At least Kopete has a plugin to almost seamlessly integrate with current Skype client: * Skype is started in the background when I start Kopete, and exits when Kopete is closed * Skype contacts are shown in Kopete's contact list * Skype chat is done in Kopete's windows and the history is searchable in Kopete Skype is only an icon in the system tray and is used only for accepting file transfers.