Don’t want the twenty thousand features and confusing multiple windows and would rather prefer something simpler? HexChat is just the Linux IRC client you need. Sporting an extremely minimal dual column UI, HexChat makes communicating over IRC a walk in the park.

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Once you’ve connected to a server, you can retrieve the channel list via the Server menu option, and connect to any of the available channels. In addition, the list of active users can be accessed to trigger individual operations such as file transfer, check user info, and more. It’s important to note here that HexChat is fully open source, and its active development ensures that you can always expect continued improvements. HexChat is pretty customizable too, and thanks to the built-in Python and Perl scripting support, you can do lots of cool stuff on it. Other standard features include spell checker, proxy support, direct file transfers, network meters, and keyboard shortcuts.

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Platform Availability: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows 7, 8, and 10.

 

Price: Free