Colloquy 2.x &nbsp_place_holder; [ home page screen cap ]

Open source freeware that uses an interface similar to Apple’s iChat. If you are a relative novice and just looking for something easy and simple (not to mention free), this will do just fine. This client is “light weight” in the sense that it contains only the basic IRC features and none of the many frills you’ll find in full GUI clients like Snak and Ircle. This is in part due to the relatively new history (really only active since 2004 or so), and in part also intentionally to keep things simple and easy for newbies. They’ll gladly take donations, but otherwise just use it for free. :) [Thanks to JustDave at Mozilla.org for the tip.]