[ Thanks to Jeremy C.
Reed for this link. ]
“IRC, otherwise known as Internet Relay Chat, is one of the
founding areas that established a free exchange of information.
Whether you’re looking for information on computer hardware or how
to set up your *BSD system, there’s a channel out there for
you.”
“Choose from a wide array of servers all over the world, and
you’ve got one of the most circulated forms of communication on the
internet. Best yet, IRC can run on nearly any system with at least
a telnet client.“
“If you’re not into telnet, IRC provides many command-line
clients, as well as graphical clients. Graphical IRC clients
include BitchX, Kirc, XChat, and a load more. Of course, if you
still work from your command-line, clients like ircII and Epic are
very widely-spread and extremely popular as well.”