On Linux, we don’t have Windows Messenger Live, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger or any other instant messengers we commonly used on Windows OS. But, we do have Pidgin which combined everything in to one. In my opinion, it is not the greatest compared to the original application, however, it has done an excellent job by combining all of the IM into just one application.

With Pidgin, I do not need to worry I could not chat with my friends on different IM. For the latest version of 2.2.0, it includes new IM – MySpaceIM.

Below are some of the changelog on Pidgin 2.2.0:

Libpurple:
- New protocol plugin: MySpaceIM (Jeff Connelly, Google Summer of Code)
- XMPP enhancements. See http://www.adiumx.com/blog/2007/07/soc-xmpp-update.php (Andreas Monitzer, Google Summer of Code for Adium)
- Certificate management. Libpurple will validate certificates on SSL-encrypted protocols (William Ehlhardt, Google Summer of Code)
- Some adjustments were made to fix sending messages when using the MSN HTTP method. (Laszlo Pandy)
- Yahoo! Chat is fixed.
- Some AIM file transfer issues between Pidgin and other clients have been fixed. (Kyryll A Mirnenko)
- Properly restore idle status and time for AIM and ICQ accounts when they reconnect after being disconnected.

Pidgin:
- Insert Horizontal Rules and Strikethrough text from toolbar.
- Option to show protocol icons in the buddy list, from the Buddies > Show menu. (Justin Heiner)
- Ability to build with native, non-X11 GTK+ on OSX. (Anders Hasselqvist)
- Remember the ‘Enable Sounds’ setting for a conversation.
- Right-clicking the empty space in the formatting toolbar allows you to toggle back to the old “ungrouped” version.
- Protocols supporting account registration via Pidgin now show a descriptive checkbox instead of a vague “Register” button.
- Fixed a bug where a tab would be shown on single conversations when tabs were disabled.

Finch:
- Per-conversation mute and logging options (accessible from the menu).