I may be revealing my un-l33tness here, but I still stick with the stock AIM client. I have nothing against Trillian and the like but I’ve heard some anecdotes in the past about incompatibility with chat sessions and file transfers. (And, if all those issues are resolved the current version then, by all means, please let me know.)
But, to make things easier as/while I stick with AIM, I’ve found AIM Ad Hack which cleanly kills off all the ad windows in AIM. And unlike an amateur hack-and-slash job, this utility kills off the spyware / questionable software included with AIM and can also remove many of the extraneous interface buttons from the interface.
AIM Ad Hack has just hit v4.0 which would normally be quite a milestone for software (being a point-oh and all). And, I still recommend the download for anyone using the stock AIM client, but I’m not sure what major features warranted a “4.0” version :-/.
Update 2005-01-07: AIM Ad Hack has now been updated to v4.02.
http://gaim.sourceforge.net
make that 4.03 :)
[aim ad hack developer :)]
4.07
4.09, unf