Gaim - (Free)
Chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger and stay on an IRC channel at the same time is possible when using Pidgin software.
Pidgin is an email client that allows to chat with MSN, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ and other contacts, from a single interface. Available in several languages, this software offers convenient features to comfortably talk.
Pidgin software brings together in a single window the AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber / XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu- Gadu, IRC, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MXit, MySpaceIM and Zephyr contacts.
The application gives the ability to chat with multiple contacts at once even if they come from different networks discussion. It is even possible to make a conference if necessary.
Even if the icons of contacts for each account are already marked by their respective icons, it does not prevent the user to create customized friends, relatives, colleagues categories, etc.
Pidgin offers several smileys to liven up the discussion. As the software supports adding plugins, user can also download more smileys on the Internet to enrich the library.