I agree with Wabz. They can't really be compared, however I'd like to point out a couple of things:
IRC is the protocol. The language between IRC clients. IRC is NOT insecure, the protocol is in fact so damn simple an exploit is very unlikely. Do not refer to mIRC (the most popular client) as "IRC" because that is NOT what it is.
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Originally posted by lp15
ive personlly never tried it.. because i couldnt understand how it worked at that time.. i belive thats why its not the best
If you don't understand it then you need to take a bit of time TO understand it. It isn't that hard. IRC is networking at the lowest level. You interact directly with the server and you are not forced on tons of pointy-clicky dialogs in most clients.
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Originally posted by Guido
Irc wins in which field exactly? Not in user friendlyness, for sure, which is the main point of instant messaging...
It's not MEANT to be userfriendly. It's meant to be functional.
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Originally posted by johny
In IRC you get Spammed pretty easily because of whats shown above...(+ for IM)
I am on IRC 24/7. I am connected to, say, about 12 servers. I am in about 50 channels. I have NEVER had some random infected client DCC me. I have NEVER been spammed. You do NOT get spammed in general, it's just what people think.
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Originally posted by johny
IRC has a crappy GUI in comparison with Most IM Clients(+ for IM)
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Originally posted by johny
You can Mod IRC(yep i changed Mirc once..pretty cool...eh the old days at 133 Mhz ) (+ For IRC)
IRC is not a program. It is a protocol. You cannot "mod" an protocol. A protocol does not have a GUI. You are referring to mIRC, the most popular IRC client.
Plus, scripting mIRC is highly advanced and there isn't a thing you can't do with it (especially with the ability to call routines in DLLs). It allows you to customise every aspect of your client.
mIRC does not have a GUI apart from the options really, it uses commands. A command allows for far more versatility than a stupid GUI gives you. Any command you use can be used in a script which allows you to call many commands at a time to automate tasks (connecting to servers, joining chans, identifying yourself......etc).
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Originally posted by johny
IM is Safer(+ for IM)
There has only been ONE exploit for mIRC, and all it allowed was for a person to crash your IRC client with a malformed DCC Send line. People think m/IRC is unsafe because they do not understand it. It takes barely any energy to protect yourself.
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IM clients have voice and webcam capabilities and MSN has display pictures etc..
something that IRC doesn't have
That's why you have IM apps, IRC's not meant to replace that