Comment 30 for bug 879950

Or, just changing the

<prefs name='blist'> [...]
<pref name='list_visible' type='bool' value='0'/>

from '0' to '1' also brought the window back. I guess this is a Gnomism, Pidgin isn't expected to work without some supporting things running alongside it, panels or whatever, so it starts up "minimized", with no way of opening the running applicaiton without a panel or dock or something.