Sick of the Mirabilis ICQ client? Try this:

If you're sick of ICQ "taking over your computer" with advertising, forced home page, bookmarks in your browser, etc., might I suggest Miranda ICQ which is an open-source alternative to the ICQ client. If it wasn't for Miranda, I would have stopped using ICQ a long time ago. Very clean and simple. Sending of files is not supported very well, but instant messaging works well.

Thanks thats really useful, the current ICQ client is really annoying <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

Personally I tend to stay away from Instant Messengers, but I hear Odigo offers plug-ins for cross platform compatibility.

I just installed Trillian, and it seems pretty nice. It connects to AIM, ICQ, YIM, MSNM, and IRC, all at once! And it doesn't have those damn annoying ads! The only problem I have with it so far is it doesn't support sending files yet.

I am using Jabbier IM It is an open source cross platform that supports ICQ, MSIM, & YIM
It seems to work pretty good and is fairly easy to set up.
www.jabber.com