Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messaging client compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), Yahoo, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Jabber and Zephyr networks.
Pidgin users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time.
Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer (coming soon), away messages, typing notification, and MSN window closing notification.
Pidgin also goes beyond that and provides many unique features.
A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle; and plugins, consisting of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, and more.
Note: Pidgin downloads an appropriate version of GTK+. GTK+ is now installed locally for Pidgin, and not system-wide, thus Pidgin will not interfere with other GTK+ apps on your system.
If you would like to have GTK+ included in the installer, you can download an offline installer that bundles everything except spell-checking dictionaries.

Requirements:
· GTK

What's New in This Release:
Pidgin:
· Fix a potential remote denial-of-service bug related to displaying buddy icons.
· Significantly improved performance of larger IRC channels (regression introduced in 2.8.0).
· Fix Conversation->Add on AIM and MSN.
· Entries in the chat user list are sorted properly again. This was inadvertenly broken in 2.8.0.
Finch:
· Fix logging in to ICQ.
libpurple:
· media: Actually use the specified TCP port from the TURN configuration to create a TCP relay candidate.
AIM and ICQ:
· Fix crashes on some non-mainstream OSes when attempting to printf("%s", NULL).
Plugins:
· The Evolution Integration plugin compiles again.