Best chat client for IRC?

[bbhaag]

I was just wondering what the best client is for IRC? I use MIRC on my windows machines but when I went to the website it doesn't look like they have a version for non Windows Os's.
I'd like a fully featured client that is capable of using xdcc.
If anyone has some recommendations that would be awesome. Right now I'm using Peppermint 3 if that makes a difference.

[lxskllr]

It's not something I use much, but I like Pidgin. I also don't know about xdcc, but you could see if it'll suit your purposes. Since I don't really use irc, I'm having difficulty parsing the searches I've found for relevancy. Here's a bug report that may influence your decision...

https://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1425

I haven't used it myself, but a lot of people like irssi. It's dedicated to irc, rather than being multi-protocol, but I suspect it does pure irc better than Pidgin.

[Nothinman]

Wow, is this a delayed post from the 90s?

I haven't used Pidgin's IRC capabilities because I haven't touched IRC in like 20 years. But back in the day I was a heavy irssi user and highly recommend if it you're willing to jump in with both feet and learn it.

XChat is ok if you want something GUI, but it's nowhere near as flexible as irssi.

[TheRyuu]

irssi if you don't mind the whole not-a-gui thing. Coupled with bitlbee it'll even do the IM stuff better than pidgin.

[bbhaag]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. When I get home from work tonight I'll try some out.

[BurnItDwn]

I have used BitchX since I first got into Linux around 98/99. But, I haven't really gone on IRC in the last 5 years or so. At the time, it had more features than any other IRC client and tended to be quite stable. I tend to like my IRC cliends to be CLI only so I can reconnect to my session from any PC using an ssh client. I don't know if it's still popular these days or not.

[Joepublic2]

Irssi is simply the best; better than all the rest.

Originally Posted by Nothinman

Wow, is this a delayed post from the 90s?

I haven't used Pidgin's IRC capabilities because I haven't touched IRC in like 20 years. But back in the day I was a heavy irssi user and highly recommend if it you're willing to jump in with both feet and learn it.

XChat is ok if you want something GUI, but it's nowhere near as flexible as irssi.

Yeah, it along with BBS and usenet have unfortunately been largely replaced by modern, technically inferior alternatives that are easier to use and flashier. I've used (still do on occasion) IRC over a 300 baud connection from my cabin (best really good Hayes serial modem can do) to communicate with dozens of people in (almost) realtime; there is no modern instant messaging tech that can even come close to that level of efficiency.

[MovingTarget]

Another vote for Xchat/IRSSI here. I do use Colloquy on my MBP though. Its decent.

If I recall correctly, there used to be an ATOT chatroom a while back...

[LumbergTech]

There are also web based clients if you only need it for chat and arent doing anything heavy