It looks like the im_kit is really shaping up nicely.

Alpha 11 has been released to BeBits, and sports a number of significant changes, most notably the "100% CPU usage if you block someone" bug which plagued the last release.

Improved support for MSN and contacts clear the way for a good 1.0 release soon, or so I'm told by a little birdie. ;-)

Over at the official project homepage there is a great tutorial on installing and using the im_kit. It features a ton of great screenshots and step by step instructions to help new users.