Print 
Image found here
You know the routine--you come home from a long day at work, plop yourself down in front of the computer and start chatting away with your friends about your hard day at the office. Before you know it, you've got three empty plates in front of you of food half eaten and a night's worth of catch up work still waiting to be started. It's not the most ideal situation, but it happens.
Chatting--like talking to people in person or waving hello to a passerby--is totally free, and instantly accessible wherever you are. But what are some of the better free IM clients that make chatting this addictive? Well, we've got a couple of suggestions for you waiting to add some fuel to the fire.
Adium 
Forget iChat and forget about AIM (please, please forget about AIM--but not about Dre). Adium is simple to use, has a streamlined interface that's non-intrusive, and integrates well with other chat clients, like Facebook and Yahoo! messenger. This open source chat client also does Address Book integration, enables WebKit Message View for themed chat windows, does OTR encryption and saves your chat logs. You can also install "extras", like dock icons or service sounds.
AIM 
The app version of this long standing instant messaging client is totally worth the download. You can add a location to your status, post to Facebook, chat directly with your Facebook friends and get updates from various social networking sites, like Foursquare and Twitter. You can also customize the background and use "Lifestream" to comment on your friends' activity.
Meebo
If you just need a simple instant messaging client for on the go, Meebo's great for those quick chats you need to have while you're away from a full sized computer. It also has support for a myriad of chat services an works beautifully with your Retina Display.
Follow this article's author, Florence Ion, on Twitter.