Default application for IRC

[Simon Steinbeiß]

Hey everyone,

as our next release is not LTS we're reviewing some of our default app choices and considering to move away from XChat, as it hasn't been maintained as actively lately as e.g. its fork hexchat. [1]

We've discussed this in today's community meeting and the outcome of this first review was a bit mixed. While neither of the present team members really use/d pidgin for IRC, it could still be enough as an easy way for users to get on IRC to get support. Additionally there's the webchat option on xubuntu.org.

So this is what it comes down to (at least the way I see it):
1) Should we replace XChat as our default IRC client?
2) Is the IM app we already ship (pidgin) and the webchat option enough to replace XChat?
3) Should we use hexchat over 1) or 2)?

I personally wouldn't mind replacing XChat and trying something new, mostly because it doesn't seem maintained. I still have to take both pidgin and hexchat for a spin though, because I haven't used the latter at all and the other I haven't used for IRC.

I propose that (at least) members of the Xubuntu team try these apps for real too and we have another – more informed and experience-based – discussion at the next team meeting.

Cheers
Simon

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Roadmap/Specifications/Utopic/Hexchat