
Gaim
What is your review for Gaim available at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gaim
Gaim is a GTK+ instant messaging application. It supports multiple protocols, including AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN, Jabber, IRC, Napster, Gadu-Gadu, Zephyr, and SILC. It has many common features found in other clients, as well as many unique features
Interesting messenger, but I really don't have a use for it. I use google talk, and it doesn't support that yet. But to be honest, you might consider cutting back on the internet time if you have a need for a messenger that can bring in friends from all these messengers. But if you are into that, it appears to be the most multi-functional, multi-protocolled messenger you can get right now, and its free! Thank You OpenSource!
I used to use it in windows. When it worked it was pretty nice, but had to give up on it because it was fairly flaky and would just stop working. I'd start the program and no window would show up and nothing on the task bar, even though the process was running. I switched to Miranda, which is another open source multi-protocol I'm client. It is very minimalistic and not nearly as nice as Gaim , but it always works.
Since I am in the process of switching to Linux as my primary system at work, I will probably be using Gaim there. I'm guessing that since it was primarily developed for Linux in the first place that it may run more reliably there.
I have I'm accounts on AIM, Yahoo, and MSN, as well as a company internal messaging system that uses Novell GroupWise messenger, so a single client that supports all of the protocols at once saves a lot of memory and visual clutter. I particularly like not having to put up with all the ad-ware and other junk that all the services put into their proprietary clients. The one thing that I don't like about the open source multi-protocol I'm clients in general is that they just don't support all the advanced features of each I'm service. For instance, when my friend in Argentina want to do a live video chat through MSN Messenger, I have to bring up the Microsoft Client. They also tend to break fairly often as the I'm services change their protocols.