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So I spend a lot of time at the Comms Room here in the SF chat, and I absolutely love the interface. It's a proprietary software, so, anyone know any open or free alternative that even begins to look like the SE chat?

I searched before posting and most of the questions are solved using jabber. I already have jabber with multiuser capabilities, what I need is a web chat that can be reliable used by my organization that is easier than a jabber client.

Example: my organization has various non-tech people that need to discuss stuff daily, from 4 different cities plus international participants. A quality web chat is way easier than explaining how to use a VPN and Pidgin to connect to the jabber client.

EDIT: It must run on GNU/Linux. And CGI-IRC would probably need to leave the IRC server exposed (and IRC servers are not that safe). Campfire is a good tool, but it's paid and hosted, I would prefer something running on my network.

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  • IRC and CGI-IRC? Feb 28, 2011 at 0:55
  • It may be worth mentioning what platform(s) you intend to run it on. Feb 28, 2011 at 1:04

1 Answer 1

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You may find that Campfire (campfirenow.com) is pretty solid. It has been recommended to me by colleagues, though I haven't used it myself yet. Its biggest draw-back is that it isn't free. Far from it.

In fact, StackOverflow Internet Services (your humble hosts) even used it internally before building their own:

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/04/do-trilogy-sites-need-a-third-place/

(search for 'campfire')

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  • I'm fairly sure the SE team trialled campfire before DIYing it, and if the SE team think something is worthy of a trial, it's usually fairly good. Feb 28, 2011 at 0:55
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    Campfire is hosted, right? I would prefer something that run on my infrastructure.
    – coredump
    Feb 28, 2011 at 13:02
  • @coredump I'm pretty sure that it is hosted, yes.
    – sysadmin1138
    Feb 28, 2011 at 15:19

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