Mailing the story:

Windows, whether XP or Vista, is home to all the major instant messenger (IM) clients, and for things like Skype, unquestionably has the best versions. But if you’re hankering to talk to multiple friends on multiple IM systems at the same time, and you want some open source goodness without having to go through the pain of learning Linux, try Pidgin for Windows instead – the open source program that lets you talk freely.