Chatting Software
 

Is there linux software that is compatible with the Microsoft or Yahoo instant messaging software - Yahoo Messenger or Microsoft Messenger (I think they are called).

Are they difficult to configure?

There is yahoo messenger.

Go to "www.yahoo.com" and find the yahoo messenger icon.
At the installation page, Choose the "Unix" system.
Then, you can find the several Linux distribution like Redhat, mandrake etc. You can shoose the appropriate one.

for msn, try searching sourceforge, I use a program called amsn.

You could install all these different chat clients, or you could just use GAIM, which supports AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and a half-dozen other chat protocols.

You can configure it to use a different account (username,password) for each protocol, and switch between them on the fly.

GAIM rocks!!

Cool - I've got GAIM - now lets see if i can configure it to connect up?

DONE ! That was easy using GAIM now and I am connected to MSN messenger.

Good work! It only took you 21 minutes :) Takes a lot longer to get your username setup at the AIM or MSN website...took me about 30 tries before I found a username that wasn't taken at AIM