An article intended for beginners about what IRC is, basic commands and use, and the basics on how to use three clients (XChat, Irssi, Konversation) for IRC.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a protocol for text-based internet chat created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. Ever since it was developed, IRC gained more and more popularity and currently it's one of the standard ways for projects and distributions to provide online help, for developers to meet and discuss aspects regarding their work.