decent instant messenger?
 

I recently have been getting tired of res-hacking AIM to remove ads, icons, change colors, etc to make it usable, and as such I was wondering what kind of instant message programs you people are using?

I'm looking for something thats compatible with AIM and has none of the annoying stuff like ads. I looked at Miranda for awhile but wasnt entirely satisfied with how it handled AIM profiles/away messages (i.e. not at all) and the fact that it needed so many plugins to run close to how it should run anyways. Easy Message was just horrible. I'd like to use Trillian Pro but dont need to spend $25 or so for it. Are there any other decent clients that I'm missing?

GAIM

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

deadaim it's actually an add-on type thing, you install aim, then install dead aim. it has some nice features, tabbed windows, no adds, cloneing more customizable buddy list, transparency. they charge $5 if you buy it off their site, i believe they let you upgrade to new versions for free but not positive, but this is easily solvable with a little kazaa work.

http://www.jdennis.net/index.php

123456789!

There is Trillian Basic. Pretty much all the Pro version is but without the plugins. Works great.

http://www.trillian.cc/downloads/

i will have to second gaim
oss/free, and very nice features
you can have it minimize to the tray and have it flash when you get a message, and it wont pop up (stealing focus like aim) until you click the flashing icon.
you can use tranparency (in windows) and tabbed ims.

I can't believe I forgot about gaim, its on my linux box thats currently serving time as a web server. I do enjoy it though it isnt as full-featured as it could be (see miranda, everything's tweakable) and i have yet to find a useful plugin for it.