or aMSN... it's similar to regular MSN, except it's open source, and can easily accept custom emoticons, and i think pidgin can't (somebody correct me if i'm wrong)
There is also a version for windows of the pidgin mesenger, which works the same way as trillian, and way more safer then messanger.
Using messenger is like having the front door of your house wide open.
The same as it makes me wonder why people here use skype all the time, not only the damn thing is heavy in your system and, if it is voice chat that you see, why not using teamspeak? if is text,in conference, why not mirc or irc instead? why skype? is it a quirk of this server?