[ Thanks to John
Traynor for this link. ]
“Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a type of real-time Internet text
messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. IRC was born during
summer 1988 when Jarkko Oikarinen wrote the first IRC client and
server when he was working in the Department of Information
Processing Science at the University of Oulu, Finland. This system
enables millions of people around the world to communicate in real
time.“IRC is mainly designed for group communication in discussion
forums, called channels, but it also allows one-to-one
communication via private message as well as chat and data
transfers via Direct Client-to-Client.“Now, let’s explore the 10 IRC clients at hand. For each title
we have compiled its own portal page, providing a screenshot of the
software in action, a full description with an in-depth analysis of
its features, together with links to relevant resources and
reviews.”