As the up-and-coming
instant messaging client for
KDE, to replace
Kit in KDE 3.2 as the default IM client, Kopete makes a good
Linux replacement for the Windows multi-protocol client,
Trillian. Currently at about the 0.6 release, Kopete is
usable, if a little
unstable at times. Kopete's goal is to provide users with a standard and easy to use interface between all of their instant messaging systems, but at the same time also provide developers with a consistent API for writing
plugins to add functionality, whether that be support for new
protocols, or just extra features. You never need tell your contacts "oh, but I don't have xyz IM client" again, or complain about having to get used to yet another client's foibles - with Kopete, all protocols behave the same way to the end user.
Kopete is also (one of?) the first IM client to implement the idea of metacontacts - each physical person you chat to may be represented by one or more contacts (I have one with no less than seven MSN accounts), so Kopete allows you to group them into metacontacts, each one of which represents an actual person. Then, if you try and interact with said metacontact, Kopete passes it off internally to whichever actual contact is online, or if more than one are, picks one using a consistent algorithm.
The name Kopete is a corruption of the Chilean slang term copete, meaning 'drink' (as a noun).
Kopete ships with plugins for the following protocols:
It also comes with a variety of non-protocol plugins, including one to detect away-ness using a
webcam (through
Video4Linux) and one to encrypt and decrypt messages on the fly with
GPG.
kopete.kde.org