If you're like myself and communicate with various people who use different IM services, you may want a single client with a uniform interface that handles some of the most popular services.
Pidgin
Quote:
|
Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.
|
Pidgin also has quite a few handy plug-ins that offer a host of useful features. One of them worth mentioning is an encryption plug-in (
Pidgin-Encryption).
Available Here:
Home | Pidgin
A console client is also available at the pidgin website named
Finch.
Adium (MacOS X)
Quote:
Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X, released under the GNU GPL and developed by the Adium team. With Adium, you can connect to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services and then chat with other people using those services.
Supported services
* AOL Instant Messenger (Including ICQ and .Mac)
* Jabber (Including Google Talk and LiveJournal)
* MSN Messenger
* Yahoo! Messenger (Including Yahoo! Japan)
* Bonjour (Compatible with iChat)
* MySpace IM
* Gadu-Gadu
* Novell Groupwise
* QQ
* Lotus Sametime
|
Available Here:
Adium - Download
Both of these clients are completely free and open source.