The Best Instant Messengers in Ubuntu Linux

As many of us use Instant messengers, we need to select the best of the best on any platform and Linux is not an exception to this. There are as many as 18 Instant messengers for various chat networks in the Ubuntu Software Center. While Windows has Digsby judged as the best and most popular Instant messenger, Ubuntu has three of them that are popular. If Digsby were in Linux also, I would be more than satisfied to use it because of its real time notifications, the look and feel and the features it provides. But unfortunately, Digsby is currently unavailable on Linux and Mac platforms and works only on Windows. But well, there is no need to worry as there are others which fulfill your requirements. I found the following three to be interesting in Ubuntu:

1. Pidgin
2. Kopete
3. Empathy

Pidgin:

Pidgin was the most popular IM in Windows (and Linux) before Digsby came into picture. It was the default IM till Ubuntu version 8.10, but from Karmic Koala, Empathy became its default IM. It is an impressive master piece with a lot of features, with as many as 30 useful plugins and support for over 15 different protocol services such as AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo etc. The only disadvantage I found with this IM is the slow start-up though it might not be a problem with the modern hardware configurations.
Some of the plugins are listed below:

• Voice and video chat support
• Message highlighting
• Enhanced history
• SSL plugins
• Topic change notification
• Spell checker
• Recent conversations and many more

As you can see from the above plugin list, this IM has something for every level of user. It suits advanced users, beginners and intermediate users as well. Pidgin is quick at mail notifications, buddy status notifications. I would recommend you this IM if you have not got any on your Linux (not just Ubuntu).

Kopete:

Kopete is an instant messaging and chat application with support for a wide variety of services, such as AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, IRC, and Jabber. This package is part of the KDE 4 networking module. The layout of Kopete is glossy as it is available in KDE desktop environment. One good feature of Kopete is the KDE Wallet, which acts similar to the master password in Web Browsers. The KDE Wallet has passwords, cookies which once lost cannot be recovered. Besides this, the IM provides indexing for faster file search. Unlike Pidgin, it starts quickly with its look and feel being an extra asset. Notifications part is pretty good. It has got an extensive range of plugins including:

• Video, voice chat support
• Translator
• Logging of all messages
• Statistics
• Bookmarks
• Auto replace
• Message highlighting and so on...

Empathy:

The Empathy Instant messenger is now the default IM in Ubuntu Linux. The premier advantage of this IM is the notifications. This supports as many as 20 different protocol services including Google talk, Facebook chat, Yahoo etc. It supports all protocols supported by Pidgin. It has support for voice, video chat, file transfers. Apart from this, it supports logging of messages according to date and it is quick.