Pidgin

Pidgin is an open source IM application. You can access multiple services with it.
To install pidgin type on command prompt:

apt-get pidgin(debian)
yum install pidgin(fedora)
 

Skype API plugin

To install skype plugin

Download it 

wget http://eion.robbmob.com/skype4pidgin.deb
sudo dpkg -i skype4pidgin.deb

Install festival plugin for Pidgin to text to voice conversion.
 

sudo apt-get install pidgin-festival
Activate and configure Festival plugin
start pidgin.go to tools>plugins and select festival.

Make apt-get Installations and Upgrades 26x faster with apt-fast

There is tweak to fast installation of updates on debian based os.
Steps

1.Install axel download accelerator.
 

sudo apt-get install axel
 

2.Install apt-fast
 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tldm217/tahutek.net
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast
 

3.Use apt-fast
 

apt-fast install packagename
eg:apt-fast upgrade