Looking for a Brosix Alternative?

I really like brosix as an instant messenger, however, the recent updates have destroyed a lot of the functionality I enjoyed from the program and made things more difficult. The program now crashes on me frequently and i'm Not Happy with it any more... but I would like an instant messenger that is similar to it for my day to day needs.

Features I need/want:

* File sending that actually freakin' works.

* easy conference chatting that works

* Screensharing

* History

* Custom skins (white BGs hurt my eyes :( )

* Custom emoticons

* No text limit (yahoo only allows 800 letters to be sent in a single message)

Anyone have any suggestions for me? I'm willing to trek off the beaten path... I don't like aim or yahoo or MSN or ICQ. I just want a IM for me and my small circle of friends -- if no one else uses it, that's okay.