What version of GAIM runs on Win9x?

[BenoitRen]

Simple question. What's the latest version of GAIM that works under Win9x? Version 1.5 wants some APIs that don't exist under Win95, and some that don't even exist in Win9x at all (*W APIs)!

The only version of GAIM that I got to run was version 0.73, but it sucked up system resources like no tomorrow, making it almost unrunnable.

I expect that a version that runs on Win98 could be made to be run on Win95...

[prx984]

I'm not sure which version works, but I do remember running 2.0 or something working on my 98 machine. It did suck resources too, but it did run and was functional.

Have you tried Miranda IM? It runs on 95 I think, and it's extremely lite weight. Uses 3 or 4MB of ram on my XP machine.

[BenoitRen]

Yes, I tried Miranda, and I couldn't figure out the plug-in mess.

[prx984]

Which plugins are you referring to? The newer versions of Miranda seems quite stable and easy to install plugins under.

[BenoitRen]

Well, Miranda is just a shell that can't operate without plug-ins, no? I think I tried the MSN plug-in.

[glocK_94]

Actually Miranda includes by default the plug-ins needed to use the chatting protocols. You only need other plug-ins if you want more functionalities (emoticons and stuff...).

However GAIM v1.5.0 installs correctly on Win98 so I guess it should work fine aswell. Give it a try.

[awergh]

ive tried gaim 2.0beta 3 on 98se and it crashes when i try to use msn

[-Chris-]

GAIM (up to and including the latest 2.0-beta5) works fine on Windows NT 4.0+ on the NT side & Windows 98+ on the 9x side. You will need to use an older version of the GTK+ runtime as the current does not support 9x - afaik, GTK 2.6.10-20050823 was the last version to support 9x (and NT4). It does work, I have tested it.

Edited January 10, 2007 by -Chris-

[Drugwash]

Here's a Miranda IM Wiki (work in progress). I've been fighting for the backwards compatibility to be kept (I myself being a Win98SE user), but honestly - it appears that Win98/ME user base is pretty low and the Win95 user base is almost nonexistant. Therefore it's hard to say what is still working under Win95, and for how long.

Another issue here is that - while the core may still be Win9x compatible (in the ANSI version) - most of the plug-ins, which are developed by third parties, are slowly dropping Win9x support, which is sad for an open-source project that at least theoretically should not be under MS politic's pressure. But it's hard to create Win9x-compatible products using VS2005, and - most of all - it's hard or impossible to test the products when there's no Win9x environment available for the respective developers.

[BenoitRen]

Thanks for the help. I found the latest version for Win98/WinME of GTK. However, those idiots decided to put a version check on the installer!

Windows 95 was dropped starting with GTK 2.4. I'm unable to find an installer for GTK 2.3...

[Camarade_Tux]

Thanks for the help. I found the latest version for Win98/WinME of GTK. However, those idiots decided to put a version check on the installer!

Windows 95 was dropped starting with GTK 2.4. I'm unable to find an installer for GTK 2.3...

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

And btw, you're on a forum where half of the active members have repackaged apps so you should find some helpful informations if needed.

Edited January 10, 2007 by Camarade_Tux

[BenoitRen]

I looked on that page before. I don't see an installer for version 2.3 of the GTK run-time environment on it.

Edited January 10, 2007 by BenoitRen

[glocK_94]

This is hard to find! All I found is a version 2.2 for developpement but it seems to contains runtimes:

http://gladewin32.sourceforge.net/modules/...id=13&lid=5

If someone has a better link...

[-Chris-]

I still have the one I used - GTK 2.6.10-20050823 for NT4.0, 98/Me; if you like, I'd be happy to send it to whomever needs it.

[BenoitRen]

Thanks, glocK_94.

Installed the GTK runtime. Oddly, it wanted to install in a GTK subdirectory of the chosen path. I knew this would give problems, since GTK 2.0 runtimes are usually installed in GTK/2.0 of the Common Files directory. Anyway, I proceeded.

Next I tried GAIM 1.5. Needed GTK 2.6.9.

GAIM 1.0.1 and below all wanted a GTK 2.4 version.

GAIM 0.79 is the last that accepts a GTK 2.2 version.

GAIM 0.76 or so was the version I tried before, I think. It gave me problems. So I closed everything first. GAIM.DLL yielded an error. Ran Dependency Walker on it. It couldn't find any of the GTK files.

I saw that the GAIM downloads section also offered GTK runtimes, so I looked at the list. No GTK 2.3, but the last GTK 2.2. I'm starting to think that there never was a GTK 2.3. Actually, if the versioning is like Linux' kernel, it was probably an unstable developer version. There's no GTK 2.5 either.

Now GAIM ran. Looked at the system resources. 94%. Tried to open a second instance, got a white error box without text with a Close box. Then I couldn't open anything from my desktop anymore. I still had one folder open, so I pulled that up and looked at the system resources. 94%. I closed GAIM. Explorer became unresponsive. Eventually I could terminate it. Then I couldn't do anything anymore. MSGSRV32 hanged as well, it was terminated. Selected "Shut Down" from Ctrl + Alt + Del. It didn't do anything. I couldn't even Ctrl + Alt + Del anymore. The Reset button was my last exit.

EDIT: By the way, since we're on the subject of GTK anyway, I have to wonder what the webmasters of the GIMP website are smoking.

Starting with GIMP 2.2 and GTK+ 2.4, older versions such as Windows 95 are not supported anymore.

How do they intend on supporting GIMP 2.0 on Windows 95 when it requires GTK 2.4? Pssh.

Edited January 13, 2007 by BenoitRen