The Lounge – Self-hosted web IRC client | Hacker News Reader

The Lounge – Self-hosted web IRC client

github.com

87 pointsMaxLeiter26 comments

Finally, I have been waiting for a long long time for someone to fix some problems I've had with Shout.

Does this support automatic reconnect when dropped?

Edit: > This pre-release adds a very, very long-awaited feature: auto-reconnection! It also extends our support of ident with oidentd, shows timestamps on small screens and fix bugs around notifications and sticky scroll.

Yes it does!

Can somebody explain the benefit of this?

I kinda understand why somebody would want a web client.

But hosting your own seems to defeat the purpose. From what I've seen, web clients aren't nearly as good, and installing and running a full blown server app is a lot more work than installing and launching a standalone client.

Then again, I recently switched to ERC, so guess I'm really in no position to judge.

It's basically a self-hosted IRCCloud. You're always connected, so no need for znc or another bouncer, and you can easily access it on your phone or another computer.

I can use the same client from my desktop, laptop, random tablets, phones, friend's game console, pretty much any device which has Internet access - and not have to learn three or four different interfaces and potentially miss out on chat logs.

Also, running a server app isn't actually very hard if you're used to it. (And hopefully will be even easier in the future, once Sandstorm figures out their Powerbox.)

Personally, I prefer to use irssi over mosh but other people (often your friends, colleagues) are more comfortable with a webUI. It's easier to get going since you set everything up for them and they only need a browser.

I think Quassel IRC is a better fit for most purposes. You run the daemon (core) on a server and you can connect using a desktop-app, iOS-app, Android-app etc.

I cannot see how any of the current web-only IRC-clients can provide this user experience.

http://quassel-irc.org/

There is also https://github.com/magne4000/quassel-webserver

Just switched from Colloquy. I recommend using Nativefier[1] to turn it into a "native" app, so you don't have to hunt through all your browser tabs for it.

[1] https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier

If you use chrome/chromium you can always drag a bookmark into the apps at chrome://apps, right click and tick the "open as window" option. That will turn it into a pretty good standalone app.

Here's a quick example with clicker heroes.

http://i.imgur.com/ur5Y2KH.png

And another with swarm simulator.

http://i.imgur.com/ycevl2A.png

I right clicked but I don't see that option. http://i.imgur.com/W1dtHDK.png

Looks like "Open as window" option is not available in Chrome osx, it disappeared ~2014 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/29ZcfR...

Yeah I apologize, at the time it just seemed like a feature that would be universal to chrome/chromium. Guess chrome os doesn't have it.

Website: https://thelounge.github.io

Demo (seems broken): https://avatar.playat.ch:1000

Demo has been fixed, was updating to master :)

It's not accepting connections right now.

How does this compare to Matrix clients? http://matrix.org/ Would highly appreciate feedback from people who use both of these.

Well... this is an IRC client. Apples and oranges; both chat clients, but different protocols, as i understand it. There's interoperability, but I don't believe Matrix is a rote IRC client, unlike The Lounge.

The Lounge seems like it'd be better compared to a project like Glowing Bear.

Better than using a bouncer, huh ? Ahh old days.

Can I use this together with a bouncer and desktop client? I suppose I could point this at ZNC, but maybe that breaks the backlog in confusing ways.

Yep, it works great with ZNC, and plenty of people use both

So does this automatically show messages since I was connected last?

You leave it running on your server, so yes :)

is there a native android/ios client for this that supports push notifications?

Any chance of seeing Docker support for this?

https://www.github.com/TheLounge/docker-lounge

Perfect, thanks Max!

I like running all the apps on my home server with Docker, keeps everything clean and tidy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com