7. Chatting / Instant Messaging with Linux

7.1 History of chatting
7.2 talk
7.3 IRC or Internet Relay Chat
7.4 Instant Messaging
7.5 All-In-One IM Clients

7.1 History of chatting

talk was the first chatting program developed from UNIX long ago when there was no MS trying to capture the Internet. The computing world was a free land then, and you could share any program with any one, you could change them too to suit your needs - much like what Free Software is trying to do. talk is still available with UNIX & GNU/Linux .

From talk other chatting concepts were developed. IRC was the first to be developed,then other companies came and hence ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, AIM etc. chat systems were developed.

I shall try to touch on each of the chat systems here.

7.2 talk

To chat with your friend then all you have to do the following
[anirban@anirban anirban]$ talk <username>@host <tty>
i.e. if the user name is raj (it will the same as the login name to the system) and his host computer is www.anyhost.com then it will be
[anirban@anirban anirban]$ talk [email protected]

You may be wondering what tty is? Suppose your friend opened many terminals - the terminal in which you want to send the message is specified by the tty number. Numbers start from 0 and only integers are allowed.

You can do the above with writetoo.
[anirban@anirban anirban]$ write <username@host> <tty>

If you want not to receive any chat invitition or any chatting then you have to give the command.
[anirban@anirban anirban]$ mesg n
to remove the blocking you have to do
[anirban@anirban anirban]$ mesg y

If you a GUI lover and a heavy Yahoo or MSN chatter then you may not like this kind of chatting, but for many of us who like GNU/Linux this old system is still gold.

7.3 IRC or Internet Relay Chat

7.3.1 Basic concept of IRC
7.3.2 Software for IRC
7.3.3 Configuring Xchat

7.3.1 Basic concept of IRC

The main difference is that you do not have to sign up to get a ID or password. So what do you do instead? Choose a nick name and a host to connect to. Since it is not run by a single company you have to know the host address, like you have to know the URL to visite a page on Internet. You can get the addresses of different hosts from the internet and also to which topic it is dedicated; for example
irc.openprojects.net is dedicated to the betterment of open source projects and open source developers.

So you have to provide your nick name and the host you want to connect to. If the nick name you pick is already taken then you'll have to provide another nickname.

IRC newbies should check out the
IRC Primer before using IRC for the first time.

7.3.2 Software for IRC

7.3.3 Configuring Xchat

The first window of Xchat will appear. Provide the nickname you would like. You can provide more than one. In case a nickname is already taken in a room xchat will use the other nickname you provided, else it will pick the first nickname in the list). You also can provide your real name and as which user you want to use it - (generally you do not have to provide all these, the system guesses it for you from your system login name and real name).

Now choose a host from the list of hosts and double click it or click on `Connect' at the bottom. A new window will open with some text flowing in it. It will take a little time to connect, then after connecting it will show the rules you should follow to chat in this host. Since IRC generally is a volunteer effort by good-at-heart people and not by any company please try to follow it or else you may get banned. Maintainers of IRC chat rooms are very strict about the rules (that is why chatting experience is much better here than yahoo or MSN).

Now you will see a single line text box where you can write what you want to chat and also commands to navigate.

Commands all start with a / (ie. slash). To get the list of rooms (or channels) in the host type /list . You will see all the rooms, choose the one which suits you and then type /join #<roomname> and then click `Enter'. Please note that you have to always give the number sign (#) before any room name.

Now you will enter that room and start chatting. At the extreme right there will be the list of all users/chatters in that room; selecting any one will get info about him /her. You will find many buttons at the right side of your chat window, by selecting a user and clicking the buttons you can ban or block a user, get info about him/her, invite him/her in a personal chat or even transfer files in IRC.

So I think you will now be able to chat in IRC. Some day you may even meet me in IRC. I generally live in the host irc.openprojects.net and in the room linux (you have to give a number sign ie. # before joining ie. /join #linux).

7.4 Instant Messaging

7.4.1 ICQ

7.4.2 Yahoo!
7.4.3 AIM

7.4.2 Yahoo!

Yahoo provides its own yahoo messenger for Linux and it is similar to the windows version except that you may find some features missing. To get more details go to yahoo

Since it is similar to the windows version you will find `Add Friends, Your Status, Ban' etc buttons in their usual places, generally as part of a menu at the top of Yahoo Messenger. Currently you can send files,invite people to group chat and get email notifications.

7.4.3 AIM

7.5 All-In-One IM Clients

7.5.1 Everybuddy

7.5.2 GAIM

This document was generated on March, 5 2003 using texi2html

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws