What IRC client do you use?

[moerl]

That's IF you use one. I'm just curious. I use mIRC and while that works well, I never stopped looking for something simpler, cleaner and easier. Don't get me wrong.. I don't think mIRC is hard to use, really, but I happen to love fast, efficient, well-designed and ESPECIALLY well thought-out software, and I don't know if I can say that about mIRC. It's very feature-rich and it more than gets the job done, but I guess I wouldn't mind trying out something innovative, nice-looking and efficient as opposed to mIRC, which is among the grand-daddies among IRC clients. (That in and of itself is not a bad thing, of course)

Anyway.. this isn't a thread about me finding an alternative IRC client.. it's a thread about what you use and about discussing clients in general as the thread goes along

[mouser]

mirc for me, i am just used to it and like it's clean interface.
but it is a bit long in the tooth..

[Josh]

I use mirc with the acidmax script (www.tnexgen.com). Great combo plus auto-update

[Gothi[c]]

I use irssi

[housetier]

I use and recommend xchat, a multiplatform irc client. There are several versions available for windows and only the official build by zed himself requires registration after 30 days. The other versions are free but might lack certain features.

Xchat is sriptable through various programming langues. mircscript is not supported; but perl, python, tcl, javascript, lisp, ruby, c (and one more) are. Most scripts require a language plugin, with most scripts being written for perl, then python. There are tcl scripts as well, and, no, you cannot use eggdrop scripts with in xchat.

The looks can be changed by gtk themes and internal configuration of colors and events, and it gets complicated quickly. The screenshot above shows what my xchat looks like. I have attached the corresponding config files (you will need to change them!)

[app103]

I also use xchat, but I use one of the free windows versions. (not linux)



I have also been known to use the old MS Chat just for fun.

This was the ancient IRC client from Microsoft that was eventually replaced by MSN Messenger. It's unique in the fact that it presents conversations in comic form and each person can have their own character file, complete with expressions and body poses.

The characters in my client are not the default standard black & white ones. They have been replaced with full color ones. This is not a client for regular use, as it puts additional codes in the channel along with your text that can be annoying to users with normal IRC clients.

[mitzevo]

I remeber having some laughs with irc and ms chat ...  

As for IRC client, I used to use mIRC when I first learnt about IRC, now I have been through various clients for various OS's.. althought I never really relied on any big scripts that alot of people use.

At present I am using the free build of xchat 2, just take a look at the good features

The only thing I find a bit annoying is the window redrawing.. some times I doesn't redraw the window so you have to manually resize/etc. to clear the funky visuals.

I also like to use the black theme, found here

All in all, X-Chat 2 for Windows (free silverex build) is a decent client for windows 

edit: well now i've switched back to mIRC, LOL.. i think f0dder had some influence over this..  but i think really when you think about it, mIRC is quite solid.. dispute all the haters of it.. and xchat is abit annoying in regards to window redrawing.. (or the whole gtk issue.. w/e)  so I have removed xchat now, also the gtk files.. now i feel like ive cleaned up shop hahaha.

[Deozaan]

I use the Java-based PJIRC at home and xchat at work. But I can only connect to an internal IRC server on the intranet at work, so it's for employees only.

But I don't use IRC much. Just for the DonationCoder channel and for quick chats with co-workers across the nation.

[f0dder]

I find XChat to have extremely lagging redraw on resize, which is enough that I just can't stand using it.

No matter which client I've tried, I always end up back with mIRC, even though it's somewhat of a pig. But it works, and it's comfortable

[allen]

I use mIRC and/or Opera's built in client, depending.  Opera moreso, since it's always open anyway.

-- Which reminds me of an episide of the John Walsh show I watched a few years back (I watched it out of sheer hate for the man).  He'd just discovered IRC and described it as "The Dark Underbelly of the Internet" -- essentially referring to anyone on it as either (a) evil or (b) naive.  Those of us on IRC who aren't mutton heads must be cyber terrorists.  Just wanted you guys to know.  Terrorists.  :)

[housetier]

mitzevo, and f0dder: there are some known "issues" with gtk on windows. I do not know of a solution unless you are willing to juggle with several versions of gtk until you find one that works.

One should take the source and make a native win32 port of xchat...

[f0dder]

mitzevo[/url], and f0dder[/url]: there are some known "issues" with gtk on windows. I do not know of a solution unless you are willing to juggle with several versions of gtk until you find one that works.

I'm not, I just want something that works . Laggy window resize is very typical of anything on X11 (XF86 and XOrg anyway), but XChat is particularly bad, at least on windows.

One should take the source and make a native win32 port of xchat...

I wonder how easy that'd be...

[housetier]

I don't follow the jump from X11/Xorg to win32 and back.

Making a native port would be a nightmare, otherwise someone would already have done it.

[f0dder]

I don't follow the jump from X11/Xorg to win32 and back.

That probably was a bit confusing

I just meant that everytime I've tried X under linux, with or without accelerated drivers, etc, window resize has always been very laggy. One little game had 100% CPU usage when resizing (and not just "artificial usage", it really bogged the system down), other applications have "controls that lag into place".

XChat brings that lag to win32...

[lanux128]

miranda is not a irc client, per se but its irc module is quite good and responsive.

[JavaJones]

I use Miranda normally because I am not a heavy IRC user at all. However for stand-alone clients I'm surprised no one has mentioned HydraIRC. If you want a free, attractive, light(er), but still very functional multi-server IRC app, it's a great option.

- Oshyan

[Gerome]

Hello,

I use Miranda, but be aware, sometimes it totally freezes and hang my computers ( windows 2k Sp4 )