If you’re looking for an all-in-one application, start with Pidgin. That’s true for all conversations in Pidgin as well, not just IRC. With the right plugins, Pidgin can even correct some common spelling mistakes and expand abbreviations. Like to be notified right away when someone mentions your nick in chat? Pidgin can do anything from changing the system tray icon to giving an audio cue. Whatever your work habits, Pidgin should fit right in.

Pidgin gives you the ability to either integrate your IRC conversations in the same window as your conversations on IM networks or to separate out conversations into multiple windows. Pidgin may not have quite as many IRC-specific features as some of the others, but it’s a solid IRC client and is very user friendly. And this is why Pidgin tops my personal list of clients.įor users who communicate with co-workers over IRC and IM, Pidgin is the best solution because it doesn’t require maintaining two programs. Pidgin is actually a multi-protocol IM and IRC client that handles pretty much any instant messaging service you want to throw at it. Well, it’s not exclusively an IRC client. So with that in mind, let’s get started with Pidgin. For instance, Emacs has several clients, but if you’re not using Emacs then you’re not going to want to learn it just to use a nifty IRC client.Īlso, I wanted to focus more on clients that would appeal to newer Linux users getting started with IRC. To winnow it down to a reasonable herd of clients, I decided to rule out a couple of clients that are undeniably awesome but not well-suited to many users. Linux users can choose from more IRC clients than you can shake a stick at, dozens of clients depending on how expansive your definition is. Then you’ve got the power users: folks who spend enormous chunks of time in IRC as part of their job and/or because they’re part of a community that does most of its work in chat. The casual users are people who dip into IRC on occasion to participate in a conversation or IRC meeting, but don’t live in IRC. IRC users tend to fall into two camps: casual users and power users. Now, I know how attached some folks are to their IRC clients. If you’re ready to start jumping into IRC, but not sure which client to start with, we’ve got five great clients to choose from. IRC is a vital part of participating in the Linux community, but choosing an IRC client can be a daunting task for new Linux users.

Pidgin best irc client for windows