To install Quassel on Ubuntu/Kubuntu you have to activate the hardy-backports repository, as described in the guides for Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

Then just install quassel (or quassel-core if you only want to run the core component).

Ebuilds for Quassel are in Portage (net-irc/quassel). In addition to the current release, you will also find a live ebuild (quassel-9999) that will allow you to build the current version from Git (usual disclaimers apply). In order to use it, you'll need to keyword it by putting the following line into your /etc/portage/package.keywords:
net-irc/quassel **

A few days later than planned, we have released quassel-0.2.0-alpha2! We used the extra days to iron out some annoying bugs, such as the crash on first run some users experienced, and made the sync-to-core process much faster.

More features include:

• Sane first-run layout of dockwidgets
• Various UI enhancements
• Buffer switching via mousewheel (thanks Ian "eean" Monroe for the patch!)
• Redirection of notices and server messages to the status buffer or the current buffer

Pretty simple: just start the core using ./quasselcore -p <portnumber>

It's always amazing how easily one can be destracted from learning...
Despite having an exam next tuesday I've spent most of this day on fixing bugs and tweaking things for -alpha2. Sput's already fixed one of the major bugs: the client crash during first run network setup. So what to expect from -alpha2? Actually not much more than from -alpha1. :) Find a list of the fixes and features after the jump.

We currently deliver Quassel with a set of predefined so called Buffer Views: All Buffers, All Channels, All Queries, and All Networks.

While you've probably managed to figure out their meaning, there is an additional View called "Full Custom". This view allows you to show only the buffers you want to be shown. Just drag and drop buffers from other views into the open field to add them or select them and press Backspace / Delete on your keyboard to remove them. The content of this view is currently not persistent, so when you quit Quassel Client, your setup will be lost.

You can easily resize the columns in the ChatView by hovering your mouse in between the columns until a vertical line appears that can be dragged.

In the rare case, that you don't want the usersessions to be automatically restored, you just have to start the Quassel Core with:
./quasselcore --norestore

The list is quite short: You'll need Qt 4.4 or higher with Sqlite3 support. To check for the Qt version you have installed, run "qmake -version" or (on some distributions) "qmake-qt4 -version".

More specifically, Quassel Client needs QtCore, QtGui, QtScript and QtNetwork. Quassel Core needs QtCore, QtScript, QtNetwork and QtSql (with sqlite3 support). The combined (monolithic) version needs a superset of these modules, of course :)

We haven't gotten around to implementing shortcuts for every action yet. In particular, navigation shortcuts (jump to prev/next buffer, most recent highlight etc) are still missing. But since we, the devs, hate clicking around, we did implement one nice feature. In any buffer, you can type Ctrl+[0-9] in order to assign one of the ten available shortcuts to that buffer. Afterwards, you can quickly jump to it pressing Alt+[0-9]. This allows you to have your most active/important buffers available at your fingertips.