[Discuss] What (free software) options are people using for chat?

[Ryan Lee Stanyan]

I remember back when I was starting to use Linux as a desktop, which 
would be roughly 2003/04-ish, I used GAIM as my chat client. I liked it 
because unlike the standard AIM client or Trillian, it wasn't terribly 
bloated with adware that just got in the way. It was also on Windows as 
well, so I could use it on multiple platforms. With free text messaging 
I rarely if ever use Pidgin, which GAIM had evolved into.

For IRC, which I use a lot these days, I started off with Chatzilla as 
my client. Then I discovered XChat in the repos and moved on to that. 
Since XChat doesn't receive updates as far as I know, I use the HexChat 
fork for my IRC needs.

-Ryan