Instant Messanging (IM) clients are not a very popular topic in the FOSS and Linux community, most talk about browsers, music applications and just plain distros. Many may think there are only three to five instant messaging applications for Linux, but the open-source community offers much more than just a few. Here's a list.

Well, we finally kicked Pidgin 2.5.3 out of the nest, two days late. It's spreading its wings and flying.

There was a time when geeks were the only ones who used instant messengers. Not so now. Almost everyone, from high school students to Congressmen, have instant messaging accounts. Businesses use instant messengers like Lotus Sametime or Novell GroupWise within their companies. How did instant messengers get this far?