Re: [alug social] IRC

Steve Fosdick fozzy@pelvoux.demon.co.uk wrote:

The biggest difference between IRC and the others is being open rather than proprietry. With the other systems a single company designs the protocol, writes the software and operates the service so they have complete autonomy (and there is nothing to configure).

Not necessarily true. Jabber is an open IM protocol, although there are a few companies working to do different things with it, including taking it outside the IM sphere. I'm slef at jabber.at if anyone else wants to get in touch that way. A few ALUGgers are on jabber already.

IRC is the most widely-available and long-lasting of the standard chat systems, though.

MJR