!!! Introduction 

  

 Like most things proprietary, OpenSource people have written their own InstantMessenger, called [Jabber]. [Jabber] is built on a robust model, similar to [SMTP] and [HTTP] - and completely unlike [IRC]'s unscalable mess :) It is based on a core [XML] router with small plugin modules handling all the various parts of the [InstantMessaging|InstantMessenger]. It supports "Transports" which allow a Jabber user to talk to users of other InstantMessenger networks such as [AIM], [MSN], [ICQ], YahooMessenger, [SMTP], [IRC], [IMAP] and many others. It has clients for MicrosoftWindows, [Linux], various [PDA]'s and other machines/devices.