This time there were less votes than usual, one factor being probably the fact that some Linux users are undecided when it comes to IM clients:

I can't wait to see the results at this poll. I sooo hate pidgin and I'm sooo looking forward to find a very good alternative :D!

or:

I am holding on my vote, in a dilemma between pidgin and empathy. I use empathy at work and pidgin at home! And I love them both ;)

For this week's hive five post we would like to ask WebUpd8 readers to vote for the best instant messaging client for Linux (in their opinion, of course).

There was a great debate when Pidgin was replaced with Empathy in Ubuntu and it will be interesting to see if Ubuntu users actually started using Empathy or they are still using Pidgin. Of course, there were a lot of applications which could have been included in this poll, but we decided to go with Empathy, Pidgin, Kopete, Skype and Emesene because those are probably the most well-known instant messaging clients and also we wanted to make sure most IM protocols are represented in the poll.