Before i start: please remember this is NOT an attack on you, as a person, Hooman. I admire your skills as a coder, but i just disagree on your choice of software
What are you legally smoking? 
J/k
I've never had resource or spam issues with MSN. There is that window that displays on login by default, but it takes all of 10 seconds to turn it off permanently and never have to worry about it again.
I had MSN messenger 6 installed for a few minutes. To find out it uses about 60MB of memory (out of the 64 i had at the time), and over 50% of the systemresources, making it go down to almost nothing... Plus it has a MAJOR memory leak, as resources usage tends to grow by the minute and soon the system won't be able to even perform simple action , like let's say: shut down ?
anyway.. the memory problem could be addressed to by inserting more, but since they are now at version 9, i suppose it'll still use almost all my 256 MB i have now..
If resources are an issue, don't upgrade to the newer versions of MSN Messenger. The older ones always tend to be a little more compact, faster loading, and memory efficient. Also, keep in mind that there are two versions of the client that use the same network. One of them is the no frills, never seems to require an update kind that is extremely low on resource requirements (Windows Messenger). The other one has all the extra features such as custom emoticons and all the less used ones that are mostly just cool to toy with once in a while (MSN Messenger).
i would have to agree on the upgrade issue, since microsoft is VERY good at inserting all kinds of unnecessary junk into their programs.
And what the heck are you talking about sending messages to people who are offline being the MAIN reason to use an "instant" messenger. I'd sort of thought sending "instant" messages makes more sense when people are online and you can send them instantly. 
Then just use IRC: it uses far less resources & memory, plus you can choose whichever client you want..,. on the other hand: ICQ DID have this property, which was used (not only by me, but also,,, oh,, the rest of the icq community?) very frequently, if not daily. Oh, ands i didn't invent the name "instant messanging"; that was MicroCrap or Yahoo, or whoever... 100% sure it WASNT Mirabilis.. I guess ICQ just got added to the list by some ignorent fool that thought it does the same thing as MSN, or Yahoo or whatever else there is out there...
Your main points of disagreement with MSN seem to be things it was never designed for.
or it may just indicate a poorly written software..
Or if it had those things, I suspect you'd complain about it even more. What if anybody on the internet was able to send you messages through an IM program. Would you use that program? Probably not. It'd likely be flooded with spam.
uhm.. send messages offline to people .. ? not be used? where have you been the past 15 years ? ever headr of e-mail ? or doesnt anyone use this but me ?
And, as far as spamming is considered: i hardly EVER got spam through my ICQ. And the few times (which i can still count on both hands) that DID send spam had been added to the ignore list. (does msn even
have an ignore list im wondering)
Oh, just as a test, i logged onto my icq account, for the first time this year; and guess what: NO SPAM whatsoever!
Think about the nature of a popular IM program. It just plain has to be different from something like IRC to be effective.
ok:
send messages offline: irc=no, msn=no (icq=yes)
talk to 1 person at the same time: irc=yes, msn=yes
talk to several ppl at the same time: irc=yes, msn=yes
(still looks the same to me)
play sounds: irc=yes, msn=yes
send files through dcc: irc=yes, msn=yes
send files offline to ppl: irc=no, msn=no
ignore people: irc=yes, msn=unknown (icq=yes)
oh wait, i found some differences:
small, well-managed program: irc=yes, msn=no
able to connect to different server: irc=yes, msn=no (icq=yes, but not many public servers available)
send messages from a website: irc=yes (java-based), msn=no (icq=yes)
To mock your point: .. indeed, what
does MSN offer over and above a normal IRC client ?
You just plain can't have anyone sending messages to anyone else without some kind of control. Such as only sending/receiving IMs from people on your list.
You, of all people should know: they call this a server ! it logs ur message, and sends it to your client as soon as it connects.
The only thing ICQ had over MSN was leaving short messages for people to see when they next logged in. But with what's happened to ICQ I'd take MSN over ICQ anyday.
... and send sms, and have reminders, and have anonimous registration, and have public chat rooms, plus it isn't a strain on your system.
So in other words: not then, not now, and i believe the word is: not ever!
As i said before: i pitty the fact that those Israeli's sold ICQ to the highest bidder (which was AOL), who in turn screwed it over.
And I've never known ICQ to be fast loading. I was usually logged in with MSN while ICQ was still displaying a splash screen when I used to use them both.
MY ICQ98b ALWAYS loaded fast: no problems, just 2 seconds, and it's up. As for MSN... WHOA!! that takes 5~10 seconds to load, and then you have to wait for it to connect. You must've used the AOL version of icq then, and some hacker version of MSN! Both with loads of spyware and adware that AOL & MSN gave you for free.. I remember the ICQ2000a version is where it started to go wrong: it had an adbar. It could easily be disabled tho the empty panel still annoyed me.
As for now, ICQ98 isn't supported anymore: AOL has changed the "ICQ" protocol to some kind of "AOL" protocol i guess, so i cannot use it anymore, even if i wanted to. As for trying out MSN: last time i tried, it took me hours to remove it and its spam from the system (the uninstaller didn't remove the junk, and i had to zift through the system registry to correct all the mess it had left behind).
Thing is : ICQ is a thing of the past, and there is no good replacement yet.
