I do!  Or should I say, did.  I am not a huge IM (Instant Message) junkie, but I do have friends and family that I communicate with that way.  This means that I have several different IM accounts, because no one can seem to agree on just one.  Many people reading this are nodding in agreement sharing my frustration right now.  Until recently, I have used Trillian on Windows because it spoke all the different IM languages (AIM, YIM, MSN, ICQ, IRC, etc) so I was able to consolidate all of my separate clients into one.  Lately though, I have been having some troubles with Trillian crashing a lot, so I went on the hunt for a new client to try out.

One thought that I had was about Linux, and the fact that on Linux I used GAIM, and IM client that was much like Trillian in that it talked to everyone.  One thing I liked about GAIM (among many things), was that it was fast, lightweight, and powerful.  It just ran really well.  On a whim, I searched for GAIM for Windows and low and behold, I found that not only did the name change (it’s now called Pidgin), but it’s setup for many different operating systems with Linux and Windows being two of them.

I decided to give it a try and I haven’t looked back.  It’s very much like the GAIM I am used to on Linux, and it’s very slick.  It looks good, it runs good, and hasn’t crashed once! 🙂  So far, I think I have found my IM client of choice and I highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for a robust cross platform and multi protocol client.  Check it out here on Wikipedia, and download a copy from the Pidgin homepage to see for yourself!