X-Chat

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X-Chat

Developer:	Peter Železný (zed)
Latest release:	2.8.0 (Source), 2.8.3b (Windows) / March 13, 2007
OS:	Multi-platform
Use:	IRC client
License:	proprietary for Windows version, GNU General Public License for others
Website:	www.xchat.org

A Screenshot of Xchat 2.6.17 running in Ubuntu with the GNOME desktop environment.

A Screenshot of Xchat 2.8.0.

X-Chat, commonly written XChat or xchat, is one of the most popular IRC clients for Unix-like systems. It is also available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X (via an offshoot of the project, called X-Chat Aqua, which keeps in sync with the main development branch and is much more popular than the official version maintained by the Fink project). It has a choice of a tabbed or tree interface, support for multiple servers, and a high level of configurability. Both command line and graphical versions are available, although use of the graphical version far outweighs use of the command line version. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License and uses the GTK+ toolkit for its interface.

1 Shareware controversy
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Shareware controversy

As of August 23, 2004, the official Windows build of X-Chat has become shareware, and must be purchased for USD$20 or AUD$25 after a 30-day trial period. Previous (freeware) builds for windows have been removed from the official site. There has been a great deal of discussion about the legality of this move. Since the X-Chat project has not required copyright assignment, the maintainer of the X-Chat project does not actually hold copyright to the entirety of the code. While he has offered to remove and rewrite any patches, provided the author of the patches asks him to, there are many who feel that he is still in violation of the GPL, especially since the code for the shareware enforcement is not disclosed.

In addition there has been more than just one code error^[1] within the source making it impossible to compile the available source code "out of the box" under Windows - especially for unexperienced users. Some errors didn't even cause compiler messages - they just hung the program during connecting to a server. This puts a dark shadow on the whole shareware discussion as it was stated that the shareware fee is required due to the excessive amount of time it takes to make it compile under Windows (which isn't true at all if you've corrected all "bugs"). Many users complained in the official forum but they were just ignored.^[2]

Over the years more features (support for icons within chat text, spell checking,...) have been added to the Windows version only causing additional critics from the Unix/Linux part of the community as these modifications aren't in the released source to avoid freeware Windows builds including them.

Unofficial Windows builds of X-Chat are made available (at no cost) by contributors, who maintain binaries of the latest release, and also compile frequently from CVS.