Comments here say Pidgin is terrible because you can’t customize it, well for ‘newbies’ you don’t need to. You run it, you add your accounts, it looks clean/professional without having to touch a setting. Get Miranda-IM to that point, and the configuration dialog won’t matter *as much* to newbies. It is not *wrong* to make miranda-im look and behave a certain way be default, not everyone will like it, but then that is why you can configure it, but if it isn’t even usable (yes, ‘usable’ has a range of meaning) before having to configure it, that is *wrong*.

That all being said, the 2nd mockup would allow for miranda-im to have a focused design goal to create a default user experience that allows newbies to customize a very small aspect of the default experience, without changing that default experience.

Now, to get really useful, you could design it so that what appears in the newbie configuration dialog is modifiable (xml backend or something) so that various default “user experiences” could be designed, pulling out a specific set of configuration options for a user to be able to change about that experience. This sort of ability would allow custom deployments in companies, schools, or simply passing it along to friends and family.

Well, that’s all food for thought, maybe some of that will catch some developer’s imagination… :)

My overriding point was: create a usable default experience, and the need to dive into the configuration dialog becomes a mute point.

Really, all you need is a great defaults so most of “usual” users happy with ‘em and easy setup of basic stuff like accounts, etc. Maybe even “First Startup Wizard” to make it easier for first-time users to get things working.

Great defaults also mean great and custom look & feel which should not be overcomplicated and should look great from point of view most of users. Then, users are yours.

Also it could be not bad idea to remember about “usual” mode and “advanced” mode. So, only skilled people have to mess with all these tons of settings and average Joe rather to cope with few settings essential for basic use.

I dual boot between Linux and Windows. When I’m in Windows, I use Miranda IM. When I’m in Linux I use Kopete. I think Kopete is a good example of leveraging features with simplicity.

That aside, I love how configurable Miranda IM is. But even for a very advanced user, I find myself spinning in circles from time time time in the options window, trying to find or change a preference that I don’t change all that often – particularly once I get all my plugins installed.

I think Miranda IM could be simplified greatly without over simplifying the program.

That said, nice work so far, and I’m excited to see where things go…

But please don’t turn Miranda IM into Retarda IM.
There’s QIP and others for those who can’t or don’t want to handle Miranda.

But second concept is only acceptable as a wrapper plugin for advanced dialog. It might help new users and won’t be a problem for experienced user to delete it right away.