Use gmail id with Windows Live Messenger

You don't need a hotmail id to use Windows Live Messenger (MSN). With Windows Live you can create a new ID with any email address.

I stopped using hotmail a long time back, gmail was the next best thing to happen to email after hotmail more than 10 years back. But Microsoft's messenger is still the most widely used and cannot be compared to the simple featureless Google Talk. And many like me would have stopped using hotmail completely and keep their hotmail only for using MSN.

To use your Gmail id with MSN go here and register for a Windows Live ID, confirm your email (beware I found my confirmation email in Gmail's spam folder).
Once confirmed you can use your @gmail.com id and sign in to MSN messenger, add all your friends and get chatting.