What IRC servers are available for Ubuntu

Solution 1:

This is answered thoroughly (including both server packages and installation instructions) here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/IrcServer

Solution 2:

This really is a matter of personal taste; I prefer Unreal myself but they are all fairly obtuse (likely by design, to keep "noobs" from operating IRC servers) and take some doing to set up, although ircd-hybrid as mentioned is probably an easier one. However, for an IRC server I've been running for a few years now on Ubuntu, I have been using Unreal 3.2 because I was most familiar with using networks that run Unreal.

Another important thing to consider is services, if you are new to IRC server administration you might be surprised to find out that things such as nickserv are not part of the IRC package but services. Anope is the most common to use with Unreal but it works with other IRC servers.