[jspiros]

I've used xpra for about a year now, and I do recommend it if it seems like it would fill a need in your workflow.

For me, I'm using it primarily as a way to run Pidgin (for Jabber and AIM, primarily) on my server that I can connect to from the various machines I use around the house; analogous to how I use irssi in screen for IRC.

I also configured my screen instance to have a DISPLAY environment variable that corresponds to my Xpra instance, so if I run anything within screen that connects to an X server, I can be sure it's connecting to the X server I'm currently connected to anyway, and I'm mostly safe from sudden disconnection problems.

[dllthomas]

I presume you're familiar with Finch (the console-based Pidgin equivalent - still uses libpurple), but I figured I'd mention it as another good way to get jabber/aim remotely.