What is Pidgin, you ask? Pidgin (pronounced “Pigeon”, like the bird) is a full featured, open-source instant messenger. Instead of focusing on one service (ie AIM), it supports a whopping 15 services! So if you’re the type of person who multi-tasks a lot, and hates having 2 or more chat clients open, this could be the answer to all of your prayers!

Basic Info:

- Runs on Windows, Fedora Core, CentOS / RHEL, OS X [uses Adium] and other Unix- like OSes

- Supports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, and Zephyr

- A text-based (console) version, named Finch is also avaliable for those with minimalistic OSes, or who just like using the Command Prompt / Console / Terminal.

- It’s updated frequently

- It’s FREE! (No “Pro” or “Enterprise” versions)