You can join the chat via IRC on freenode servers. The room to join is #nexenta.

To use IRC channel you need to download and install one of the many IRC Clients that are available. A client is the software that you use in order to interact with the chat environment.

1. For Windows

   • mIRC is the most popular IRC client available for Windows. It is known as shareware and you are granted a 30 day license in which to try the software, after which you must register it for a fee of $20.

   • Whilst mIRC is the most popular, there are a number of other free IRC Clients available: Vortec IRC, Icechat and XChat (the official build of XChat is shareware, however the source code is released under the GPL, and unofficial builds are freely available).

2. For Linux

   • X-Chat is the most popular Linux client for IRC, and often comes preinstalled with the Operating System.

   • GAIM is a multi-platform instant messaging client which supports IRC, as well as MSN, AIM and Yahoo protocols.

   • Source Forge hosts many IRC clients for Linux

3. For MAC

   • Popular Mac IRC clients include Colloquy, Ircle and Snak. Colloquy is free and open source.

4. Platform Independent

   • There are numerous Java clients that can be used to access IRC. These are often found on the website of the organization that has an IRC room or channel. These will usually limit you to access to a particular server.

   • Chatzilla is available as an extension to Mozilla's popular Firefox browser.

   • Opera includes a built-in IRC client.

5. Web Based

   • Mibbit is a web-based service that allows for in-browser access to IRC servers/rooms, including freenode.

6. Wikipedia has a comparison of various IRC clients here.