Unlike Windows Live, Yahoo!, Gtalk and their ilk that are separate entities from one another, Pidgin lets you log into each of their instant chat accounts (and many more besides) using the one application. It DOES have competition that do the same thing but I’ve tried others in the past and I overall much prefer the clean interface of Pidgin.

Thanks to this all-in-one messenger I have pretty much abandoned logging into three or more bloated pieces of software when I want to talk to people and instead stick to this. A huge benefit to this change is I now use up a lot less memory. For example, Pidgin while logged into MSN, Yahoo! and Gtalk messengers used up just under 26,000K. To compare I shut it down completely and loaded the other three separately. Gtalk was using up just under 18,000K, Yahoo! came in at slightly below 37,000K and Windows Live with almost 41,000K. Under those circumstances I’m saving 70,000K which is a huge help to my ageing PC.

I should point out that I do have a few minor complaints to make, but I don’t think these are enough to put anyone off wanting to give this Open Source software a test drive. Firstly, for any accounts you have enabled if you set a status it will appear like that for them all. The reasoning is sound enough (you’re one person so you should have one status), but I feel like I’ve lost a bit of control due to that. A much bigger problem is transferring files. It is possible, but up to now I’ve found it to be incredibly slow.

In closing, if you tend to use messengers for voice chat, games, sending huge files etc. then Pidgin is probably not for you. If however you like a clean, straightforward and memory saving messenger that is still able to be nice to look at then I would definitely recommend you try Pidgin out.

Edit as of 7th, July 2008 – Oops! I typed the wrong name in the title and permalink. Fixed now.

Almost everytime I’ve logged into MSN Messenger recently my contacts are sorted into groups, my font is the default, the box is ticked for MSN Today to pop up on start and the box is unchecked to say what songs are playing in Windows Media Player – all of these things I have differently but they always go back to these default settings. It’s happened 2 out of 3 times recently and it’s very annoying. I’m going to have to install the thing again probably…

Don’t get me started on Paltalk…

A problem I’ve found that you don’t get with a messenger like ICQ or Yahoo, is that people add you and there’s no where for them to say where they got your ID from. You either have to figure it out for yourself by their email address or talk to them and ask… Which is fair enough you might say, but it would be a hell of a lot easier if you could have a “add me message” when you’re adding a contact so the other person isn’t left in any doubt.

It would just be nice to know if people that add you found your email address from a forum profile, a blog, a website, your MSN profile or randomly typed in a hotmail address… Wouldn’t it?

Browsers
Firefox – I’ve completely moved over to this browser now. When I first used it I admit I wasn’t impressed and soon got rid of it, but I gave it another chance and it won me over. The best thing about it is the tabbed browsing so I can view several websites without taking up any room on the taskbar. Another plus is the many extensions available meaning that your browsing experience can truly be a unique one.
Opera – Like Firefox, Opera offers a pop-up blocker and tabbed browsing. It has a very clean interface and one of the features I like is that in the address bar it says the percentage of the website loaded and then how many images have downloaded and the total amount on that page. The only thing I don’t particularly like about Opera is that you either have to pay or put up with adverts (admittedly they are small text ads, but I prefer Firefox which has no ads or a price tag).
Netscape – I can’t say I know much about Netscape because I rarely use it, although it seems to be exactly like Firefox with a few integrated Netscape extras (Email, Weather, Local News, etc.). As I don’t use many Netscape services regularly I’ll stick to Firefox, but I figured it was worth a mention.
i-Screen EC – I’d definately recommend a high speed internet connection to use this to its full potential. This is more like a free media centre than a browser as it has various sections where it lets you listen to selected streaming music, watch commericals, funny clips, movie trailers, play games (either online or downloaded), view special advertisements and spend some time in their designated shopping area or “Mall”. It’s very new so their isn’t a great deal of content, but some which can pass the time for a while. I don’t know if it’ll take off but I think it has great potential and is worth a look.
3B – This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before… It’s like a little village that you use your keyboard directions to “stroll” around and websites appear as billboards on buildings all around you. From a distance it can be difficult to tell what the website is for, but the closer you get the clearer it is. You can click to see any interesting websites in full screen as a normal website would show, and visit other villages (in the entertainment city, for example, you have villages for music and art), even adding your own and building it up with websites you enjoying going to. If that wasn’t enough of a novelty, you can take the subway or go to the airport to find other cities or use a map to click to a section you want to go to and travel by taxi (which is a faster and automatic way of getting there instead of “strolling”)! It can take a while to initially load cities and villages, but it is a completely different way of viewing websites that’s for sure!

Miscellaneous
Weather Watcher – This is a nice little download. Just put in your nearest town and it will give you the weather for your area currently, over the next few hours and the next few days. You can view information such as temperature, wind speed, visibility, sunset and sunrise for practically any town in the world. A nice added feature is the ability to view satellite / weather related maps (even set them as your desktop picture) of various countries.
Audacity – I’m not a huge user of Audacity but from what I’ve seen it’s a great piece of software. You can use this program to record your own music with a microphone or line inputs, cut tracks, use special effects on a song, split tracks, merge pieces together and a whole host of things I don’t even know about! For any budding singer or musician (or someone who justs want to experiment) this is a must have download.
DVD Region+CSS Free Lite – Firstly I have to say that this is not a free product, although a trial is available on the website. I like watching DVDs but the problem occurs that you’re stuck to one region – not anymore! This program doesn’t alter your hardware settings as some other DVD Region removers do, and it’s also perfectly safe to use. It works with many popular software DVD players (PowerDVD, Windows Media Player, etc.) and is the only program of its kind I have managed to get working. Those those more adventurous than me, it also allows you to copy DVDs that are CSS protected. Different versions are available, but this does all I need it to.
CyberTime – Times Map – Not much to explain about this download – it has a map of the world with popular cities you can roll your mouse over to find out the various time zones. Useful, simple, reliable.

Security
ZoneAlarm Firewall – Best firewall I’ve ever used with the added bonus of being free. Can customise every program that wants access to outside your connection, as well as blocking things trying to come in that shouldn’t.
AntiVir – A very good free AntiVirus solution. One of my favourite features is that it scans in realtime so you don’t have to wait until full-scans to get rid of some of the nasties that try to infect your machine.
Ad-Aware SE Personal – This was my first adware removal tool and it works well at removing tracking and advertising cookies, aswell as deleting old lists (latest things opened within programs).
Spybot – Search and Destroy – Extensive search for spyware infested on your machine. Very good, although it does tend to find some things that aren’t dangerous and are needed for certain programs to run.
Spyware Blaster – What seperates this program from others is that it prevents potentially dangerous cookies or activex based software from installing on your computer in the first place.
Microsoft AntiSpyware – Nice program that has real time scanning and alerts you to changes made on your system so you can scan for malicious content or block certain nasties from opening.
Registry Cleaner – Should be used with some caution if you don’t know your way around your Registry. This program can find and delete obsolete or bad entries, aswell as let you customise what programs your computer starts up with.

Instant Messengers
MSN Messenger – MSN Messenger is one of the most popular instant messengers available. It can be touch and go whether it will sign in or not, but its webcam feature is perhaps the best available for IM’s at the moment.
MSN Plus – This is an add-on for MSN Messenger so you need to have that installed to take advantage of this. It expands what you do with MSN Messenger with some fun and useful features. Now I’ve experienced MSN Plus I think it would take me a while to go back to MSN Messenger without it. I’d recommend anyone to get File Transfer Plus with this as it speeds up downloads between users and has the ability to pause and resume later.
Yahoo! Messenger – One of the features that Yahoo does better than its rivals is its offline messaging. Some IMs don’t support this at all, and others will only send the offline message when the person who sent it has logged on at the same time as the person receiving it (which really defeats the purpose in my opinion). It also has an inbuilt music station (Launch!), games and other interactive features not available elsewhere.
ICQ – I think ICQ has improved a lot since I first used it as they have added a lot more features and caught up with their competition. I’d use it more if it weren’t for some of the odd characters I’ve met on there.
AIM – I don’t use AIM much anymore, but it’s worth a mention. I like that you can now have more than one account running at the same time. Yahoo can manage profiles, but this is somewhat different as the accounts are seperate with AIM. A very useful feature if you want more than one account name but want to use them both at the same time.
Skype – Although I think MSN has better file transfer speeds, Skype is miles ahead with its voice abilities. You can use Skype for free for text and voice chat between computers, and can also make very reasonably priced calls from Skype to worldwide landlines and mobiles. The newest feature is that for a small fee you can have your own number so you can be called from a landline / mobile whenever you’re logged on to Skype.
IMVU – This is a very novel chat program in that it’s completely in 3D. It works on its own or in tandem with other messengers. The idea is that you create an avatar, customize him or her, and put them in a room with other avatars you chat to. Unlike somewhere like Habbo Hotel, you don’t have to mingle with strangers but can choose to interact with people you know providing they also have IMVU. This program is free to use, but for added features (extra rooms, clothes and looks for your avatar, actions they can do, etc.) you need to pay.
Paltalk – Although this can be used to chat privately or with people using other messengers, the main focus of this program is the chatrooms (you can create your own for private or public gatherings). The main use I’ve found is for people to play songs to others in the room or to sing karaoke. Personally I’m not much of a public singer, but I do like to join in by playing a few of my favourite tracks.

Email
Thunderbird – Although Thunderbird can be used as a News or RSS reader, I mainly use it for Email. I find it better than Outlook Express. As you’d expect it lets you use it for POP or IMAP accounts, however it differs in that the POP accounts can have their own folders instead of being stuck together in your Local Folders. It has plenty of features to keep anyone who likes to use an Email Client busy, but one of my favourite features is the colour labelling for instant email sorting, aswell as the click button for read and unread emails. Simple features perhaps, but I appreciate being able to use them.
Gmail Notifier – Only useful if you have a Gmail account (but it seems more people have one than don’t). Sits in your system tray and alerts you when you have a new message to your Inbox. Even gives you the subject and first line of the email you’re being alerted to, and if you have several it will go through them one by one.