Contemporary IRC in the 21st Century

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Does IRC still exist?

Yes

Do people still use IRC?

There are many communities that primarily use mailing lists (async communication) and IRC (real-time communication). These communities tend to be older. In contrast, younger communities are more likely to have Github/Gitlab issues, Discourse instances, and Gitter chats.

The benefits to IRC are in its group channels, with their own topics. Using “modern” social messaging platforms like Whatsapp you can get the same thing, but you have to set up the channels ad-hoc, and to invite people you already know, that sort of thing. IRC and similar services still shine. Slack and Discord, etc., are taking over, but they’re run by big corporations.

IRC is also an open standard, and therefore doesn’t belong to anyone. The protocol is defined as RFC 1459. That means anyone can read the specification and write a client or server program.

Does Undernet still exist?

Yes

Server DNS to connect to a random Undernet server: 

irc.undernet.org

Port: 6667

Do people still trade files on IRC?

Yes

Do people still share mp3 files on IRC?

What IRC client do you recommend for Linux / Ubuntu / Mint?

HexChat is an open-source IRC project created as a fork of Xchat. It features a wide range of built-in features and customization capabilities. For example, it features a theme-able interface and the ability to write custom scripts in Perl and Python, spellcheck, SASL, DCC, and proxies. You can also add additional features and customizations through add-ons. HexChat is open-source, cross-platform is released under the GPL version 2 license.

Important features

  • It is fully open-source.
  • Highly customizable and easy-to-use interface.
  • Support for custom scripts with Python and Perl.
  • It is actively developed with an active community.
  • It is a multi-network with join and auto-connect functionalities.
  • The project is multi-lingual.
  • Support for proxies, SASL, DCC, Spellcheck, etc.

Install HexChat in Linux 

# apt install hexchat [Debian/Ubuntu]

Polari is a minimalist IRC client and is in the official GNOME application stack. It features a straightforward user interface with bare minimum features for chat rooms. If you are looking for a beginner-friendly client that works, then Polari is for you.

Important features

  • Easy to use and straightforward user interface.
  • Support for file transfer.
  • It is an open-source project under the GNU GPL license.

Install Polari 

# apt install polari
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