Miranda is free, and source code is available, as well. Trillian is a commercial product, with the free version being less-capable than the full version. Some feel that Trillian is a bit bloated and that Miranda's modular approach (loading only those interface modules that you need) leads to a smaller resource footprint. I don't use either one.

That's because there is yet a third choice: GAIM, from http://gaim.sourceforge.net. Like Miranda, it's free and source code is available. Personally, I like GAIM--but that's partly because it's available in both Windows and Linux versions, so moving between environments is easier.

Of course, there's nothing keeping you from downloading and installing all three and checking them out yourself...

Theres also one called integrity or something which i have installed but rarely use. I tend to use trilian all the time as it lets me have mulitple accounts on the same media running at once which having clients running as separate identities does not permit

Well at the minute I have downloaded trillian and so far so GOOD. I just now trying to get all my account to work I can get msn/yahoo but not AIM /IQC and IRC to work I to connect.
Any ideas which is the best way to connect to them best?

run program you wish to messeage on seperatly

ive never liked multi client messnegers

Thanks