tl;dr :
- Hexchat IRC client app development stopped
- Linux Mint team was building IRC client to replace Hexchat
- The team tried Matrix and liked it
- Linux Mint’s communication channels are moving from IRC to Matrix
- The desktop app will be named Matrix to avoid confusion
I can’t remember exactly when I stopped installing mIRC when I built a new PC, but it’s been a while. Is DALnet still around?
DALnet appears to be alive and kicking. Since you’re maybe out of the loop, big drama happened with Freenode. Right now Libera Chat and OFTC appear to be the big names for IRC for open source software users.
DALnet is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network made up of 39 servers, with a stable population of approximately 10,000 users in about 4,000 channels. DALnet is accessible by connecting with an IRC client to an active DALnet server on ports 6660 through 6669, and 7000. SSL users can connect on port 6697 as well. The generic round-robin address is irc.dal.net.