If like me, you find yourself juggling multiple messenger applications to keep your friends, family and colleagues happy you will be glad to hear about Pidgin. Formally known as Gaim, Pidgin is an open-source messaging program that allows the simultaneous use of multiple instant messenger services through one application.
Obtainable via a free of charge download from www.pidgin.im, this program supports seventeen different IM networks including Yahoo, MSN and AOL along with other smaller networks including Gadu-Gadu and Jabber. Plugins can be added to allow the use of additional chat clients such as Skype and Facebook Chat.
Once installed, simply select the type of account you want to add (for example a Google Talk account) along with your user name and password. Any of your contacts from that account that are presently online will appear automatically in the buddies list and you can begin chatting straight away. Not only does this offer the distinct advantage that you don't need to switch between several applications if you have contact with friends on multiple networks but it also cuts down on the resource requirements of having multiple chat services running on one machine.
Along with being cross compatible with different networks, the Pidgin application is also available for many different Operating Systems; as well as the obvious Windows version, the developers have provided support for Solaris, SkyOS, Qtopia, UNIX, Linux and even the AmigaOS.
All the standard features you would come to expect such as contact organiser, custom smileys, file transfers and group chats are present. The only real criticism that I would have of Pidgin is that it doesn't support voice and video chat. I hope this lack of functionality will be address in coming releases.
Pidgin is completely customisable; practically every option including network connection, interface, chat logging, sounds and your default availability status can be changed using the preferences dialog box. The font size, type, formatting and colour can be changed along with new themes. I would personally appreciate an option to change the actual user interface through the use of themes as the standard interface could potentialy be a little unintuitive and dull for some users.
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Chris Holgate is a director and copyrighter of the online Ink and Toner website Refresh Cartridges http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk He writes a weekly article of all things tech related.
