Rhapsody
August 19th, 2006, 03:21 AM
I would make this a poll, but Wikipedia's list of IRC clients (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IRC_clients) makes any such effort seem rather pointless.
I'm making this topic because IRC is one of the two main forms of communication I use over the internet (I hate e-mail and dumped IM programs years ago) and I recently started using a new client that I'd meant to have switched to months ago. But first, some history.
Years ago, I first started using IRC. Being a Windows user going on to IRC for the first time, mIRC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRC) was my client of choice. I used this for quite some time and it was fairly good, but the fact that I was using shareware that I'd never paid for bugged me, and I resolved to find a new client.
After a bit of looking, I happened upon Visual IRC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_IRC) and decided to give it a go. However, it seemed rather spartan and updates were rather 'infrequent' (it was at 2.0 when I stopped using it, and it's still at 2.0 right now) so I went searching again.
This time I found X-Chat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Chat) and found that I liked it. It was powerful, easy to use, and GPLed! What more could I want? I used it for a fair while and got used to it, but then came the announcement (which should be quite infamous among people who were using X-Chat for Windows at the time) that the Windows version would become shareware (the reason I'd left mIRC in the first place!). I used an alternate build, but was never really happy with it anymore. Once I decided to switch to Linux, I decided I would switch again once on the 'other side'. My new client of choice was to Irssi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irssi).
However, things didn't go as planned, and the install was delayed. In the meantime, I found Konversation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konversation) came with Kubuntu. I didn't like it as much as X-Chat, but it worked and wasn't shareware at all, so I started using it regularly. I tried to install Irssi using apt-get, but it seemed to fail (a regular occurance at the time). Five months passed.
Then, I look in Adept and happen upon the 'irssi-text' entry, and what's this? It's already installed? Sure enough, typing 'irssi-text' into Konsole launched Irssi! It lives!
My switch to Irssi has been a bit rocky, but it seems to be working well now. I normally end up using IRC when my cordless mouse is recharging, and a keyboard-only app is perfect for just those times. Ctrl+F2 (to get me to desktop 2, my IRC desktop) and everything else is done with keyboard commands! Brilliant!
So that's my long experience with various IRC clients. What I want to know is what IRC clients people here use, and if anyone else has a story like mine to tell. Five clients is a lot to end up using, but I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who can beat that!
I'm making this topic because IRC is one of the two main forms of communication I use over the internet (I hate e-mail and dumped IM programs years ago) and I recently started using a new client that I'd meant to have switched to months ago. But first, some history.
Years ago, I first started using IRC. Being a Windows user going on to IRC for the first time, mIRC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRC) was my client of choice. I used this for quite some time and it was fairly good, but the fact that I was using shareware that I'd never paid for bugged me, and I resolved to find a new client.
After a bit of looking, I happened upon Visual IRC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_IRC) and decided to give it a go. However, it seemed rather spartan and updates were rather 'infrequent' (it was at 2.0 when I stopped using it, and it's still at 2.0 right now) so I went searching again.
This time I found X-Chat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Chat) and found that I liked it. It was powerful, easy to use, and GPLed! What more could I want? I used it for a fair while and got used to it, but then came the announcement (which should be quite infamous among people who were using X-Chat for Windows at the time) that the Windows version would become shareware (the reason I'd left mIRC in the first place!). I used an alternate build, but was never really happy with it anymore. Once I decided to switch to Linux, I decided I would switch again once on the 'other side'. My new client of choice was to Irssi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irssi).
However, things didn't go as planned, and the install was delayed. In the meantime, I found Konversation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konversation) came with Kubuntu. I didn't like it as much as X-Chat, but it worked and wasn't shareware at all, so I started using it regularly. I tried to install Irssi using apt-get, but it seemed to fail (a regular occurance at the time). Five months passed.
Then, I look in Adept and happen upon the 'irssi-text' entry, and what's this? It's already installed? Sure enough, typing 'irssi-text' into Konsole launched Irssi! It lives!
My switch to Irssi has been a bit rocky, but it seems to be working well now. I normally end up using IRC when my cordless mouse is recharging, and a keyboard-only app is perfect for just those times. Ctrl+F2 (to get me to desktop 2, my IRC desktop) and everything else is done with keyboard commands! Brilliant!
So that's my long experience with various IRC clients. What I want to know is what IRC clients people here use, and if anyone else has a story like mine to tell. Five clients is a lot to end up using, but I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who can beat that!