>It's mostly the client. I also don't want AOHell to use me as a subscriber number when saying they have x number of users.
>
>I've looked a Trillian and don't care for the UI.

It's skinable - if you dont like it...change it!

There is also Miranda (which is even open source)
http://www.miranda-im.org/
This one currently supports icq, msn, yahoo, gadu-gadu, tlen, Jabber, and even the icq corporate protocol. Not only all these IM protocol's but also 3 LAN ones (net_send, emLanProto, Vychat), and other goodies like the BNetMessenger one, even has a netmeeting caller and a whooole bunch of other plug-ins you can get for it.

>>
>>Is it the servers you object to, or the client? You could always use something like Trillian to connect to MSN, AOL, ICQ, Yahoo, and irc at the same time.