IRC started out as a means of real-time text based communication between users on the Internet, and was thought to be a breakthrough in Internet technology when it was first introduced in 1988. Within recent years however, it has been portrayed as a medium for chaos, overrun by the scum of the Internet (script kiddies, software pirates, system crackers, etc.).

Now, what does this have to do with Window Maker? Why plenty, of course. Despite all of the negative things we've just said, IRC is still used by many people around the world to collaborate on various projects. Given that the Window Maker developers are spread throughout the world, it's not practical or even feasible to get together in a garage on the weekend and discuss the in's and out's of low level X programming. So as one might have guessed, they use IRC for its more practical purpose -- a collaboration tool.

As with any popular project, Window Maker has a following of loyal users (or so we like to think). These fine individuals have taken it upon themselves to come together on an IRC channel (connected to a particular IRC network) in order to discuss Window Maker. Anything from debugging installation to creating new themes, it's most likely discussed by them on IRC.

So this is great. We have developers, we have users, and we have IRC. Unfortunately, we have multiple IRC networks and multiple groups of people that have any N number of reasons why they prefer one network over the other. Well, there are just some things that we have no control over. Hopefully, the information below will help the beginning Window Maker user find some friendly fellow users, who will in turn help them to get the most from the experience.

IRC Clients and Networks

In order to connect to IRC, a client application is required. For UNIX based systems, the most popular graphical clients are X-Chat and KVIrc. For console mode clients, EPIC4 and BitchX. There are an abundency of IRC clients for Windows and Mac, so check on Google.

Armed with an IRC client, the next step involves connecting to an IRC server. Being the spiffy people we are, we've conveniently aliased irc.windowmaker.info to point at our network of choice. In your IRC client, you'd specify this server name as the one to connect to. Once connected, you will want to join the discussion. Most IRC clients support the command /join <channel>. So, after connecting to irc.windowmaker.info, simply try typing /join #WindowMaker in your IRC client. The channel on irc.windowmaker.info is the official one. Accept no immitations. :)