Of Instant Messaging and software for it - Part 3

Let's get further into the now. When I switched my email over to Gmail I noticed that I actually had an IM client built right in. I began to use it. I found it was good except the only people I had to talk to were my Gmail friends. Of which I only had a few.
Then I got involved in the almighty FB (facebook). This is a love/hate relationship. While I love the games and the ability to talk to family/friends I almost never am able to on the phone, you have to deal with the peanut gallery viewing your post and commenting. This can get very taxing. I will talk more about the loss of your privacy while trying to stay connected some other time.
It is around this time that a friend introduced me to another great IM program, Pidgin. This program allows you to connect to many different chat clients at the same time. You can pick it up here : http://www.pidgin.im/
This can even connect with FB, with some coaxing. This link will take you to the plug in download : http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-facebookchat/wiki/Downloads?tm=2

This is a picture of what the pidgin interface looks like. It is very simple to use.
1. Double click the downloaded file to install.
2. Once running you can add accounts. (if you are going to use it for FB to install the plugin before you run pidgin)
3. Click on the accounts tab, then manage accounts.
4. Click Add
5. Choose a client from the protocol menu (AIM, ICQ, Facebook, Google Chat)
6. Input your user name and password
7. Click Add
If you need to add more just follow steps 4-7 again
Done you should be able to chat with your different IM friends now and all through one program. Awesome eh?