I sign into AIM far more often than MSN, because I think it is an infinitely preferable service. It is more user-friendly (in my opinion), doesn't have irritating features such as always jumping down to the bottom of the conversation when you're trying to scroll up and reread what was said before, allows you to directly connect and share files more easily, and has better controls. I have MSN as well, for convenience. But you will experience the joy of Buzzfloyd more often on AIM than MSN, because MSN sucks.
You're just complacent in the familiar, Toaf! Also, "messenger" is the correct spelling. Also, I nearly typoed Toaf as Toad...
I agree with Sacharissa, get Trillian and use both at the same time. Trillian also includes services for ICQ and Yahoo Instant Messenger. All you need for your IM needs.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Trillian doesn't show custom MSN animated emoticons. Reason enough to get MSN 7! Also, you can draw!
Ah yes, "fluff"... Okay, If you want animated emoticons and to do drawings online, please get Messenger 7. If you want to chat with 4 different networks in 1 program, then Trillian is for you.
I have both AIM and MSNM, but I may soon turn to trillian. I don't have the words to describe how much I loathe AIM, I think it is a lesser form of Instant Messageing. Also, if you use it, your supporting AOL, this is never a good thing.
I have a Apple G5 so I use Proteus a multi protocol client for: AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, iChat Bonjour, Gadu Gadu, and Sametime with more in the works. With my friends using mostly AIM and MSN it's really good to have all the various protocols. http://www.defaultware.com/proteus/
Trillian is very good. Praise it, bow to it, use it. Emoticons are not all that important when you get smooth and easy operation, coupled with a rather nice design.
I use both MSN and AIM. Initially I used AIM alot more but now, because of others(except Grace), I tend to use MSN more.
Since the topic of Trillian came up: try gaim, it's an open source multi protocol client. It's really nice, I use it regularly. I prefer it to Trillian, which I feel is really bloated with stuff like skin support etc.
I used Gaim for quite some time, and it's a very good client. The only problem it has is that it is built to be as light as possible, meaning that features that even AIM Express has, such as dice rolling, are not included in Gaim. So I use Trillian, and ignore the silly skin support.
