Comment 8 for bug 38694

I find that slightly bizarre. Since when is X-Chat as default program solely for people who "like IRC"? For one thing, it's about being able to give support to people. The Ubuntu channels are very well-populated and pretty much the easiest way for someone to quickly get help without having to register at a forum and post a topic. I've gone there many times and I've always managed to get my problem solved thanks to the volunteers that keep the channel running. It's an excellent method to fall back on for new users, since application documentation usually comes without or with only very basic troubleshooting.

Secondly, it could be argued that a program such as X-Chat makes it easily possible to access one of the frequently-used Internet protocols; why make such an important thing inaccessible by providing access solely through a program that doesn't do it right?

It's very easy to just include X-Chat and save a whole lot of users a whole lot of trouble. I think that this hamstrings the users for no reason at all (and no, "you can also do it with this inferior program" is not a reason).