It takes at most five minutes and you have the account forever. Why not?
Install Adium.
Install Pidgin and Pidgin OTR.
sudo apt-get install pidgin pidgin-otr
Pidgin and Pidgin OTR should be available in your package manager.
Anyone can run a Jabber server, and users on any Jabber server can interact with users on any other Jabber server. This is great.
Choose one with a good grade from the public directory. I like blah.im because its name is short and registration is extremely fast.
Server security doesn’t matter much if you’re using OTR, and you should always use OTR.
You should just have to add the username, domain, and password. If that doesn’t work, check your providers website (e.g. blah.im) for specific instructions.
If you’re on Pidgin, go to Tools -> Plugins -> Off-The-Record Messaging. Check its checkbox and click Configure Plugin. Check Enable private messaging and Automatically initiate private messaging and then click Generate. Pidgin may hang for a minute or two while it gathers randomness.
OTR is enabled by default! However, you need to disable logging. Just go to Adium -> Preferences -> General and untick Log OTR-secured chats.
Learn about OTR key verification. It’s important.
Some more thorough guides: