Pidgin is a(nother) multi-platform instant messaging client. These apps let you sign in to multiple IM accounts through one application so you can run your Yahoo, AIM, MSN, etc…accounts through one interface. It helps keep things nice and clean so you don’t have to have a number of difference IM apps running all at once. It supports a wide list of the major IM applications and it runs on a number of operating systems so you should have no problem trying it out for yourself.

I would suggest that you check out the Lifehacker article Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin for some great plugins that keep Pidgin unique. First one I added was Pidgin-Encrypt which encrypts your IM chat! Sa-WEET!
There are a number of others for handling away and stored messages and theme modification is kept simple since Pidgin utilizes the GTK graphical environment.

Of course, there are a number of competing products out there, such as meebo (although it must be used within an Internet browser) and digsby. And serious IMers will notice there is no support for video or audio communication.

I installed Pidgin this morning and have been using it to manage my IM accounts and so far have little to complain about. The installation was simple enough and so far I have not experienced any hickups or other issues. I’m not sure why I would choose Pidgin over it’s competitors but since I like playing with new toys and I love supporting the open source community (Pidgin is free software. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) which means you are free to use it and to modify it) I’ll stick with this until something else catches my eye.

If you want to help or tinker with Pidgin, the operators offer a wealth of information and the code for developers to dive into.

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