**The following is a guest post by my hubby, ya’ll make him feel welcome!**

Did you know that chatting with friends can make your computer run slowly? I know it sounds crazy, but think about it, it’s true under the right circumstances.

If several instant messaging clients launch after booting your computer, this alone will lengthen startup time (after the windows desktop loads) and degrade overall system performance. If your PC has more than one IM client running at startup, some housekeeping is in order.

Since it would be considered (by some), rude web etiquette to ask all of your friends to switch their favorite IM programs, it’s your job to keep up with everyone without having to manage contact lists over multiple applications (whenever possible). This is where Pidgin comes in.

Wikipedia defines Pidgin as such:

Pidgin is a multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various different services from one application.

Pidgin supported Instant Messaging Clients

Pidgin supports the following clients:

• AIM
• Bonjour
• Gadu-Gadu
• Google Talk
• GroupWise
• ICQ
• IRC
• MSN
• MySpaceIM
• QQ
• SILC
• SIMPLE
• Sametime
• XMPP
• Yahoo Messenger

If you have more than one of these Instant Messaging applications installed, use Pidgin to “IM all your friends in one place.” Looking for Pidgin for OS X? Try Adium!

Pidgin Plugins

There are both official and third party plugins available for use with Pidgin.

One example would be the ability to update your IM profile(s) with Twitter. The pidgin-twitter-profile plugin inserts your Twitter history (one or more statuses) into your profile, updating periodically to keep your Twitter history up to date.

Setup

After setting up Pidgin with each of your IM accounts, uninstall the corresponding IM program. Once all of the IM programs are removed (except Pidgin of course) restart your computer. Hopefully your chatty friends won’t slow you down any longer.

If you try this out, let me know what you think about it!  How many different IM clients do you use on a daily basis?

*Disclaimer-Neither myself or my husband are affiliated with or have ever spoken with anyone representing Pidgin or any of the IM clients.