linux mint comes with a program coincidentally called Hexchat for connecting to IRC networks. Are these obsolete at this point, or are there still places to hang out with people so i dont have to use discord?

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]M
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    2 years ago

    I'd say IRC is obsolete, but it is far from dead. Kinda like Doom, or e-mail. It is still one of the best places to get tech support (probably why it's included out of the box).

    Hexchat is a good client. I've used it since it was called X-chat.

    • KollontaiWasRight [she/her,they/them]
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      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I’ve used it since it was called X-chat.

      Ah, the good old days, when people could name things like that, naively believing it would never be an issue.

      • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]M
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        2 years ago

        In open source land, there are a lot of applications named X-something, after the X Window System which has been around in one form or another for 40 years. Nowadays, X isn't as ubiquitous as it used to be and new applications don't tend to be named after it unless they are designed specifically for it.

        With X-Chat, the original maintainer stopped working on it at some point and the project was carried on by a new group of people, who renamed it to avoid confusion / misrepresentation.