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It looks like the bit you need isn't AIM but the "AOL Browser" which seems to be based on Netscape 8 browser.
That has a tab for mail, which says "Coming Soon." It also has tabs for channels, but for most you have to be an AOL member.
Looks like AOL has evaluated it's strengths and decided the vast AIM population is it. So they force the install their own browser with the new AIM 5.9 and add lots of other bits -- spyware protection, desktop search by copernic and so on -- and hope to get market share by driving AIM users to AOL content, which is their other strength.
I like Firefox. I hate AOL, since it assumes I am a fool. My country is set to Canada, so I can't get to the basic AIM page with AOL. Instead, I am shoved to AIM.ca and offered 5.5. But Firefox goes where I tell it rather than treating me like an AOL user.
Well, I'll keep using Trillian, and look at the mail. I still check my old Netscape.net addresses with Mailwasher, though I gave up on Netscape 7.2 as a mail client. I doubt, though, that AIM.COM mail will be accessible though a client, as Gmail is. Maybe the pressure will be on, and AOL does have IMAP capability on their AOL.COM accounts (after the TimeWarner people who had to use AOL mail were clear that some jerrybuilt client wasn't enough), so they could -- if they want.
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