Konversation
Version: Web: https://konversation.kde.org
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) continues to be a popular form of text communication, especially among software developers. Konversation is obviously a part of the KDE software stack, and it acts as the 'official' IRC front-end for the KDE team. As a result, it may already be installed in your system, but if it isn't, it's only a few clicks away in your package manager.
To use IRC, you must connect to a server, and then join a channel (equivalent to a chat room) or just engage in private conversations. When you start Konversation, it already contains one default server (press F2 for the server list configuration) and a channel there. The vanilla Konversation package usually sets Freenode and #kde as a pre-configured server and channel, but some flavours of Linux may customise the default choice (like OpenSUSE, pictured in the image on the right). When you choose to connect to a server, make sure your identity is specified correctly. Konversation automatically populates your IRC profile with data, which is derived from your system login details. In you haven’t filled these in completely in the past (for example, if you skipped the full name field), Konversation will ask you to edit your identity manually.
When you finally join the conversation, you'll see the main chat window and a pane with a list of the users currently connected on the right.
The tabs below the main area list available channels; you can join as many channels at a time as you want.
There are some useful IRC commands that you can use directly in the input line. For example, type /join #channel_name to join the known channel. If there's no such channel, it will be created and you will be its operator. If you're new to IRC, you can press F1 to consult a very decent Konversation handbook for beginners.
Konversation is highly customisable: you can adjust its highlighting feature for better chat readability, set it to play sounds as notifications, and much more. The software is also capable of transferring files and can sync with KAddressBook, if you use it.
“Konversation populates your IRC profile automatically.”