is rather impressive, and is something that Pidgin does not have, nor can you get it in Pidgin via a Plugin... However, Pidgin does support MySpace IM, which (for some weird reason) Digsby does not... Also, another thing that gives Digsby an advantage in features is the way it handles mail, it handles mail like it would if the app itself was made by the mail provider, when Pidgin will only notify you if you have new mail, with a little message at the top of your buddy list...

I am giving features to Digsby...

Pidgin 2, Digsby 1

So far Pidgin is the winner, but further tests may come soon...
 
Last edited:
Nothing wrong with a little count padding, eh? Just kidding...

I meant to separate it like I did for the different tests, but I guess that didn't work for you?
 
Hrm, I tried using both: I went from Pidgin to Digsby and back to Pidgin. Why? Because I use aliases on my buddy list so I usually just start typing someone's name and the autofillin grabs their name/screen name before I finish typing.

In Digsby, I have to search for their names on my buddy list which takes some time.
Also, Digsby seems a little... more invasive to privacy than a normal program would. Changing your search engine and other signs that give it the feeling of a bloat-ware ish program.
 
|CoR|Braveheart said:
digsby is more feature rich and pidgin is kind of bland and boring...
Click to expand...

is more features worth unstable resources...not for background running...if you plan on having an on all the time client (like most people do with these) digsby is the worst, it jumps all over your RAM causing many issues if you do heavy multitasking and gaming... Pidgin is Linux-based, the bland-ness is only in it's look...and to me looks are not anywhere near everything...performance is far more important...
 
i guess...but if you have 8GB ram, Q9450 w/ liquid cooling, 4870x2 overclocked and a few TB's a badly codded IM program is ok :) Crysis still runs smooth with Visual Studio 08, dreamweaver and digsby running :D


but back on topic, digsby.
 
That type of system is not really practical for a majority of people...especially if you have kids and an unstable job... Plus, supporting open source is important as well... If someone had your specs (a very low % of people actually do) ANYTHING would run well... My above tests were for everyone, not the 1% of people that can run whatever they want on their machine just fine... I look at everyone not a small percentage...
 
I've been using digsby for over a year now (since shortly after I got my "new" notebook pc). I had been using meebo for quite a while before that (since I got tired of trillian), but I figured I'd try something again. Yeah, it uses more resources than other things (it has probably gotten a little bulkier in the last year, too), but I have no complaints. My specs aren't really anything all that special. But I don't do much else that would hog resources, either.
 
I was loving Digsby back when it was constantly over 100k resources, Now they got it down to around 25k on my machine. My firefox uses 250k and I will never get rid of it. I guess that's the advantage of 4gig of ram.
 
Trillian Astra (4.0) is impressive so far. I think when Trillian 4.0 releases to the public, many people are going to switch from Digsby to Trillian.
 
ewoksrule said:
My firefox uses 250k
Click to expand...

??? I run Firefox with many many addons and running 15-20 tabs it is is never over 80k...

I am also running 4 gigs, however, the jumping resources of digsby causes games to lag... It jumps all over your RAM, watch it...and it being windows it doesn't dump...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top