Pidgin – Universal chat client
Don’t like the standard MSN client, but would like to stay in touch with those who use MSN? Or do your friends all use different IM (Instant Messaging) services? Do you want to have access to all of those IM services with one client?
Then Pidgin is definitly worth checking out. Not only is it open source, but it works well. With Pidgin you get many of the common IM services into one client, here is a list of which services Pidgin supports.
Supported chat networks:
- AIM
- Bonjour
- Gadu-Gadu
- Google Talk
- Groupwise
- ICQ
- IRC
- MSN
- MySpaceIM
- SILC
- SIMPLE
- Sametime
- XMPP
- Yahoo!
- Zephyr
I have used Pidgin for a good while, and am very happy with it. It also supports plugins, so if there is a feature you are missing perhaps there is a plugin for it! Or you can create a plugin yourself too!
One popular plugin is OTR (Off-the-Record Messaging), which encrypts the messages sent. If you are looking for more plugins, the Pidgin website has a list of them. Enjoy!