IRC Client Reviews

[SDragon]

Okay, I've noticed many people here don't have IRC clients, and in some cases, don't even seem to know what IRC is. Meanwhile, I'm starting to grow tired of the occasional instability of mIRC on some of the larger, more popular servers.

Because of this, I've been looking into other IRC clients, and I figured my newfound experience with a variety of clients (four so far, including mIRC) might be of some help to other members.

Here's what I've tried so far:


mIRC[/u]

This is very probably the #1 most popular IRC client out there.  Most IRC users, as far as I can tell, start out with mIRC. mIRC has several great features, such as the ability to save your favorite channels, and the oh-so-wonderful 'Trout' option. That last one you'll just have to find out yourself, if you end up using mIRC ;). mIRC has it's very own scripting language, which it uses exclusively. This has pros and cons, mind you. Notably, tasks are easier to learn, but extra-special fancy stuff might be a bit more limited.

X-Chat[/u]

Okay, this one I can't objectively say too much on, because I didn't look at it for very long. I spent maybe five minutes on this, until the interface had me scrambling, almost literally in sheer panic to exit out. I don't even remember much of what I saw, just that it was a tangled mess that somehow seemed to have a demanding sense of urgency that I couldn't satiate. I'm sure that there's people out there-- even if it's just the designers-- that consider this a decent program, but I can't find the appeal in it, and I'm almost too afraid to try again.

Konversation

Okay, first thing first: if you're using Window, then Konversation is completely out of the question. If you're running Linux, though, and possibly even a Mac, then this is a fairly decent client. One problem I'm finding, though, is that this doesn't have a preset list of common servers. The thought that I have to manually enter QuakeNet, UnderNet, Otherworlders, DALnet, and AnimeIRCNet into the program seems quite a bit tedious, to me. Newer IRC users might not use that many servers, mind you, but when I picture the typical *Nix user, I don't think of somebody that's new to things like IRC. One plus this does have, though, is a large number of programming languages that can be used for scripting. Intimidated by PHP? You can script with Python. Think Ruby is just for beginners? Try C++, instead. All in all, I think this ranks as 'okay', but it's limitations keep it from being the next My First IRC Client.

HydraIRC[/u]

This client is incredible. It has many features for the advanced user, allowing easy management for people like me, that like to use a dozen different servers, each with two dozen different channels, and each of those with three dozen different PMs. The auto-accept feature for file transfers is nice, but I can easily understand how it could be a huge problem. Fortunately, you can turn it off if you like. The problem I have with this is that it doesn't have many of the more basic 'features' that just about all the other clients have, such as ignoring annoying users, or querying a PM by clicking on the nick in the channel itself. All in all, I think it's on par with mIRC, but it has a sad loss when it comes to basic usability features like these. Once it has these, though, I think this would easily be the best choice for an IRC server.

[Nomadic]

Very nice review. I will add in regards to mIRC that while it has only mSl to program in, mSl is a PHP based script language and thus incredibly powerful. Furthermore it accepts dll files so you can customize the client and its features like mad.

If you want to script I would use either hydra or mIRC though either is good as either will give you all the tools you will ever need. Though I will say PHP is a confusing language and not for a first time programmer. So first time programmers might give something else a try (actually non-client side visual basic is a great starter language).

[snakefing]

Just to throw a wildcard in there:

I usually use Pidgin. This is a multipurpose chat program (and free too!) that handles MSN, AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, and many others. Oh, and IRC too.

This makes it handy if, like me, you've accumulated lots of cruft with various chat clients that other people insist on using. No more of those annoying AIM ads and crap either.

On the other hand, it is a little bit harder to use. And as an IRC client it is okay but nothing great. No scripting capability that I'm aware of. You can right click on users to get info, ignore, send a message, etc. But there's less configurability in terms on auto-connecting to channels and stuff.

I probably wouldn't recommend it unless you just need or want an all-in-one chat client. That's why I use it.

Edited to add: Clients available for Linux and Windows at least. Probably works on Mac OSX too, although I haven't tried.

[Snargash Moonclaw]

I just installed Chatzilla the other night - so far no issues.
Nomadic - going beyond first time programmers avoiding certain clients, do you have any recommendation of oldtime nowayinhellamIevergonnabea programmers? Features I have to code do not exist in any program as implemented on my system. . .

[Nomadic]

Chatzilla will do that just fine. Though I do know that the mIRC community is quite large and thus you can find some scripts that you can easily drag and drop.

[sparkletwist]

I use EPIC. It's not available for Windows (that I know of) and is text-only, so it probably suits the needs of almost nobody here. However, it has an extremely powerful and useful scripting language (vaguely resembling Perl); that's the main thing that appeals to me about it, so I thought I'd throw it out there.