Pidgin

I do a similar thing, except with minbif and Quassel.

Minbif is basically bitlbee-type server, except it uses libpurple (Pidgen's APIs) so supports more protocols than bitlbee would.
Quassel is just a Qt IRC client.

I also have a ZNC set up (not sure if that falls into this category or not as while it is a messaging application - it's largely just a relay).

I voted Irssi though as that's my fall back when I'm not on my main laptop (and to be honest, I probably do prefer it to Quassel anyway - it's just Quassel integrates better into my DE)

Hard to choose one, console=Irssi/Finch and GUI=XChat/Pidgin. But, I'll vote for Irssi.

Thanks for letting me know about WeeChat. It's been about a week since I installed it and it feels really great. I'm considering about switching from Irssi (which served me well last year, hence I voted for it).

I use mostly Mercury Messenger (MSN client), but the linux version development seems to be stopped for more than one and a half years now, so I voted for Gyachi, which is what I use when I want to chat over Yahoo. BTW, Emesene is missing on the list

psi+ is the best))

Empathy for most networks, but xchat for irc, which I'm on a lot of the time

I used Pidgin briefly, until I realised it was storing my gmail password in plaintext. So I switched to Empathy.

Kopete

MirandaIM on Wine.
The same as last year. Otehr native clients *nix clients even not 10% powerful as MirandaIM on Wine.

Really?
What does MirandaIM do that other clients cannot?

Pidgin is good enough.

i've been using pidgin since it was still called gaim, anyone else remember that?

Yeah, that was that long ago really.