One Program To IM Them All

AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, Zephyr...

If you use more than one of these IMing protocols, then this guide is for you. What if you could message all your friends, on all these seperate networks, from one program? You can. Better known as Gaim, its new and updated release Pidgin can use all of the above messaging protocols. You don't even have to uninstall the programs you have now to use it (Although chances are you eventually will once you've tried it out).

OK, so you have it installed, now what? Well, you could stop there, but I would recommend using the OTR (Off-the-Record) Messaging plug-in. It uses AES encryption on your IMs with other people who also use the plug-in (So send your friends a link to this page too). Getting the encryption to work is really simple... All you do is "Authenticate" your buddy is who they claim to be by asking them a secret question that only the two of you know, and then matching each other's response.

That's it! You benefit from using less RAM by only using one program, and also have more security and privacy on-line.