well, i couldn't use wget as it didn't work. so i just went to a the site and downloaded it straight from there. but there is a newer version out so you may want to do that, (also i needed the amd64 bit version).

also the second stage only works if the deb is called that, which if you download from the site it's actually pidgin_2.0.2-1~getdeb1_amd64.deb. it also needs the data one (pidgin-data_2.0.2-1~getdeb1_all.deb) so i installed that before step 3. and also in step 3, because of the missing dependicy you need to use a force option.

but yeah this all work, cheers dude, the interface of pidgin looks nicer.

I'm not sure if you actually read the article or just the first line!

and also in step 3, because of the missing dependicy you need to use a force option.

The '-f' option on the last step repairs the package database, fixing the missing dependency - I wouldn't force ignore it when installing, you never know the result.

Ah you couldn't use wget because you need to escape the question mark and ampersand. I thought i'd documented that, but putting the whole URL in quotes should work too.

How about a ./configure && make && make install instead?

No point using ubuntu if you're going to bypass package management ;)