Thursday, November 2, 2023

Getting started with IRC using Hexchat

Discord glows in the dark. You shouldnt use it even if you're average joe. I suggest you learn IRC and use it instead. There are several different IRC networks. It's in decline but people still use it and it's still very usable. You can make your own channel easily for all of your friends. 

There are other better alternatives to Discord, such as the Matrix protocol, but I dont know much about that. IRC is just easier to get into. Though there are some things you need to learn first before you dive in.

Even though Weechat is a better IRC client, Hexchat is okay and great for newbies and people running Windows which i imagine a lot of people are. 

First thing you'll want to do is Download Hexchat and install it from their website. Which is here

Note: Dont use the client from the Microsoft store. Use the stand alone Windows 10 executable. They'll try to get you to pay for it if you go to the Microsoft store. Also even though I'm far removed from Windows these days as I dont use it much anymore you shouldnt use apps from the Microsoft store because it's just awful.  You shouldnt be using Windows for personal use anyways for different reasons(but that's a different thing)

Then before you do anything close the client. The default theme is awful you might want to get a different one which you can download one clicking the themes button on their website. Find one that you like. I suggest Matrixy. On Windows it's very simple to install a theme, you just open the file and it themes it for you. However on Linux you'll need to extract the files in the package you downloaded into the .config/hexchat folder in your home directory. 

Also read these blog posts about IRC and Hexchat listed below:

Newbies guide to hexchat
How to use nickserv on IRC

If you're looking for an IRC network to chat on I suggest Rizon. They're okay. If you're interested in Linux and open source software you'll probably like Libera, though if interested in those you probably already know about that and IRC anyways.

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