Instant Messaging Made Easy - Gaim

How many Instant Messengers do you have running on your system? You've got AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Yahoo! Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) ICQ (which is owned by AOL), and Google Talk (which is an extension of Jabber).

If you have a teen in the house, you have all of them. This is why your computer takes forty minutes to load up. With those same messengers running in the background, it can slow down any system to a screeching halt.

Unless you're using video messaging, Gaim is the way to go. Gaim is a light-on-resources instant messaging client that can take your accounts and buddies and put them in one app. It doesn't need any of the other IM programs installed to work, all you need to do is make sure you set up accounts with them. As with some other free programs, Gaim was an instant messenger client placement for Linux.

Although its interface is bland compared to the previously mentioned IMs (nor does it use video messaging or phone calling), Gaim does something none of those do: combine all your accounts to run under one program.

To download Gaim for Windows, click here.

Oh my gosh! I forgot... There's also a portable version of Gaim. Run it from your USB stick when you need to chat away from home.

To download Gaim Portable, click here.