the world out there

Miranda IM is a small, fast, easy to install instant messenger with support for multiple protocols. Miranda IM is designed to be resource efficient and easy to use while still providing many features including support for AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, and more. Supplemented by hundreds of plugins and other content, Miranda IM is very flexible. ..... the official description on the web site ... and this is pretty much true.

I use it since it is less resource eating compared to trillian.