Best private server to replace MSN/WLM?

[Mark Doliner]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 7:25 PM, Michael Secord <gizmokid2005 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 12, 2013 4:54 PM, <pidgin at nro.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Hi. I'm looking for suggestions for the best private, open source, and
>> free
>> chat server to use with Pidgin, preferably one that supports file tranfers
>> and offline messaging, if any. The server would be on linux and the
>> clients
>> are all win 7. I can't seem to find that sort of simple intel browsing
>> around the web and I assume there must be people here doing the same.
>
> Personally, I'd suggest something XMPP based like openfire.

Yes, absolutely XMPP. Don't consider anything else. A comparison of
popular XMPP servers can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_XMPP_server_software

Openfire is a good choice. ejabberd is also popular.