Darn...just when I was settling on Skype (it's got instant messaging too)...

Well, I’m using gaim, so if they speak any of the same protocols I’m sure I could get another free account somewhere.

Since Skype is quite the proprietary beast, I think it may be a while (if ever) for something else to be able to communicate with it. I hope I'm wrong about this (-;

P.S. I was going to ask you to try Skype for the voice part - AFAIK the only publically available versions are for Windows and PocketPC (w/ Mac OS X and *Linux versions in development). How are you doing platform-wise these days?

I'm trying out the Fink version of gaim now -- made an account at Jabber (one of the few you can do through the version of gaim I'm using, it appears). Account name mirrors name used for this comment.

I just created a chronodm account with Jabber as well. Tried adding you to the buddy list — seems to work but the icon has a ! next to it and where it would normally say offline or away or whatever, it says Not Authorized. Not sure what this means. Anyway, if you see me on line, drop me a note.