Contemporary IRC in the 21st Century
You can consider this Contemporary IRC in the 2nd Decade of the 21st Century page as a wordy name for a page that discusses if IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is still relevant and useful post 2020. This page was created in 2023. IRC is decades old. A lot of Generation X early Internet users are very familiar with IRC. Because it is old, slightly complicated, and currently obscure to millennials because anything with a CLI causes them to have a panic attack, you will discover IRC is populated by intelligent users and a place to trade files. Unlike P2P and web site file trading, IRC is seldomly attacked by the file sharing police since it is obscure enough that most people don't use it. Things like IRC and Newsgroups kind of exist in the back corner of the room and get ignored, which is the place to be if you want your activity to go mostly unnoticed. In its day, IRC was the number one place to meet people online, chat real time, find help with computer and software problems, or collaborate with groups and teams. Today it is widely ignored by younger Internet users and considered a hacker's medium. Today IRC exists and is very useful to the right people.
There is a useful web site you should investigate that provides help to users interested in IRC. The group that maintains the IRC Help web site have been around over 30 years now!!!
Contents
Does IRC still exist?
Yes. IRC provides a way of communicating in real time with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks (or "nets") of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC. IRC is very similar to text messaging, but designed around communicating with large groups of users instead of one on one.
Many of the original IRC networks are also still around. EFNet and Undernet are both still around just to name a couple examples. Read more about Internet Relay Chat on our Wiki.
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. In the 1990's IRC was more about talking to people, meeting people, and socializing. This was long before Instagram, Discord, and Facebook chat were conceived and things were much better then. Over time those that seek to socialize via the Internet have moved on from IRC into the horrible stuff that is popular today. However, those that do serious software development projects still like to meet on IRC. Also, there is a thriving community of file trading on IRC today.
Yes
Recommend using Undernet and the Mp3 related channels such as #Mp3Passion although there are many IRC networks or individual servers for this purpose. There is a convention on how to use the Mp3 channels, utilizing certain commands to trigger the various bots that are purposed to serve files.
What IRC client do you recommend for Linux / Ubuntu / Mint?
A typical installation of Mint seems to include HexChat. If you launch HexChat the program will automatically connect to an IRC server and enter you into a Linux Mint support channel where you can ask questions and seek support for Linux 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
What about Microsoft Windows users?
The mIRC client is still around and remains popular with Windows users. However, if your operating system is Microsoft Windows you should probably stick to Facebook chat and leave us alone.
mIRC has been in development for over two decades and is constantly being improved and updated with new technologies. The developers have become political now and their organization has gone to hell. I wouldn't recommend using mIRC nor would I recommending using Microsoft Windows.
What about Mac users?
Some of the IRC clients that Linux users prefer, such as Irssi, are also available for Mac.
Hexchat is a nice client for Linux and it also has a Mac version. This is probably worth checking out. Not verified here. Link to try:
Colloquy 2.4 is an IRC client for Mac that is available in the App Store and supports File transfer.
One of us here plans to install and test Colloquy and document our opinion.
