Picture the situation. You love Google Talk. Your family is stuck on Windows Live Messenger. Your friends in Poland all love Gadu-Gadu and, for some strange reason, your best friend insists on ICQ. You obviously have an IM crisis, and in the interests of peace and friendship, you need to sort it, fast.

Pidgin is an instant messenger client that is perfect for people who need to communicate with friends who use different applications, or for those who like a little more control over their chatting. The Pidgin interface is quite simple, which for many is a plus, although it has most, if not all, of the features found on other clients. Obviously, the major plus to using Pidgin is that it can support multiple accounts on different networks, so you'll only need the one interface to chat with all your contacts on all your accounts.

When you install the program, it will ask you for the details of the various accounts you want to add. Pidgin can remember your passwords for you, but if you do not enable this option, you'll have to sign in every time. Once you're all set up, you can do all the things you would expect - change your icon, create groups, tailor alerts, send files and even add a huge number of Pidgin plug-ins. There is also a nice feature called Buddy Pounces, which allows you to set special notifications for certain people.

For the more technically minded, one of Pidgin's best features is bound to be the considerable configuration options. These options are much easier to access than in certain other applications and allow you to manage certificates, toggle advanced settings for your accounts, individually or together, set up proxy servers and even join chat rooms. Sounds too complicated? Don't worry, that's the beauty of Pidgin - you can get as technical or as simple as you like. It's the perfect client for everyone.

Simple, effective and multi-protocol - what more could you ask for?!